Chapter 24
With one final nail in place, I step back and admire my creation. The greenhouse is almost completely finished, and it only took about nine hours of straight work in the freezing cold.
I’ve never felt so freaking accomplished as I pull my gloves off my hands and tuck them into the sleeve of my jacket for warmth. I was only going to put the roof on tonight as a surprise for Clarissa, but after that was finished, I decided to attach the green wall panels. Then, the door. Then frame out the window in the door. Then I just kept going. The frigid cold was only quelled by moving around, so I kept moving.
Now the greenhouse stands tall and proud, brand new and untarnished. I’m standing outside, my tools sitting on top of the table I made.
The official plans for the greenhouse have shelves going all around the inside walls, but there’s enough room for a table in the middle, something counter height so you can plant flowers or do work in there before you move it to its place against the wall. Clarissa had briefly mentioned how she’d like to have a table one day.
So I made one.
I exhale on my fingers in an attempt to warm them up, but it doesn’t do much. I glance at my watch. It’s just after midnight. First thing tomorrow morning when the stores are open, I’m going to find a gigantic bow, like what dealerships put on cars. I’ll put it on the front door and then let Clarissa discover it on her own.
My heart warms at the idea, even though it’s actually freezing.
Headlights blast against the greenhouse, the rumble of an engine following along behind it. I whip around, hoping it’s not a cop coming to bust me for being out too late, but it’s an older Chevy truck. I’ve seen it in Clarissa’s driveway.
My heart races and I don’t know why, but it feels like I’ve been caught doing something wrong. The truck shuts off and Clarissa tumbles out, walking quickly to me, her eyes wide.
“You finished it?” she shrieks. “Is it done? It looks done?” Her cheeks are pink, her expression bewildered. She looks so beautiful in the moonlight.
I laugh. “Yep. It’s done.”
“Why?” She throws her hands in the air, but she’s not mad. She smiles as she looks over the greenhouse, running her fingers across the outside wall. “I told you to wait until it wasn’t so cold.”
I shrug. “The weather channel lied. It’s totally not snowing.”
She turns to me, her smile lighting me upside like it’s Christmas morning. I realize why I did all this work tonight. For that smile. It was totally worth it.
“I made you a promise and I hated making you wait any longer to see it fulfilled.”
She walks closer to me, her gaze never leaving mine until she notices the table I’m standing next to. “What’s this?”
“It’s a table, you know for the middle of the greenhouse? I heard you say you wanted one, so I looked up some building plans online and got some extra wood.”
She places her palm on the tabletop. “It’s perfect,” she breathes, her words coming out in little clouds of white.
The next thing I know, she’s throwing her arms around me. Her cheek is cold against mine, her thick jacket so puffy, she feels like a cloud as I wrap my arms nervously around her.
“Thank you,” she says so softly I barely hear it. “Thank you for this.”
“Don’t thank me,” I say, still holding onto her, my eyes closed as I soak up her presence like it’s all the fuel I’ll never need to survive. “I should thank you for not killing me when you found out what I did.”
She pulls away slowly, then gazes up at me. “I read your letter.”
I don’t know what to say, so I glance down and then at the greenhouse, suddenly unable to meet her gaze.
“Thank you for writing it,” she says, taking a step back. “I ended things with TJ.”
“That was…probably for the best,” I say.
She snorts. “Yeah. Honestly, I didn’t even like him. I just—”
“You just what?” I say. It suddenly means a lot to me to know exactly how she felt about my former friend.
She shrugs. “I wanted to like him because he liked me. He didn’t have a problem with my height, and he was nice and—”
“Your height?” I ask.
