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Taeli
After breakfast, I walk to my office while Caleb rides with Graham to check on the theme park construction site.
I don’t normally work on Sundays, but it’s been a busy couple of weeks with everyone wanting to get one last family vacation in before schools start back, so I told Sara-Beth I’d come in for a few hours to help her and Erin with checkouts.
When I round the entrance to the campground, I see a truck backed up to the door and a delivery driver hauling roses inside.
I climb the steps and follow him to find the entire office covered in flowers.
Roses of every color.
Dozens and dozens of them.
“What is going on?” I ask.
Sara-Beth’s head pops up from behind the vases that are stacked on my desk.
“Taeli, I think you have an admirer,” she states.
Me?
She doesn’t mean these are for me. When would Graham have ordered them? He wasn’t out of my and Caleb’s presence this morning.
“Yes, you,” Erin says as she comes down the hall.
The driver looks at me. “You must be Mrs. Lowder.”
I nod.
“Here’s the card,” he says, handing me an envelope.
“Wait, you aren’t leaving all of these here, are you?” I ask as he turns to exit.
“Yep. They’re all yours.”
I turn back to the room and the insane display.
“Are you going to open that?” Erin asks.
I look at the envelope in my hand and slide my fingers under the lip.
I tug a slip of paper from inside with a handwritten note. I recognize the handwriting immediately.
Damon.
“What does it say?” Sara-Beth asks as they both come to join me.
“It’s from my husband.”
“Are you serious?” Erin cries.
I hand the card to her, and she reads his words aloud. “Taeli, I’m so sorry. I was stupid. Please forgive me. I love you. Damon.” She looks up at me.
“That man has some nerve,” Sara-Beth says.
“And deep pockets. These things had to have cost a fortune. What are you going to do with all of them?” Erin asks.
“Take them to all the shops and motels in the valley,” I suggest.
“I’ll call Hilton,” Sara-Beth says before hurrying behind the desk and picking up the phone.
Erin moves beside me. “I guess you deciding not to come back really rattled his cage, huh?”
“Yeah, that and a new baby.”
I bet Ivy finally went into labor.
“Hilton and Corbin are on the way to take care of them,” Sara-Beth informs us.
“Good. Now, let’s get some work done,” I say.
We do just that while the guys load the unwanted floral display into their trucks and take them to brighten the day of every working lady in the valley.
Once we are all caught up, Erin drives me home, where we find Damon perched on my new porch swing.
I see red.
“Is that who I think it is?” she asks.
“Yep,” I answer. I don’t even wait until her car comes to a full stop before I open the door and jump out.
Damon stands and meets me at the steps.
“You’re insane. You do realize that, don’t you?” I scream.
“Calm down, Taeli.”
“Don’t tell me what to do. You covered my office in thousands of dollars of roses. I don’t even like roses.”
He gets a perplexed look. “I thought they were your favorite flower,” he says.
“No, irises are my favorite flower.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell me that?”
“I did. We had irises at our wedding. I have an iris tattooed on my hip. And I named the puppy you bought me Iris.”
“Oh, I didn’t correlate them.”
“Of course you didn’t.”
Erin gets out of her car, slams her door shut, and stands beside it.
“Who’s that?” Damon asks as he looks over my shoulder to the driveway.
“One of my best friends,” I tell him.
“Don’t be silly. Michelle is your best friend. Has been for years.”
I bristle at that and dig in my purse for my keys.
“Michelle is not my friend. Neither is Amy nor Mandy for that matter.”
“But this person is all of a sudden?”
“That’s right,” I say as I locate my keys and walk past him to the door.
He reaches out and clasps my arm. “Taeli, wait. I just want to talk, please.”
“Do you need me to get the Taser out of my glove compartment?” Erin calls.
I shake my head and then stop and turn back to her. “You have a Taser in your car?”
“Girl, yes. You never know when you’re going to run up on a bear.”
