Meanwhile, Daniel came home after work, showered immediately, and did his best to help out around the house. He played with Lily. He made dinner a few times. And later, over a glass of wine or no alcohol at all, he updated Ivy on his “dreams.” He was considering applying for college in the spring. He could get scholarships. He could work his classwork around raising Lily and the new baby. Ivy spent a lot of time with her finances, analyzing whether Daniel’s college idea was feasible. A few weeks before the baby was born, she threw up her hands and said, “You know what? I think we can manage it. Sign up for classes, Daniel. Quit your job if you want to! I can help carry us for a little while.”
It was terribly exciting. Daniel threw his arms around her and covered her with kisses.
This time, rather than Elliot holding her hand during her delivery, it was her husband, Daniel, who did. Daniel coached her through the hours of labor. He cut the cord and held their baby son for the first time. Daniel decided to name him Tyler, a name he’d always liked. Ivy blushed with love and tenderness toward them both. When they brought their baby home to meet Lily, Lily knew to take her job as a big sister very seriously. She sat on the sofa with her arms extended, pretending to hold baby Tyler, even as Daniel supported his head and body.
These were gorgeous days, Ivy knew. They were the days she would one day look back on with an air of mystery, as though she couldn’t fathom how anyone had ever been so happy.
Daniel quit his job mid-autumn and immediately started midsemester classes at a nearby community college. Ivy hired someone to work part-time at the flower shop while she cared for her brand-new baby and toddler. They fell into a strange and exhilarating rhythm. Everything seemed to have a purpose, a place in time. Ivy often didn’t sleep for more than a few hours at a time. Even still, she was happy.
She was happy until she found the lipstick stain.
It was the Sunday after Thanksgiving—a full year since her father had embarrassed her so completely during Thanksgiving dinner. Both of her babies were asleep, and Daniel was in front of the sofa, studying for one of his classes. Ivy was needed at the Bluebell Cove Inn later today. She’d promised her father she’d work the front desk because their other employee was spending the day with family. But just now, because the day had its way with her, she was doing what she could of the laundry, working through a pile that seemed like it would never end.
The lipstick stain was on the collar of Daniel’s button-down shirt, the same one he’d worn under his suit jacket the night that he’d come to the flower shop to take her out and tell her he was impressed with her. She gaped at it, trying to come up with an excuse. But Ivy wasn’t wearing lipstick right now. She’d never had a shade like this.
Had someone brushed past Daniel and accidentally mussed his shirt?
The idea nearly brought a smile to her face. It sounded so silly, so made-up. She knew exactly what Daniel was up to. She knew it at her core.
During the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the evidence continued to rack up. Perfume. More lipstick. There were nights he stayed out, claiming he was “studying” with other classmates. There were days he hardly bothered to call.
Meanwhile, Ivy was wild with adrenaline. Her babies needed her, and her flower shop wasn’t going to run itself. Sometimes she fantasized that Daniel would wake up one morning and tell her he was leaving her. Certainly, that would make things easier.
Did she have the energy to leave him herself? She didn’t know. She practiced saying it to her reflection in the mirror. But each time, she imagined what people in Bluebell Cove would say—that she was unlovable, that she deserved to be alone, that she’d destroyed her family despite her children and their happiness, and that she was selfish.
Women were good at creating prisons within themselves.
It was February and a few days before Valentine’s Day. Ivy was at the flower shop, pushing herself to fulfill what felt like a thousand flower orders. Lily and baby Tyler were at their babysitter’s place, happy as clams and probably grateful to be out of the chaos.
Midafternoon, after Ivy had cleared nearly all of the racks of flowers and made her final bouquet for the day, the bell over the door jangled, and she turned to find Elliot Rhodes. Her heart dropped. He looked ridiculously good in his blue jeans and Carhartt jacket, with his dark curls spilling out of the hat and over his ears. Sometimes she wondered how Shelly had ever let him go.
“Afternoon!” Elliot said. “I heard you took over this place. I wanted to come see.”
Something about the easy way Elliot spoke to Ivy made Ivy want to burst into tears. It felt too heavy, suddenly, that he’d been there right before Lily’s birth.
“It’s beautiful,” he said, stepping deeper into the place and letting the door close behind him. “Wow. And you’re really good at bouquets.” He nodded at the selection of premade bouquets, some of which were ready to be picked up by husbands and boyfriends after their work shifts were finished for the day.
Ivy felt a jolt of pride. “Thanks,” she said. She crossed her arms and caught herself looking at his face a moment too long. “Can I help you find anything for someone? It’s almost Valentine’s Day, after all.”
She wondered if Daniel had plans for a floral arrangement for his girlfriend.
Elliot laughed. “I’m single yet again this year,” he explained.
“That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy flowers,” Ivy said. “Maybe for your sister? Your mother? A friend?”
Elliot paused to inhale the scent of a rose-filled bouquet. “Maybe that’s not such a bad idea,” he said. “A bouquet for my mother. My sister has a boyfriend, so I think she’s taken care of.”
Ivy knew that Elliot’s father had passed away last year. There had been a car accident on the highway, and he hadn’t made it home.
“I was really sorry to hear about your dad,” she said. She’d gone to the funeral, but she’d hung back with Daniel, uncertain of how to proceed or what to say. She’d hated her urgent desire to hug Elliot and tell him everything was going to be all right. It wasn’t going to be all right, not in the same way, not again.
“Thanks.” Elliot watched as she selected the flowers to make his mother’s bouquet. “Oh! I owe you a congratulations, I hear. You had another baby. A boy.”
A shiver went down Ivy’s spine. “I did, yeah.”
“I take it you had someone else to drive you to the hospital this time,” he said with a laugh. “That was quite a rush for me. I couldn’t believe it. I don’t think I’ve ever had more responsibility.”
Ivy set down her scissors and blinked at the flowers she’d selected for his mother’s bouquet. For some reason, she wasn’t sure how to keep going or what to say.
