My dad was already moving on to the next plant, but Ali’s attention lingered on the single rose. She gently reached out to touch the petals.
“Resilient,” she muttered to herself with a small smile.
I stared at her. “Yeah.”
“Oh.” She jumped slightly at my voice, then laughed. “Jeez, is that lady finally gone?” She craned her neck to look at the front of the shop. “She was talking your ear off.”
“Ha, yeah, like my dad’s talkin’ yours off,” I said with an apologetic grin.
“What? No way.” She smiled. “I like him. He’s nice, Jamie.” She said my dad’s nickname for me in a teasing way and gave me a little hip check that had me struggling against a grin. “He’s like a grumpy teddy bear,” she decided.
My eyebrows shot up. “My dad? Grumpy I agree with, but teddy bear?” When it came to my dad, I’d use the words fair, strict, respectful. He was nowhere near as warm as a teddy bear. Then again, I couldn’t make my dad laugh the way Ali just had.
Giving me a little grin, Ali scampering off to listen to my dad rattle off more useless information about plants.
An hour later, Ali was sitting behind the counter petting Hank, my crazy ass beagle who never stayed still for more than two seconds. Hank currently looked like he was being drugged by her cuddles. He wasn’t even trying to eat the grilled cheese I made for her, which was quite literally insane to me because he was always going after my food.
I was busy wrapping up an aloe plant for a gift order when a phone started buzzing incessantly. Thinking it was Kappy—because he never sent just one message, he had to send about five at a time—I checked my phone, but it was empty. So that meant…
“Is someone bugging you?” I asked Ali, nodding to her phone beside her.
“Huh?” She looked up, then at her phone. “Oh.” After scrolling through her phone for a minute, she huffed and threw it back down. “It’s just Mark.”
“Ah.” I ran my tongue over my teeth, stalling myself. There was so much I wanted to say about him, but I knew I had to be careful with my words. I had a feeling if I was too vocal, her guard would slam up, and then she’d have no one to talk to about him. “How’s that going?”
“I broke up with him,” she said quietly, keeping her eyes on Hank.
My heart picked up speed. Fuck yes. I wanted to yell out in celebration that she was finally rid of that jerk, but seeing the slight frown on her face made me immediately feel like a dick. “You okay?”
She swallowed hard and gave a small smile. “Yeah, I mean, it was time. He graduated, so things were changing with school anyway.” She sighed. “And Katrina couldn’t care less about me now.” She gestured to her arm. “She thinks this is a career-ending injury.”
“But it’s your arm,” I said slowly. “I could see if it was your knee or ankle, but not your arm.”
She shrugged. “She thinks I’ll have fear now.”
I snorted. “She’s dead wrong.”
Ali gave me a small smile of thanks.
“Were those the only reasons you were dating him? School and Katrina?” I asked hesitantly.
Her eyes went a little glassy as she stared at the ceiling. “I hope you’re not judging me.”
“No,” I said quickly. “I just want to understand.”
She quickly swatted a tear away and stared at me, as if deciding whether or not I could be trusted.
“I won’t judge, I promise,” I whispered as earnestly as I could.
Her lips pursed with a swallow. “He did make my life easier at school. As soon as Anastasia left, it was like I had a target on my back. But he made sure no one said or did anything to me. And then, well, Katrina liked us together. It just worked. But those weren’t the only reasons.” She rolled her lips together, like she was trying to wrangle in her emotions. “It’s just weird. He could be mean and gruff sometimes, but I think he really did love me, ya know? He said it anyway. It’s hard to just…” She shook her head. “It’s hard to be alone, ya know? And I guess I feel bad for him. He’s really upset over the breakup, and it's hard not to be there for him after being together so long.”
Moving slowly to give myself some time to think, I sat down next to her and pet Hank along beside her. “I think that’s normal. You’re a nice person with empathy, of course you feel bad about something ending. But Ali…” I waited until she looked up at me with her warm brown eyes. “There will be someone else who loves you who never acts mean or gruff to you.”
“You think?” She had so much hope in her eyes that I wanted to kiss her right then and there.
But I had to back down. She was clearly vulnerable and hurting from the breakup. It was way too soon. I didn’t want to take advantage.
“I know so, Ali.” I gave her a firm nod.
