“Not that that will happen to your daughter,” Elliot was quick to add.
“No. I think she’ll get through this rough patch,” Ivy said. “For better or for worse.”
Gently, Ivy outlined what it had been like for her to drop Lily off at school for the first time. Elliot listened, his brow furrowed, and said, “That must have been difficult.”
“It was,” Ivy said. “But I think we found something else in our relationship. Something we’ve neglected before. I think she’s resented me for months, and I think I’ve kept so much from her over the years. She’s nearly an adult woman. I don’t know why I’m so afraid for her to get to know me.”
This admission poured out of her. She had the strangest instinct to apologize. But instead of doing that, she took another bite of caramel donut, drowning her sorrows and her fears in sugar. Elliot did the same.
“It’s awful to be known,” Elliot agreed, wiping caramel from his lips. “But it’s what we’re put on this earth to try to do, I think. Show each other who we are. Genuinely care about one another.” His eyes glowed with meaning.
“When was the last time you let yourself be known?” Ivy asked.
Elliot thought about this. “I’ve had plenty of girlfriends through the years,” he said. “But I think when I hit thirty, I felt bruised from so many failed relationships. I really wanted children, but I didn’t know how to tell any of the women I was with that I wanted that. I left when things got hard, or I let them leave when I shut down on them. For the past few years, I’ve guarded myself from potential relationships. But I think it’s because I knew I wasn’t ready.”
Ivy took a hesitant step back. She recognized that he was saying he was ready now, if she was. At least, she was pretty sure that was what he was saying.
If he wasn’t? Well, that would be devastating.
Elliot adjusted the pencil behind his ear. An exhilarated and secret part of Ivy thought he was going to draw himself across the counter and kiss her right there in the crumbling flower shop. But she took another small step back, as though something in her body couldn’t take it.
Elliot kept his smile, but the light in his eyes dimmed.
“My sister wants to talk to you, by the way,” he said. “About the flowers. Would you be up for that?”
Ivy nodded. “Of course.”
She didn’t want to add, “It might be my last-ever flower gig before I have to declare bankruptcy. Perhaps it would be a nice way to close things out. Maybe it would be a beautiful way to say goodbye to an eighteen-year career.” It was one she’d never expected. Nevertheless, it had defined her life—almost as much as motherhood had.
Chapter Fifteen
It was strange how time moved forward after that. It was strange how life could look brighter when you decided to live it differently. Throughout January, Ivy found a beautiful flow as she moved between the flower shop and the Bluebell Cove Eco-Lodge, between seeing Celia and calling Lily to check in and trying and trying to connect with Tyler. He was still distant. But that could be said of all teenage boys, couldn’t it? Ivy found herself rationalizing and trying not to worry. There was too much else to think about.
Every morning, Ivy met Elliot at the flower shop to go over his plans for the day, his reconstruction, his design. Emboldened by his belief in her business, she set to work refurbishing her website and social media, determined to convince the people of Bluebell Cove that buying flowers, even in the midst of a tumultuous era, was still worthwhile. She experimented with various social media headlines and even gained a couple of hundred new followers. She and Elliot celebrated each minor win together—opening wine at the end of a long day at the shop and discussing the new flowers she would order when the time came.
She continued to ignore the bills that piled up on the desk because it wasn’t like she had any money coming in to deal with them. But maybe soon, she told herself. Maybe soon this fearsome time would be a thing of the past.
And during the third week of January, as soon as Elliot finished the redesign of the outside, people began to mill into the flower shop again. It felt incredible, like the sun rising over a town that had endured years of night. Ivy filled the shop with flowers and freshly made bouquets and watched as clients she hadn’t seen for years bought floral arrangements “just because.” Several people placed Valentine’s Day orders and even paid in advance, perhaps conscious of the still-crumbling interior. They knew she needed the money.
A few mentioned that they’d been worried she was closing up for good.
“Just took a break!” she lied to them.
“You’ve been working yourself to the bones for years,” one older woman said, clutching a bouquet for her sister’s birthday. “It’s good that you listened to yourself and rested. And…” Her eyes traced a path to Elliot, who stood on a ladder, preparing to hammer something in. “It’s good that you have such handsome help around here! Not everyone is so lucky.” She winked.
Ivy bit her tongue to keep from laughing. As soon as the woman left the store, Elliot spun around and cackled. “Did she just say what I think she said?”
“I think you just found your next girlfriend,” Ivy said.
Elliot nearly tumbled from the ladder. “I think we’ll be very happy together.”
Ivy giggled and focused her attention on the money she’d brought in over the previous week. It was enough, just barely, to pay off one of the older bills—one that had been hanging over her head for the better part of last year. Grimacing, she got online, paid it off, and then began to open some of the other bills she’d ignored, one after another. The calculation of everything she owed floored her so much that she shoved the bills back into her desk drawer and smeared her sweaty palms against her apron.
Deep breaths, Ivy, she told herself. She couldn’t break down in front of Elliot.
Elliot appeared in the office doorway, wearing a big, goofy grin. “It looks like you’re out of flowers for the day.”
“It looks like I am,” she said, brightening.
