Page 114 of Places I've Never Been

Mattie took the vase from him and stared at the small red card tied to one of the flower stems. Her name was scrawled across it in familiar handwriting.

“Have a good day.” The man tipped his red cap, and the three drivers went back to their vans.

Mattie carried the vase into the house. She’d have known the flowers were from Adam with or without the note because it was such an insane amount. Who else would send her this many flowers? “How did Adam even find this many hibiscus in LA? It’s not like we’re in the tropics.”

“Crazy as he is, he probably had them flown in.” Kat flicked her hand toward the back of the house. “Is there a smoking section out there?”

“You’re supposed to be quitting.” Mattie carried the vase to the kitchen.

“I’m not going to light it,” Kat assured her. “I’m just going to suck on it and dream of lighting it.”

Every surface inside the house, including some of the floor, had been transformed into a forest of pink and white.

“It looks like a flower shop in here,” Lizzie said.

“Or a funeral home,” Reniccommented.

Lizzie hit his arm. “Stop that.”

“You have to admit as apologies go this puts the over in overkill,” Renic said. “It makes the rest of us look bad. And here I thought he outdid himself with the Jet Skis.”

Mattie hugged the vase in her arms. The red card jiggled every time she took a step, taunting her. The past three days had been filled with overtures of guilt from Adam. It was getting hard to ignore.

Piper peered at the card. “Wonder what he wrote.”

Mattie glanced at her. “Thought you’d rather I burned it. That’s what you said about the notebook.”

Three days ago, Piper had arrived with an armload of mail from Mattie’s house, along with a beautiful hand-bound leather notebook and a sealed envelope. Mattie had thrown the envelope in the trash, but she couldn’t bring herself to toss the notebook, so she’d buried it in the bottom of her suitcase. Its presence unnerved her so much that she shoved the suitcase into the back of the closet and piled her dirty laundry on top of it.

“Yeah, well. I might have been a little extreme about that.”

“Somebody’s a drama queen,” Della sing-songed. “I mean, did he have to send so many flowers? Weren’t his first two presents enough of a message?”

Mattie buried her nose in a flower. “One notebook and a Jet Ski wouldn’t be enough, especially after I sent the Jet Ski back. Adam moments are over the top and in your face.”

“He sure knows how to escalate, I’ll give him that,” Renic said. “I wonder what he’ll send next.”

Mattiehmmed. If she had to guess, he might resort to skywriting or commercials on the radio and TV.

“Are you going to read the card?” Piper asked quietly.

“I don’t know.” Mattie looked at her with curiosity. Her sister had been withdrawn and thoughtful for the past coupleof days. It was so unlike her that Mattie had asked her if she was sick. The response had been a scathing retort on busy workloads.

It had been easy to throw away the first card. She hadn’t wanted to read the second, but she hadn’t been able to bring herself to get rid of it either. The initial anger and hurt she’d felt when she first arrived had faded, thanks to her sisters’ efforts. Maybe she should find out what he’d written this time. But did it even matter? Was there anything he could say that would make her forgive him?

A little whisper in the back of her mind said,Give him a chance to explain.

Mattie carried her vase of flowers onto the back porch and sat down in one of the cushioned chairs around the outdoor dining table. “I really do love hibiscus.”

They reminded her of Syer Island, which reminded her of Adam, which reminded her of why she was hiding out in the first place.

Lizzie sniffed one of the flowers before she sat down next to Mattie. “They don’t really smell like anything.”

“Good thing, otherwise the house would be unbearable,” Renic said.

“They remind me of the ocean.” Mattie liberated the card from the flower stem and held it in her hand like a grenade that might go off any second.

“You going to read that, or should I toss it in the pool?” Della asked.

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