I can’t look Penn in the face. Despite the fool he usually pretends to be, I know he’ll try to make me feel better if he thinks I’m upset.
Am I upset? I don’t know. Everything is too confusing.
“Hey,” Penn says, his voice softer. “Are you all right?”
I look up just in time to see Trevor walking by the front window. He sees me through the glass. A soft grin plays on his lips, and I melt into a puddle of goo.
He pulls open the front door and stops when he sees Penn.
“Hey,” Penn says. “We were just talking about you, Kelly.”
“Yeah?” he asks, looking between Penn and me. “What’s going on here?”
“Penn needed some advice on flowers, actually. I think I have him pointed in the right direction.”
Trevor nods, still unsure. “Hey, Penn—if you’re going to be around for a few, I’d like to meet up with you at the café. Just a few things I want to see if you can do before Dad gets here.”
“Sure. I can head over there now and give Claire hell until you make it over,” Penn says.
“Sounds good. Be there in fifteen or so.”
When Penn is gone, it’s then Trevor who makes his way to the desk. I busy myself organizing notes from a call earlier about a wedding because I don’t want to look at him. I’m not sure what to say.
“Hey, you,” he says, breaking the ice for me.
“Hi.”
“How’s it going today?”
“Good. I really love it here,” I say, sighing happily. “It feels good to walk in this place, you know? I love being surrounded by all this beauty.”
Trevor laughs. “I’m happy for you.”
“Me too.”
Silence creeps around us, a weight that sinks into the room. It’s large and oddly shaped and impossible to get comfortable with. Trevor feels it, too, because he shifts his feet like he does when he can’t figure something out.
“So you’re done at the house?” I ask. My throat is parched, making the words sound like they’re said over sandpaper.
Trevor nods. “Yeah. They finished over the weekend.”
“What’s this mean for you?”
I really want to know what it means for me. For him and me. For us. If there’s an ‘us,’ and God, I hope there is.
He picks up a pen and twiddles it between two fingers. “I’m not sure. We probably need to talk about it.”
“Probably so.”
The air stales between us, the energy that typically barrels from him to me, and vice versa, gone. In its place is a stiff, delicate situation that neither of us seems to want to deal with.
“Haley . . .” He scratches his head. “This is really complicated.”
“Is it? Because it doesn’t seem like it has to be from here.”
He sets the pen down. “What do you suggest we do? You live three hours away from me. Your family is here. My family and my job are there.”
I shrug. “I don’t know. I only know people make things work that they want to work.”
He looks at me warily. It sends a pang of panic over me, and I grab on to the desk to keep from marching around the corner and kissing him. Because kissing him won’t help. Not in the long run.
A card that says “Love Is Forever” hangs on the rack just over Trevor’s shoulder. It’s surrounded by a handful of other cards with various sayings, but it’s the one that sticks out to me. Probably because that’s the problem—love isn’t “forever” to Trevor Kelly.
Can I deal with that? Am I willing to?
“Maybe you’re right,” he says finally. He strolls to a display and picks up a little potted bamboo plant. He checks the price and sets it on the counter next to a twenty. “I want to buy this for you.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“Can you hush and ring me up so I can get out of here before Penn forgets he’s meeting me?” He laughs.
I get his total, then his change, and hand him a receipt. “Here you go, sir.”
“Thank you.” He stuffs the bills in his pocket. “May this little plant bring you good fortune.”
I hope so.
He checks his phone. I watch his brow furrow and his jaw set. I try to memorize every line in his face. Just in case.
“You’re staring again.” He grins as he catches me off-guard. “What are you thinking?”
I walk around the desk and stand in front of him. “Can I ask a favor of you? Before you go back to the city?”