Page 35 of Look My Way
“Only flowers?” He stands beside me, his arm rubbing against mine.
“No. Not those either. It’s never been a big deal, though. I prefer to get plants that won’t die in a matter of days anyway. “
“You mean like your vegetables and fruit?” The wheels look like they’re turning a mile a minute in his head.
“Yeah. Exactly. But if you specifically see a lemon tree at your next victim’s house, I wouldn’t push it away if you showed up at my door with it.” I wiggle my brows. That’s another thing, a killerwouldn’t admit out loud that he was one. Not even in a joking tone. And at a house where a cop sleeps no less.
“Noted.” One side of his mouth turns up. “But why a lemon tree specifically?”
“I’ve been looking for one for a while and can never find one here.”
“Do they really grow lemons?”
I tug at the front of my hair, snorting. “Maybe one if I’m lucky. I think they have pretty leaves. They’re yellow, bright—”
“And add color like your stones. Got it.” The right side of his lips lifts to match the left, and he sweeps my hair out of my eyes after my second attempt gets me nowhere.
“Yeah, you’re getting it,” I say almost breathlessly. “We should go if we want to get good parking.” Pushing myself away from the counter, I walk around him and slip on my shoes.
“I’m ready when you are. We can take my truck. You never know if we’ll spot certain trees we might need room for.”
I breathe out a laugh and roll my eyes. “Yeah. It can’t hurt anything.”
“No. It can’t.” He moves closer, fingering my shirt collar. “This is a nice color on you.”
“Thanks.” I blush, ducking my head.
His fingers reach under my chin, and he forces my eyes to meet his.
“De nada, carino.”
My throat tickles. “De nada is ‘you’re welcome,’ right?
“Si. And carino means ‘darling’ or ‘sweetheart.’”
“I knew that too.” I tug on my bottom lip with my teeth, and he brushes a thumb over where they pierce my skin.
“You’re bleeding. Do you not like when I call you that?”
“I . . . I don’t know.”
“I think you do. I know it’s not always easy for you to say how you feel about something outright. If you don’t want me to callyou that anymore, blink your eyes twice. It’s okay if you don’t like it. You’re allowed not to like things.”
Warmth fills my chest, and I open my eyes wider, not blinking once. My eyes water and he laughs, wiping at the corners. “Good. Let’s go.”
“Okay.”
“Okay,” he says back, grinning, and then offers me his arm. I link mine in his, and when it’s time to separate to get in the car, I immediately miss the stability it offered. He gets into the car first and I slide in beside him in the passenger seat, leaning more his way the further we drive away from the house. After going through the fourth stop light, I’m leaning on him again, and I really feel like I could do anything. Because I can.
“Even Daddy says so.” The words surface in my mind before I can stop them, and I repeat the one that felt the best to think.
Daddy.
I suck my teeth, closing my eyes as I sink my nails into the palm of my hands. Why did I have to give him those books? Why did I have to show him what I like watching when I’m alone in my office at night and I’m feeling rejected by my fiancé?
So far, he hasn’t discouraged me from wanting anything, but what if that’s where he draws the line? What if he’s like Daniel and only agreeable to certain things, mentioning it loudly when he doesn’t so I’ll pay attention to everything he hates about me.
“Doing okay over there?” He squeezes my hand, unbuckling his seat belt, and that’s when I realize we’re downtown. At some point while I was caught in my head, he managed to get us here, find a parking space, and study me long enough to spot something was wrong.
