Page 71 of Something Like Sunflowers

A treasure.

Because that’s what she is to me. She’s a gift, meant to bring this family together, and that’s clear to me in this moment, even if she does look at me with mistrust somewhere deep within.

She holds up the little crocheted pumpkin she made me in Miss Henley’s middle school home economics class. The one I pretended to shove in my backpack and forget about, because you don’t acknowledge crushes from your best friend’s middle school sister in the ninth grade. You just don’t.

But I kept it in my nightstand.

I never told Devyn about the pumpkin before our breakup.

This is likely the first time she’s seen it in the twentysomething years since she made it. As a little girl.

And here my own little girl is, spilling some of my deepest secrets to her, saying words I’ve wondered how to say for a decade in a short, simple breath.

Smelling her orange scented perfume in my bathroom, hearing her laugh fill my home, seeing her traipse around in nothing but spandex shorts and an oversized T-shirt.

My T-shirt.

I’ve got it bad for this woman. But I’ve respected her wishes. I haven’t touched her since she stated her boundaries. If she wants to take things slow, I will be the slowest of the slow. I will be a sloth.

And yeah, it might kill me bit by bit to watch her sway that round little ass around my farm in dirtied-up Daisy Dukes and not smack it a time or two, but I’ll do it. Even if I am pretty sure she shakes it around more than normal when she sees me, just to call me on my bluff.

But I’ll do anything to earn her trust and keep her. Even if it does mean being hands-off.

A nagging feeling in my gut reminds me that her days of trusting me are over if I don’t tell her about Lemon’s marriage stuff soon, but I plan to. It’s just not the right time yet. I can’t scare her off or have her thinking I’ve been with her for any reason other than because I love her.

Because I love her.

Yes, it might benefit the custody, but that isn’t why I sought her out. She’s gotta see that.

I’ll get her to see.

Because what I want more than her body, more than marriage, more than some stupid fuckin’ job…is her heart.

She breaks our stare and walks to the tree, hanging the pumpkin in the very center where Ellie shows her, then turns to me, a smile curving her lips.

“She hasn’t forgotten.”

Chapter 28

Devyn

Alexa, connect to Devyn’s Galaxy and play Motivation Mix,” I shout, picking up a fifth sock from the living room floor. Warmth settles over me in the form of a rare, genuine smile. Ellie and Hunter toss their socks at the end of the day almost identically. All of it solidifies my notion of who they are to one another. Hunter very much is Eleanor’s father. And she’s got him wrapped around her little rebel fingers.

“Playing Motivation Mix,” Alexa replies. I marvel, still in disbelief that I’m living in a place so fancy that there’s built-in surround sound through the whole house. He’s certainly impressed me with his renovation of the farm. Of the whole town, really.

Dustin did try to tell me.

Dustin. Who still isn’t speaking to me because I ‘always rush into things’ or whatever.

I roll my eyes, sashaying to my phone to shoot a quick text to my brother who made it very abundantly clear, via a long series of voicemails, that Hunter and I were the most impulsively stupid people he knows, and he wants no part of the “shitshow” he predicted.

Like he’s not the one who told me to admit my feelings. I huff a frustrated sigh that blows my bangs away from my face as I type.

It’s time he stopped sulking about it. Hunter and I are together. It’s been almost a month now, and it doesn’t seem like a fake marriage. Not anymore.

Truth be told, I miss my brother. I’ve only seen him twice since I’ve gotten home, and once was when Shana and I blindsided him at the Sugar Stable on his birthday with a cake. Thankfully, Shana knew what time he’d be there, her dance studio being directly across from it and all. Maybe I can get her to tell me when he’s in and just blindside him at work again.

On the other hand, only two visits with my favorite and only brother is just not gonna cut it. I’ll simply have to use my little sister powers. Splinter my way under his skin until he has no choice but to deal with me.

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