Page 93 of Dead Love

She let out a small sigh. “I’d rather you not sneak out without me.”

We were both quiet for a long time, the trees whooshing to the sides as we drove. We parked in our usual spot, then walked to the trail. She cautiously scanned the area.

“I heard they’re in that grove,” I said, pointing beyond her. “You check there, and I’ll check the meadow?” I silently hoped she would give me as much freedom as she had been lately.

“All right,” she said, her voice hesitant. “Don’t talk to anyone you don’t know.”

The air was chilly, nipping at my bare neck. I wrapped my arms around myself, making my way toward the flower field. The bright petals shimmered in the light, and in the middle of that rainbow, the sunny daffodils sprouted up. There had only been one stem before, but now, there were more than I could count. I kneeled down, touching their stems, brushing my fingers along their petals. Even when we weren’t together, he called to me through things like this.

A shadow appeared to the side, the presence like a magnet pulling at my skin. My cheeks flushed: Vincent stood between the trees, his eyes locked on mine. We stayed there for a while, both of us staring at each other, coming back to this place where we had once met. Knowing our memory lingered here.

“Kora!” Shea shouted. Vincent and I both startled. “I found a Middlemist Red. Come look!”

I turned back to Vincent, and he motioned in her direction. I got to my feet. “Coming,” I said. I had to. If I didn’t, she might find Vincent.

Deep green vines stretched across the path, the red flowers reaching around like a kaleidoscope. My heart skipped a beat. The Middlemist Red camellia. How long had it been here?

“I checked this place before,” Shea said. “Last time we were here. And there was nothing.” We both stared in awe. She shifted her weight. “Is it the mountain’s soil?”

I turned back to see if Vincent was there, wanting to share this small moment of beauty. But the path was empty.

“I don’t know,” I said.

CHAPTER30

Vincent

A few dayspassed in a blur of routine. When we finally had a day with no services scheduled, Catie asked for the time off, and since Lee was working remotely, that left me to manage the funeral home. Luckily, we rarely had walk-ins. I could hide in my office.

The entrance doors to the funeral home opened, the air pressure changed in my office. I finished the line in the spreadsheet, then leaned my ear toward the corridor.

“Vincent?” Kora asked, her voice wispy and full of trepidation. My jaw ticked, my body immediately going rigid. What was she doing here?

She awkwardly held a giant vase in her hands, full of pink, white, and yellow flowers, some in bloom and others still buds. “Where do I put this?” she asked.

I grabbed it from her, refusing to acknowledge the shiver that ran through her body when my hands skimmed hers. I put the vase into the empty viewing room in the back.

“For the Jeffersons tomorrow?” I asked.

“I think so.”

I tilted my head. She didn’t know?

“Well,” I said, gesturing toward the door. “Your family must be waiting.”

“You want me to leave?”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “What do you want, Kora?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re still here,” I gestured between us, “wasting my time.”

“I came to drop off the bouquet.”

“And you have.” I crossed my arms. “Now, you can leave.”

Her bottom lip quivered. She wanted to say something, but I didn’t want to hear it. Didn’t want to think about what it would mean if she said those words I longed to hear. Because I had saved her life, and she had saved mine. We were even. There was nothing more to say.