her.
You could never be what you were before.
Grief like that marked you down deep in your soul.
But he was beginning to think that walking forward was possible in a way he hadn’t believed before. Yeah, he was beginning to believe in that. And it was something of a miracle. One he wouldn’t have found if it weren’t for her. He didn’t know all the ways he might honor that. But he wanted to.
Maybe she’d been right, after all. Maybe he still had some heart left, after all, because what was this if not...
Caring.
“Now you can get out.”
She was slightly unsteady when she did, and he brought her to the bed of the truck and opened it. Her eyes widened, then brightened. “Flowers?”
“Yeah. I thought... I thought I might make a planter box. Actually, a few planter boxes.”
“For my windows.”
“Yeah. I thought it would look good with your sign. Pink.”
“Griffin,” she said softly. “That is the nicest thing.”
“Weird, because I would’ve told you that I’m not nice. But you kind of make a man want to try.”
She looked away, her cheeks turning pink.
“Why is it that me being nice to you seems to throw you off more than when I yell at you and tell you to leave my cabin?”
“A very good question,” she said, looking up at him. “I just... I don’t know. Thank you, Griffin. Nobody’s ever done anything quite like this for me before. We all took care of each other, when my parents died. But you know, some of us were older, some of us were kids. It was up to the older ones to keep things going. That’s just how it was. It’s not a bad thing. It just is.”
“But you were a kid.”
“I was. And then I wasn’t. It’s all right. I mean, I was on the way to growing up. I wasn’t the baby. Rose was... Rose was a firecracker. So much trouble. My mom had to watch her all the time. And then there was Pansy, who was also just kind of... A little bit wild. And I never was. So in the end, it was good. But they had me. Because if they didn’t, then it might be a lot harder for them. And it certainly would’ve been harder for me. But I... You know. I liked being home. I liked baking.”
“It doesn’t mean you didn’t want other things.”
She tried to force a smile. “I forgot what they were. If I ever did.”
“Is that true?”
She lifted a shoulder. “Maybe it’s a choice. But it’s true.”
“Well, it’s a different time now. You can have this. Want this. And I’m going to help.”
“Why?”
“You’re special, Iris. And you deserve everything.”
The words came out of his mouth with so much conviction that they shocked him. Really, the only conviction he’d felt for the last few years was that life was hell, and he was stuck living it. But now he believed in something else. He believed in her. The realization was enough to knock him on his ass, but thankfully, he remained standing. Instead, he got the wood out of the back of the truck, and his notebook out of his pocket.
“I worked up a quick design for these while I was at the store.”
“You can just... Do that?” She wasn’t responding to what he’d said about her being special. Rather, gawking at the little drawing he’d done.
“Yeah. I’ve gotten pretty familiar with construction. With how things work. Since I’ve been...”
She looked at him.
“I’m building that house.”
She nodded. But she didn’t press.
Just like he didn’t press her accepting what he’d said about her being special.
Apparently, no matter what they’d said, there were still some boundaries. Because if he pushed that, he had a feeling he was going to have to answer some questions inside of him that he didn’t quite feel like answering.
And if she pushed about the house, it might lead to a deeper discussion than either of them wanted to have.
So they started to focus on the planter boxes. Iris hovered over him while he started.
“You know, you can go do other things if you have things you need to do.”
“I know,” she said. “I just... I like watching you work.” She blushed. He loved when she did that.
“Well, appreciated. But I don’t want to keep you from what you had in mind.”
“Honestly, this is where I want to be.”
She sat perched on the bed of his truck, he worked. She went and got some cookies and coffee from inside the bakery, and brought