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“How are we talking about me?” Cherry asked, and Lee knew therewassomething to her and Jed. Cherry wouldn’t talk about it until she was good and ready, that much he knew, and he didn’t press the issue at the moment. “Tell me what happened with Rosalie. Don’t leave anything out.”
Lee wasn’t sure if he could start at the beginning and get through everything by seven a.m. Still, he thought he better try. “I think it started when Mama went into the hospital when she had that infection…”
To his credit, he finished only twenty minutes later. Cherry remained silent, and that didn’t give Lee much hope. “Cherry?”
“First off, I just want to say that I love you, because you’re my brother. But Lee, seriously? The Good Lord put us on this earth in the day and age where we have cellphones. You should’ve called her.”
“I didn’t ask for a lecture,” Lee said. “I need you to help me get her back.”
“I’m going to need some time to think,” Cherry said. “This is bigger than a fancy restaurant.”
“I was going to take her to the violin concerto, but it ended over the weekend.”
“Does she like classical music?”
“Yeah,” Lee said with a sigh. “And sour candy, her daughter, the beach, baking, and all of her cute pencil skirts. I don’t know how to take all of that and make something for her that tells her I love her.” Lee only realized what he’d said after the words had come out of his mouth. He couldn’t take them back, and the best he could do was hope Cherry had gone temporarily deaf.
“Lee,” she whispered, all traces of her annoyance and exasperation with him gone.
“I know, okay?” He didn’t want to repeat it, though the love he felt for Rosalie flowed through his bloodstream. “Help me, Cherry. Think fast, please.”
Cherry didn’t speak right away, and a heavy thread of guilt pulled through him. “I’m sorry, Cher. There’s really no you and Jed?”
“There’s really not,” she said. “Or me and Doctor Freeman.”Me and anyoneechoed through the line, and Lee wished he hadn’t involved his sister. She’d been in love with Charlie Mortimer for as long as Lee could remember, and she hadn’t really dated since him. It had been a decade now, and Lee would like to see Cherry find someone who could love her as much as she wanted to be loved.
“I’m sorry,” Lee whispered.
“You’re thinking too, right, Lee?” she asked. “You know Rosalie better than I do. What can you do to get her back?”
“I’m thinking, yes,” Lee said, though he had to admit he’d always known he’d call Cherry and ask for her help. He hadn’t been able to do anything in his relationship with Rose by himself. Sure, he executed someone else’s plans or suggestions, but his mind felt blank when it came to the educational game developer he hadn’t stopped thinking about for months.
“Talk later,” Cherry said.
“Talk later.” Lee hung up, and he stood in his kitchen for several quiet moments, trying to piece together a plan without his glasses and with only paper clips.
It felt impossible. Utterly impossible.
* * *
Sour candy.Flowers. Pencil skirts.
Lee moved papers from files to his desk and back, his mind revolving around the things Rosalie liked.
Beef short ribs. Baking. Peach cobbler. The color purple, particularly the deeper eggplant.
He loaded up milk and cream for a customer. Oversaw the filling of bottles and the loading of them for the organic grocers out in the Hill Country.
Her games. Her daughter. Her sister.
Lee looked up from the last bit of office work he had to do that day. “Her family.” Rosalie’s family was extremely important to her, and she’d told Lee a couple of times that she enjoyed spending time with his as well.
She’d told him not to let his pride get in the way of being with her.
She’d told him to call her or communicate with her, to value her time, and to reschedule if he had to.
He could combine all of those things…somehow. Someone entered the administration building, and Lee logged the last payment into their accounting software as both Will and Travis appeared in the doorway of the office, one right after the other.
They exchanged a glance, and Lee knew that look well. He held up one hand and said, “I know, you guys, okay? I already know.”
