Page 32 of Against All Odds

When I got home, the house was warm, cozy, and quiet, but it didn’t embrace me the way it had these past months. I dropped my keys and phone on the counter, tossed my purse on the sofa, and stood for a long moment, staring into the dark mountains framing my window, only the outlines of which I could make.

My phone rattled silently. I checked it.

There was a message from Heath:Hey, how are you?

I stared at the screen, my chest tightening. When had he sent it? At the table with Alexa? After dinner, on his way home? Did it even matter?

I turned the phone over so I couldn’t see his words.

My head was still pounding, and my thoughts were spiraling in too many directions.

I took my ibuprofen, brushed my teeth, cleansed my face, and crawled into bed without answering Heath.I pulled the blankets up to my chin.

The tears came before I could stop them, hot and silent, soaking into the pillow as I stared at the ceiling.

Maybe Jack was right. I was pathetic. I was always going to be the outsider, the girl who didn’t belong, the woman who could never quite get it right. Men were going to use me and then discard me because I was only good for fucking, nothing more, not respect, not affection, and definitely not love.

I cried until I couldn’t anymore. And then, finally, I slept.

CHAPTER 11

heath

Iwasn’t a buy-flowers type of guy. Alexa had told me often enough. I was the making-sure-her-car-always-had-gas-and-was-serviced kind of guy. The kind who fixed the leaky sink before she even noticed it was dripping or left her coffee mug filled and waiting on the counter every morning before she got out of bed. I was the one who did the morning run with Juno and bought the groceries. I made sure Juno’s lacrosse gear was packed, and her cleats were clean. I never missed a chance to drop her off or pick her up after practice. I was the guy who stayed up late assembling her science fair project when my kid needed help, and triple-checked her bike helmet straps before she rode anywhere.

I had a gnawing feeling in my chest that I couldn’t shake as Sable had not answered my text from last night or this morning. A part of me thought the hell with it. We fucked, and now we forgot. But another, larger part of me didn’t want that. I didn’t want toghosther. If we wereover, then I wanted to do it as an adult, which was why I was at Mountain Flowers of Aspen.

The door of the florist shop chimed as I stepped inside, the smell of roses and eucalyptus wrapped around me.

“Heath, how’re you doin’?” the florist, a cheerful woman in her sixties with bright purple glasses, asked. I knew I’d met her somewhere but didn’t remember her name.

“Good,” I replied, shoving my hands in my pockets. Fuck! Would everyone and their mother know I bought flowers now?

“What can I do for you?” she cheerfully continued.

“I’m looking for a simple bouquet. Not roses.”

Her eyes brightened with curiosity. “You don’t say. Is this for a special occasion for a special lady?

So, yeah, everyone and their mother, including Alexa, would know I bought flowers for Sable. That put a damper on my plans to take these to her at the Wildflower because half the town would see me with them on Hopkins Street, where the tavern was. I’d have to take them to her place later tonightafterher shift. Would the flowers last that long?

Why the hell was everything so complicated?

“How about that?” I pointed to a bouquet on a shelf behind her. It was a mix of yellow daisies, some other yellow flowers, and sprigs of lavender tied together with twine. It looked unpolished, natural, like it had been picked fresh from a meadow on a summer morning. It wasn’t fancy or overly curated, but it had a quiet charmto it that reminded me of Sable: beautiful, simple, and real.

Fuck, but I wasn’t ready to let Bambi go; let go of that feeling I had of satisfied-to-the-toes-of-my-feet I felt when we were together—both in and out of bed.

She gave me a knowing smile and nodded. I didn’t even hear the chime of the door this time, too distracted by trying to decide if wildflowers were the way to go when I heard a voice I recognized.

Small fucking towns!

“Well, this is unexpected.”

I turned to see Alexa’s sister, Natasha. Of course, it was because the universe was taking a shit on me.Now,Alexa, for sure, would hear that I was buying flowers and know it was probably for Sable. I could give them to Juno, but that was so out of character that she’d know something was up. If I gave them to Alexa, it would be…fuck me! Couldn’t a man just buy flowers for a woman whose company he enjoyed without getting the third degree?

She looked at me curiously, her arms crossed over a spring coat. “Who’s the lucky lady?”

“I asked him the same question,” the florist said a bit too sweetly as she wrapped up the flowers for me.

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