Owen blocked her view with a quick, clumsy step to the side. "Uh... just... uh..." He swallowed again, his nerves growing by the second under their collective stare. "Just something I got for Isabel. Since she's been working so hard lately, I thought I'd show her some appreciation."
"Really?" Emma's eyes lit up. She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, casting a quick look over to where her grandmother had turned back to her sorting trays at the far end of the basin. "What did you get her?"
"Yes, tell us," Sophia coaxed, stepping closer.
"That way, if Emma knows she won't like it, it's not too late to return it," Lily pointed out reasonably.
"I... uh... I know she likes what I got for her," Owen said, though a sudden prickle of doubt settled deep behind his ribs. Had Linda truly been accurate about Isabel's preferences?
"Are you not going to show us?" Emma asked, her shoulders dropping. "It's okay. Sorry we're being so nosy." She put on a profoundly sad face, her lower lip trembling slightly as shelooked down at her dusty sneakers. "It's just that Gran has been so sad since my grandfather died..."
She let the sentence hang heavily in the air.
The little manipulative imp,Owen thought, a mixture of amusement and panic flaring in his chest.
"Well, we won't keep you," Sophia said, her tone shifting entirely as she offered him a bright smile. "I'm going to go get something to eat. Thank you for bringing snacks again."
"Yes, we really appreciate it," Lily told him.
They both stepped around his frame, one on either side, their smooth movement leaving Emma directly in front of him.
Drats,Owen thought.Foiled completely."Huh," Sophia said, suddenly stepping back to the front of Owen. Her eyes widened as she lowered her voice to a harsh whisper. "Did you steal that from the sacred rose garden?"
"What?" Owen's heart missed a beat.Oh, shoot. How on earth did she know?"No, I uh... um..." He cleared his throat, his face warming rapidly. He was not good at this type of interrogation at all. "I got it from a friend."
"Is that friend the sacred rose garden?" Lily asked him, a knowing smirk touching her lips. "You know that's a prize rose, right?"
"What?" Owen spluttered, his fingers tightening against the stem.
"My gran produced that specific rose for the annual summer rose festival competition," Sophia told him, her eyes dancing with triumph. "It's called Angel Wings."
"No..." Owen shook his head in frantic denial, his brain scrambling for a logical cover story. "I... uh... got this from a friend."
What the heck? I was set up,he thought, a sudden image of Linda's mischievous smile entering his mind.It must just look identical to her grandmother's prize rose."Okay, then why don't I take a quick photo of it and send it to my great-grandad for verification?" Sophia offered, reaching for her pocket.
"Okay, fine, I got the rose from the sacred rose garden for Isabel," Owen admitted, throwing his hands up in defeat and bringing the perfect, velvety white bloom out into the open. "But I didn’t just take it. Rosa gave it to me. She said Linda told me to take this specific one because Isabel saw it the other day and liked it."
"Ha!" Sophia said, doing a tiny victory lap on the concrete floor. "I knew it." She grinned widely. "Isabel is going to love it."
"Yes, Owen, if I was in your age group and you gave me that, I'd love it too," Lily said, her eyes twinkling.
"Me too," Emma agreed, nodding her approval.
What was happening here? Owen wondered, a faint headache starting to throb behind his temples as he looked at the three smug faces in front of him.
"You should take my gran for a walk in the sacred rose garden later," Emma suggested, her tone remarkably bossy for a teenager.
“Yeah, Isabel loves going for a walk through there every evening,” Sophia tells him.
“She loves to sit in the gazebo at the back and look out at the gardens,” Lily continued.
“Some days she has tea and sketches,” Emma told him. “She told me the other day that it was her favorite spot.”
“Thank you, young ladies,” Owen said, a smile lifting his lips. He still felt a bit giddy at how easily they were able to do a mental gear shift before punching their foot on the accelerator and surpassing him. These three were a force to be reckoned with. He almost felt sorry for their teachers and school mates.
“Have a nice afternoon,” the three girls called.
“Oh, and my gran loves ice cream,” Emma called some advice to him. “Especially vanilla and banana flavored."
