Page 58 of The Scars I Bare
I’d never seen her in anything beyond scrubs and shorts. Granted, this woman could wear a paper bag and be the hottest woman in the room. Tonight though, she’d dressed up, wearing a short, strappy number with tiny pink flowers dotting the fabric.
“Insane is really good,” I clarified.
Her cheeks reddened even more. The shade of them was now quite possibly my new favorite color.
“You two gonna stand there, ogling each other all night, or are you gonna invite the boy in?”
My eyes widened as I recognized the voice inside. “Is that Terri?”
She nodded. “Molly insisted on making dinner from scratch tonight, and Terri stuck around to make sure I wouldn’t ruin it.”
I laughed. “How very Terri of her.”
She motioned for me to come in, and as I crossed the threshold, she leaned in toward me, the smell of her hair instantly hitting me. “How do I get rid of her?” she whispered.
Smiling, I whispered back, “I have no idea. She’s never been overly fond of me. I tend to just duck out when she’s around.”
“I might be old, Dean Sutherland, but I can still hear you jabbering on in there.”
“Come on,” she said, as both of us tried not to laugh. “Before she scolds us.”
She took my hand just then, pulling me behind her. It was such an innocent gesture but felt monumental for so many reasons. It was only the second time she’d willingly touched me, and unlike so many others who shied away from it, she’d grabbed my right hand—boldly, unapologetically, and without hesitation.
I missed feeling the warmth of her skin under mine as she held onto my prosthetic hand, but the gesture sent reverberations through my whole body, and it took the entire walk to the kitchen for me to process it.
“Nice flowers,” Terri said, glancing in my direction as she grabbed her purse from the counter. “They for me?”
I looked down at the pathetic excuse for flowers I’d brought with me, the ones I held in my left hand.
Was that why she’d grabbed my right hand? Maybe it hadn’t been on purpose? Maybe she hadn’t realized it?
“Um, no,” I said, fumbling for words. But then I looked into Cora’s eyes, and for a single moment, everything disappeared.
“What do you do when you have a crush on a girl? You bring her flowers.”
“They’re for Cora,” I said softly.
Terri gave me a quick wink before heading for the door. “You kids have fun. Everything is ready, and there are rolls in the oven.”
“Thank you, Terri. This is more than I could have asked for.”
“Ah, well, I don’t get to cook for a family much. Henry, my husband, owns a restaurant in town, so we mostly eat there. And, before that, when I was single, I was cooking for one. So, this is nice.”
“…cook for a family…”
I knew she’d said it on purpose. I didn’t know Terri as well as Molly and Jake did, but I knew one thing about the old broad. She didn’t say anything by accident. The thought stuck in my mind after she let herself out, so much so that I didn’t hear Lizzie ask about the flowers until she came bursting into the kitchen.
“Flowers again?”
“What? Oh, uh, actually, these are for your mom,” I said. “Maybe you can put them next to yours?”
She made a sour face. “But then they’ll be in my room, so technically, they’d be mine. I’ll let her keep them.”
I smiled. “Seems fair. So, how’d your first day go?”
Cora made a chuckle, taking the flowers from my hand, and then she looked around for a vase. Clearly, I’d asked the wrong question because, suddenly, I was reliving the day in vivid details only Lizzie could provide.
“Ms. Haley took my crayons.”
