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“I wasn’t sure you’d be a flower type of girl, but they just... I don’t know. Screamed your name.”
She admired the delicate blue petals of the mountain bluebells, the proud stalks of the purple lupine, the exotic-looking pink prairie smoke and the common yarrow. The flowers were probably less expensive than the wine, but it was the fact that they served no practical purpose—and they’d been such an impulsive purchase—that made them meaningful to her. “Thank you,” she said. “I’ll just...put them in some water.”
“No word from Jordan?” he asked while she was in the kitchen.
“Nothing so far.”
“Have you eaten?”
She returned to the living room to find him examining the geode she’d found on her doorstep. “Isn’t that pretty?”
“It’s gorgeous. Where’d you get it?”
“Someone gave it to me—I don’t know who. They left it on my stoop a couple of weeks ago.”
“Without taking credit for it?”
“Without taking credit for it.”
“Weird.”
“I know. The mystery has been driving me crazy. I have no idea who would think of such a thing, but I love it.” She placed the flowers, now in a canning jar, on her coffee table, and he put the geode beside them.
“You need to get a critter cam.”
“For my doorstep?”
“Then you’d be able to see if Jordan comes back here.”
“I might just do that.”
“Have you had dinner?” he asked since she’d never answered his question about eating.
“Not yet. I had to clean up the equipment and put it away. I also swung by Jay’s repair shop to collect the final check for drilling his well. I was going to call you to see how much I owe you, but since you’re here, we can take care of that.”
“I told you, I won’t accept anything,” he said.
She gaped at him. “I won’t let you work two whole days for free!” She would feelwaytoo indebted to him...
“Keep the money,” he said. “I’m hoping it’ll hold you over until you can find someone to replace Ben.”
She looked from the flowers to him and back again. “Why are you doing this?” she asked softly.
“It’s part of that truce I was talking about. See?” His dimples flashed. “A truce wouldn’t be an entirely bad thing.”
“The kind of truce you’re offering includes wine and flowers?”
“If you like...”
She tilted her head to study him. Was he sincere? “What else does it entail?”
“No more animosity, for one. A meal together now and then, maybe with Leo, since he likes you so much. A game of pool if we happen to be at Hank’s at the same time. Basically, peace, good feelings and friendship.”
Had he forgotten who she was? She was an outcast. And she was convinced that without him her father would never have cut her off. Stuart would’ve needed someone to help him build the business he’d started, especially during the rough years after the divorce when he couldn’t afford to hire a full-time employee, and maybe he would’ve fought for custody. But Hendrix took her place. He was Child 2.0, an upgraded version of whatever she could’ve offered—and that was difficult to accept.
Still, shouldn’t she blame Stuart instead of Hendrix?
She’d had that thought before, of course, but Hendrix had always been so aloof and uncaring she’d been able to lump him in with the Fettermans without feeling too much guilt. Whenever she’d told herself it wasn’t fair, that she should focus her anger away from him, she’d just remind herself what a jerk he was.
