Page 52 of Kylo
“I can be an extra set of hands. I know I won’t be as good as you, but I can help.”
She sniffed hard again. When she spoke, her voice was tiny. “Okay.”
“Okay. Point me to the dirt.”
“In the seedling greenhouse. There’s a pile in the back. And there are plastic planters. I need planters.”
Her voice broke on that, likely thinking about Traeger and all his hard work.
“Hey, shit happens. Traeger won’t be mad.”
“No,” she agreed, nodding. “No, he won’t be mad. But this was so much work.” And, I imagined, money.
“Well, for the time being, you can just sell them in their plastic planters. Eventually, Traeger can get more stock going. It’s all going to be okay,” I told her, leaning down to press my forehead to the top of her head, willing her to believe it. Because I meant it. Whatever happened, I was going to make sure Rue was okay.
“Yeah,” she agreed, but didn’t sound remotely convinced. “I’ll be right back. You sweep,” I said, figuring she needed an outlet.
“Right. Yeah. Okay.”
When I made my way out, she was reaching for the broom. By the time I came back with four bags of potting soil, she hadmost of the pottery and dirt in the trash and all the poor plants spread across the table.
She was just placing the broom against the wall when I noticed a shadow darkening her wrist. Like she’d been grabbed, maybe dragged.
I hadn’t seen that happen. But maybe it happened when Marco had moved inside the shop but before they got to the door.
My gut twisted, and I had to fight the urge to turn around, get back to my car, chase down Marco, and put a bullet between his fucking eyes.
Instead, I took a deep breath and gently placed down the bags.
“Alright. Show me what to do,” I demanded.
We fell into a rhythm then, moving from one plant to the next. After the first three, Rue stopped inspecting my plants, which felt like a win.
It took the better part of two hours, and by the time we were done, there was dirt caked under my nails and an ache between my shoulder blades from leaning over the table.
It wasn’t until we were fully done that Rue’s head lifted, and I got a full view of her face for the first time since she’d burst into tears.
She looked rough.
Her cheeks were raw from her tears. Her eyelids were puffy, the whites of her eyes red.
“You know what I think?”
“What?”
“I think you should come back to my place, we order some pizza or Chinese, and we unwind for a bit. I don’t think you should be alone. At least for a little bit.”
“You don’t have to—”
“If I want to?” I cut her off.
“Then… I could go for Chinese.”
“Okay. Let’s wash up then you can follow me to my place. You can check on my plant care while you’re there.”
With that, I helped her get a reluctant Ernest into her backseat, then ran down the road to my borrowed car, quickly throwing all evidence of my spying into the glovebox, then driving to the lot and leading her back to my neighborhood.
Just as I cut the engine, a text came through from Huck.
