“I’m surprised,” I said. “Surprised you two would risk this, knowing how I feel about my garden. How sacred it is to me.”
“That’s exactly why, Mom. We thought it would mean something to you.”
“It does.” I hesitated, thinking about my relationship with daffodils and my mother. “They were my mother’s favorite flower. Which is why I didn’t want them in my garden.”
“I didn’t know that,” Annie said.
“I never shared that with you.” I rubbed my thumb down the sweating glass of lemonade. “There’s darkness in me. Deep hurt and anger toward my mother. I can’t change the past, but I can work on letting it go.” Tears pricked my eyes once again. “When I look at you two looking at me—as if I were someone worthy of love—it feels true. I didn’t get that from my mom. On the worst day of my life—the day we buried Jon—she told me it was my fault. Can you imagine being that cruel?”
“I’m sorry, Mom,” Annie said. “She didn’t deserve you.”
“I’ve carried this all around inside of me for too long,” I said. “It’s time to let spring return to my heart. As far as Poe goes, I have no explanation for why that cat loves me, but he does.”
“Enough to walk five miles into town,” Dorian said. “To make sure we somehow reunited. I never thought he was that smart.”
“He’s misunderstood,” I said. “Kind of like me.”
“Yeah, Mom, it’s no surprise to me that he imprinted on you. You’re a lot alike.”
“I have an idea about the daffodils,” I said. “We should plant some here and some at your house, Dorian. No matter which house we’re in, they’ll remind us every spring of our promise to each other.”
“I think that’s nice, Mom,” Annie said.
“I know just the place for them,” Dorian said. “My mother would be pleased.”
“I wish I could have known her better,” Annie said wistfully. “And thanked her forEdward.”
“She would have loved you, no doubt about that,” Dorian said. “Both of you.”
We were quiet for a moment, drinking our lemonades, the buzz of bees doing their work in my garden all around us.
“I say we go for pizza,” Dorian said after a few minutes.
“I’m in,” I said, exchanging a glance with Dorian. We both knew what I meant. I was in for all of it.
“Great. All that gardening made me ravenous,” Annie said, hopping to her feet. “But I have to shower first. I smell really bad.”
She left us sitting together under the apple tree, dappled light between the branches and the sea breeze fluttering its leaves. Nothing could be as good as this moment, I thought. Or could it? Maybe there were more moments like this one coming. Maybe it was time to start looking forward to the future.
I smiled, thinking about the days and weeks and years to come. “Are you really here?”
He turned his head to smile back at me. “I’m here. And I’m not going anywhere.”
We kissed again, and I could practically feel my bruised heart going from black to a soft pink. Then we went inside to thank one naughty cat for his inappropriate boundaries.
That night,I texted Seraphina, with an apology, asking if we could get together tomorrow after work. She texted back immediately.
Seraphina
Yes please! I feel terrible about our argument. I’m sorry too.
Delphine
This is all on me. I’ll swing by after work tomorrow to apologize in person.
The next evening, as promised, I headed to Seraphina’s. Tyler answered the door, hair damp from a shower. “Hey, Aunt Delphine.” He gave me a hug. “You doing okay?”
“I am, actually.”
