Page 8 of Dear Ripley

“How was the flight, kiddo?” Dad asked, pulling me in close.

“Good, yeah. Fine.” I fought the urge to chew my lip, to reveal how truly terrified I was. He stepped back and looked at me like he knew anyway.

Joel snorted. “Sure it was. I might have only been eleven when you and Ripley split up, but that means I’ve spent almost half my life with you avoiding her. Sure you had a great time flying back to her.”

The three of us froze like the air had been sucked from the room. Evidently, my parents had been planning to avoid directly addressing the Ripley issue, at least for the time being. Joel always had been a dive-in head-first kind of person, though.

He looked at the three of us expectantly, shaking his head when nobody spoke. He balled up the sign he’d been holding and tossed it at me. “Relax, would you? We all know what’s going on. Might as well address it rather than pretending it’s not happening.”

“I see tact’s not one of the things you’re learning in college,” I said, working hard to make my voice lighter than I felt.

He rolled his eyes. “That’s what you went to school for, is it?Tact?”

“No, actually. I learned that growing up. But it looks like you were dragged up with no manners. Who was raising you?”

He laughed. “Yeah, no idea. These two randoms who had no idea what they were doing. No other kids, you know? Just good Samaritans, doing the best they could.”

I nodded sombrely, grateful the tension had mostly dissipated. “An honorable intention, if a little faulty in the execution.”

“Hey!” Mom protested at the same time Dad said, “Knock it off.”

Joel and I both laughed, pulling them into a family hug.

“Just kidding,” I said sincerely. “You did a really great job.”

“With both of us,” Joel added.

“Better,” Dad said, stepping back. “Well, best be getting back. I’m sure Alicia’s just dying to run into Ripley.”

“Dad!” I yelped, feeling betrayed.

He shrugged, walking backwards towards baggage claim, as he shot me a grin. “That’s what you get if you play dirty games, kid.”

“Absolutely unbelievable,” I muttered, falling into line between my mom and Joel as they followed after him. And it was, but it also felt nice. The panic was still there, Ripley was still a specter looming over the next… however long I was here, but at least we’d said her name. We all knew what was going on. We always had, but at least we talked about it.

As they flanked me through the airport, a tiny part of me started to believe I’d make it through seeing Ripley because I wouldn’t be alone. And I had the best family in my corner with me.

Chapter 4

Ripley

Thursday had bad vibes. I couldn’t put my finger on why, but, from the minute I’d woken up to the overcast day, I just knew it. The sense that something was wrong—or about to go wrong—was in my bones.

Being a florist, I was a total spring person, which meant I loved the sun but also had an appreciation for rain. Overcast days didn’t bother me, but something about this one was different.

It had been days since Freddie had burst into Petal and Pebble to tell me Harlow and Alicia were coming back to Jackson Point. For the first twenty-four hours, I’d been convinced it was the end of the world as I knew it—and wasn’t it always that way with Alicia? Falling in love with her was the end of life as I knew it, marrying her was the end of life as I knew it, and divorcing her was the very worst end of life as I knew it. But, so far, I’d seen neither hide nor hair of either of them. Part of me was wondering whether they might not actually come, that maybe Harlow would change her mind on where she wanted to raise her child, and I’d continue living life without them. But, of course, it wasn’t that easy.

When I arrived at the store, Edith Merrington was already waiting for me, and that was a terrible sign. I was a florist with very regular hours. It was not the kind of business people were banging the doors down on before opening.

I cleared my throat around the knot of panic rising in my chest and forced a smile. “Morning, Edith. What can I do for you?”

She smiled warmly and excitedly as she watched me unlock the door. I was fairly certain that Harlow and Alicia had moved to big cities after leaving Jackson Point, the kinds of cities where you needed more security, and where you’d never let a customer accost you and watch you opening up. But perhaps that was just conjecture. I’d visited other places—lots of them—but I’d never had a business anywhere else, never actually lived anywhere else, and who stole from a florist they’d known since she was in diapers? It was just a different world.

My face crumpled as I disarmed the security system and realized there was little I’d thought about in the last few days that didn’t come back to Alicia and what her life was like. It wasn’t healthy.

I turned to look back at Edith, who had followed me into the store but hadn’t said a word.

She smiled widely. “I need something big, beautiful, celebratory. Probably soft colors?”

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