Page 83 of Elora and the Crow

Nimera laughed, her pretty brown eyes lighting up with her amusement. “Good to know. You don’t happen to have any peppermint tea, do you? This baby gives me terrible indigestion.”

“There’s peppermint tea in the kitchen,” Elora said. “Why don’t I make you some while Caleb talks to Jonah.”

“I’d like that,” Nimera said. She kissed Caleb and gave him a gentle prod. “Go on, my love. I’ll be fine.”

CHAPTER26

Jonah shoved his hand into the bag of potting soil and brought out a handful of the rich black dirt. He dropped it into the pot and grabbed another handful. Usually, playing in the dirt was his damn happy place, but nothing could soothe the anxiety brewing in his stomach. Hell, he’d be lucky if he didn’t barf all over the greenhouse walls.

He wanted desperately to confront Caleb at the house, to force him to understand that Jonah only wanted what was best for him, but he wasn’t an idiot. He knew what that would do. The only thing he could do was hope that with some time and space, Caleb would miss Jonah as much as Jonah missed him and consider having a relationship again. In the meantime, Jonah would -

“Do you remember that giant pumpkin Dad grew?”

Jonah whirled around, dirt spraying from his hand to land on the floor, and stared wide-eyed at Caleb. His brother stood uncertainly in the doorway, his body tense. “He won second place in that hick town pumpkin contest he made us attend.”

“I still have the ribbon,” Jonah said.

Caleb smiled. “Yeah, of course you do.”

There was a moment of silence, and then Jonah said, “Shut the door. I’m not paying to heat the outdoors.”

“Okay,Dad,” Caleb snorted, but he shut the door and joined Jonah at the far table. “You have a lot of plants in here.”

“Yeah,” Jonah said. “I got a little carried away, I think.”

“You think?” Caleb pointed to the African Violets still waiting to be repotted. “Dad would kick your ass if he saw you abusing the violets that way.”

“They like to be rootbound,” Jonah said.

“Notthatrootbound,” Caleb said.

“Shut up and make yourself useful by repotting a couple then,” Jonah said.

Caleb rolled his eyes but took off his jacket before grabbing a few of the bigger plastic pots and lining them up in a neat row. They worked in silence for nearly five minutes before Caleb said, “Nimera loves African Violets.”

“Oh yeah?” Jonah kept his tone neutral.

“Yeah. We have a whole shelf of them at the house. She loves them partially because of the flowers but also because we have two cats, and violets are one of the few plants that aren’t poisonous to cats if they chew on ‘em.”

“Do the cats chew on them?” Jonah asked.

“All the fucking time,” Caleb said in asee how I suffervoice.

Jonah laughed, and Caleb grinned at him before staring at the plants in front of him. “I wish Dad were here with us right now.”

“Me too,” Jonah said.

“Of course, he’d be hovering like an old woman, telling us we weren’t adding enough dirt or -”

“Adding too much dirt,” Jonah said.

“Or we weren’t watering them right,” Caleb grinned again. “Boys, you’re meant to give them a drink, not -”

“Fucking drown them,” Jonah joined in, and they both laughed.

Jonah glanced at Caleb. “I’m sorry, Caleb. I love you and enjoy spending time with you, and I’m sorry that my actions and my words didn’t convey that.”

Caleb shook his head. “Nah, that was just me throwing a temper tantrum like a little fucking kid. I know you love me, Jonah. I do.”

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