“Oh yes, with your Tom Ford shoes and your Ralph Lauren shirt and your Dollar Tree socks,” I teased, and inretaliation he pulled himself to his feet and leaned over the railing to me.
“Hey hey hey,” he replied, tsking. The golden evening light shimmered in his hair, turning copper to brass. “I told you that inconfidence.”
“You did confidently say it,” I agreed.
“You’re infuriating,” he said, but by the warm sound of his voice he meant something else entirely. A shiver raced down my spine as he leaned closer still, his stormy eyes dark in the shade. Above us, the coral-colored blooms spread across the vines and curled down the sides of the gazebo. The gazebo creaked as the vines grew, slithering down the lattices to the ground, full of deep green leaves and blooms, but I barely noticed any of it outside of his gaze.
After a moment, he leaned away from me and said, “It’s getting late. I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow,” I agreed.
And still, the trumpet vines bloomed.
26
hiraeth
There was a daycare group playing in the Spiral.
Most of the time I didn’t mind children—I had been a child once myself, so we had that in common—but I knew at a young age that children definitely were not in my illustrious future. So I had never been very good with kids, despite the fact that my best friend had wanted two and a half kids and had named them by the time she was twenty-three.
I went up to one of the young daycare attendants—she looked like a college kid home for the summer—and asked politely for the five-year-olds not to run on the stones, because if they fell their knees would get eaten up pretty badly, and so they instead moved to the Lily Walk, where they ran through the flowers. At least their knees would be saved.
The lilies, on the other hand . . .
I sighed and went to ask the same daycare worker topleasestop the kids from running through the flower beds, when Oliver appeared in the archway to the Lily Walk and hurriedly made his way over to the same woman. He glanced at me, looking annoyed—not atme, I hoped—and then pressed on a perfectly immaculate smile.
“Sorry to bother you,” he said in a syrupy voice, “but I wonder if you’d like to take your kids to the Central Garden? They can play hide-and-seek there.”
And at least they wouldn’t ruin the flowers if they fell into a bush. Then again, Damnit was stalking the Central Garden today.
They’d figure that out eventually.
“Oh no,” the young woman said, “they’re fine—”
“I’m more worried about the flowers,” he interrupted in that same smooth voice, “mostly because some of them are quite poisonous.”
She gave a start. “Oh, theyare?”
“Very.”
If you’re a cat, I thought, but decided not to correct him, because it did the trick. The daycare attendant rounded up the dozen or so kids, and they all filed their way out of the Lily Walk and to the Central Garden.
Oliver slipped up beside me as he watched them go. Finally, when they were gone, his fake smile dropped, as did his pleasant voice. “Sometimes I wonder if we were all given common sense,” he muttered tiredly, “or if some of us were just lucky.”
“You were really good with them.”
He shrugged. “I’m used to dealing with the public. Out of everyone at the firm, I’m usually the one sent to talk to clients.” He scrunched his nose. “We specialize in restoring older homes. There’s a funeral parlor I’m working on down in the Carolinas right now, in Mairmont. Beautiful Second Empire–style house. Very Addams Family vibes. Black mansard-style roof, immaculate gables—gorgeous, really.”
“Nerd,” I teased.
He mock-gasped, pressing his hand to his chest. “Me?Never. I love football,” he said, and I rolled my eyes, only for him to laugh. Talking with Oliver was easy, I found. Maybe it was because he was so good at public relations, but it reminded me of Harrie. A sort of comforting, joking camaraderie.
It was very different than anything I felt around Rus.
Around Oliver, it felt … like the stakes were so low, they were in the ground. Maybe I blushed around him, but it didn’t feel the same as with Rus. Around Oliver, I felt surprised and flustered. Around Rus, I felt . . .
I felt like I couldn’t hide. Like I was seen.
