“Noted. I’ll remember that when I inevitably fuck up and need to send you apology flowers.”
Kalli let out a sharp laugh. “You don’t have to send me flowers ever again, babe. I think you hit your flowers quota for life.” She gave another laugh and then thumbed her phone again. I was left completely confused.
“What do you mean? I haven’t sent you that many flowers. Just a few times when you wouldn’t talk to me after what happened at Lego Land.”
“What about all those flowers you sent to my house after Marcus died?”
All the coherent thoughts tumbled out of my head at the same time—it was completely empty. I had no idea how to respond. Someone had obviously sent her flowers and for whatever reason, she assumed they were from me.
“Kalli, I’m sorry, but I didn’t send you those. After Marcus died, you told me to go away, to leave you alone, so that’s what I did. Looking back, I wish I had sent you some flowers, but it wasn’t me.” I turned and looked at her and then reached my hand out for hers when I saw the expression on her face. It was a mixture of confusion and fear.
“The neighbor lady who lives across the street said flowers came every week.”
Whoa. That was a lot of flowers. Who would send someone flowers once a week? And how could she have no idea who sent them? “Didn’t they come with cards or anything?”
“Yeah,” she breathed, her voice faint as her hand coming up to cover her mouth with spread fingers. “The lady across the street handed me a stack of cards, but I assumed they were from you and I didn’t open them.” She looked over at me. “That was before I moved to LA. I was still in so much pain, I didn’t want to hurt anymore, so I didn’t read them. I knew it would wreck me.”
“Babe, I’m sorry, but they weren’t from me. I’d tell you if they were.”
“Then who sent me flowers once a week for months? Riot, I’m a little creeped out.”
I could feel her trembling and I had no words to calm her. Honestly, I agreed it was a little weird, but I wasn’t about to let anything happen to Kalli. I didn’t care who sent her those flowers, they wouldn’t be getting anywhere near her without facing me first.
Chapter Sixteen
Devastation
Kalli
I’d tried not to panic in the car, tried to let the way Riot’s thumb was rubbing softly against the back of my hand soothe me. I forced myself to take in deep breaths and let them out slowly. I closed my eyes and listened to the way the tires crackled against the pavement of the highway. All of that only went so far to calm me down. I kept picturing bouquets of flowers sitting on my doorstep with cryptic messages, someone lurking in the darkness between houses, watching my house, waiting for me to come home and receive them.
The more I thought about it, however, the more I convinced myself that whoever was sending the flowers hadn’t actually been watching me or my house. Otherwise they would have known I wasn’t there and that my neighbor was the one taking the flowers. If the intention was to make me uncomfortable, they hadn’t succeeded—until now.
We’d had such a wonderful holiday getaway, aside from my panic attack. But even that brought on a sort of cathartic release in a way. I’d been forced to let my closest friends see what I was dealing with, and in some strange way, it made dealing with it easier. Riot and I were closer than ever, and a three-day drive down the west coast had been absolutely perfect until I brought up flowers. Stupid flowers.
Finally, Riot parked at my apartment, shut the car off, and turned toward me. “You’ve got the cards from the flowers in there, right?” I nodded. “Okay, I’d like to read them first. I don’t want you panicking about it, no matter who they’re from.”
I thought his concern was sweet, and I loved him even more for wanting to spare me from any more grief, but not looking at the cards would drive me crazy.
“How about we look at them together? I don’t think I’ll be able to sit by and let you take care of it.”
“Okay, but if you start to get upset I’m taking them away.”
“All right.” Relationships were about compromise, right? I knew he was only trying to protect me. I couldn’t fault him for that.
He held my hand all the way up to my door then insisted on opening it himself. He followed me back to the bedroom area of my studio apartment and I went straight to my jewelry box. Where else would a girl keep a stack of notes she thought were from the love of her life? My neighbor had placed a rubber band around the stack of cards, and when I pulled it off I noticed my hands were trembling. I sat down on the edge of my bed, Riot taking a seat so close our thighs were touching, and I pulled the top card off the stack.
I flipped it over and ripped open the seal, sliding the tiny card out, holding my breath all the while.