Page 13
Chapter 12
Boom
Sydney
I open my eyes and realize I passed out and it’s dark outside, but Mom left a little nightlight on.
I brush my lips across Lily’s forehead. She feels warm but not like she was before when her fever broke.
I reach for my phone and see a bunch of messages. I hit the girls’ group chat.
Mags
Ommrgerd, I just heard you’re dating BDB—and you get more Lily time! I’m totally here for this dream team.
Riley
You’re forgetting Miss Bossy is part of the team. And right now she’s here and high AF.
Lo
Riley’s jealous that Bossy gets to party, and she’s on the wagon for like ever. I’m loving this vibe. Syd and Ry , you two are setting the bar sky high for love and family!
Izzy
I can already picture all the bedtime stories and afternoon tea parties, and when she’s in bed, you and Bonne can play adult games, like hide the salami.
Mags
Strip poker.
Riley
What the hell do you two know about hiding salami?
I shoot a text of my own … to Boone.
Me
I’m going to kill you!
Shit, shit, shit , I grumble, realizing threatening death to someone who’s … Lindsey is in the hospital, fighting for her life. This a relatively poor choice. I edit my text, hoping he won’t have seen the original version.
Me
I am going to knee you in the junk!
Boone
Lily awake?
Me
How did you even know she was asleep?
Boone
Ms. Molly. She sent the cutest pic of my girls snuggled up together before she left.
My body goes rigid as I carefully slide out of bed, careful not to wake Lily.
I get a text from the girls and ignore it as I shoot Mom a message.
Me
Did you send Boone a picture of me and Lily sleeping?
Mom
Depends.
Me
On what?!?
Mom
How mad you’ll be.
Me
I need you planted solidly on the team Sydney sidelines.
Mom
I am, sweetheart, one hundred percent.
Another text from Boone comes in.
Boone
Look out your window.
I text back, no, as I move into the spare bedroom, peek out of the window, and see Boone standing in the middle of the road.
I open the window. “What is wrong with you? Get out of the road.”
“Probably should have waited until I had a boombox to make a John Cusack Say Anything grand gesture, huh, Cupcake?”
“Get out of the road,” I snip at him.
“Gonna change the song when I do. You like country music? I’m thinking ‘Wanted’ by Hunter Hayes.”
“That’s Harper and Maddox’s song.”
“Thought he was rock and roll?” He holds up devil horns and sticks out his tongue.
Flustered by all he is, I wave him off. “It doesn’t matter, anyway. Would you get out of the road, please?”
“Even pissed, you’re all sweet as pie.”
“Oh my God, get out of the road,” I plead.
“You have your phone?”
I nod.
“I’m going to call you, Sydney Sparks.”
I watch as he walks to his truck, and my phone rings.
I answer with, “I’m mad at you.”
“Let’s circle back to that in a bit, you with me?”
“Whaaaaat?” I grip the back of my neck and squeeze
“Lovey and Cakey.” He holds them up in one of his giant hands while he holds the phone with his ear to his shoulder and pulls a bag out, too. “Her favorite footies, which she calls her New York jammies, her hairbrush that doesn’t hurt when you brush, her vitamins, a couple of little outfits, underclothes, and socks. The girl loves her socks.” He exhales. “I miss my girl, Syd.”
“Well, I assure you you’re not missing much right now.” I hit FaceTime as I walk back to my bedroom, and he answers immediately. I turn the camera so it shows her sleeping in the middle of my bed. “She’s okay. Doing good. Gonna make sure she stays hydrated and eats when she feels up to it.” I turn the camera back around. “And you’ve gotta promise me something.”
He looks me over as he wets his lips. “Anything.”
“Stop telling people we’re a couple.”
“Shit, did you break up with me already?” he asks, eyes full of amusement.
“We were?—”
“Are you a rule follower? Like a game plan?”
“I mean, of course, but what?—”
“I like rules and a plan too, so if I may have the honor of making the first entry in our rule book, I?—”
“Beau—”
“Rule number one, any talk about the future of us is done face-to-face. I come with a few scars, and I need that, you with me?”
Gaw !
Frustrated as all get-out, I ask, “Why do you keep saying that?”
“Saying what?” he asks.
“ You with me ?” I imitate him.
“Gotta make sure you and I are always on the same playing field. Gotta be that way.”
“Then we need to talk soon.” I pause then throw in, “You with me?”
“I’m with you, Cupcake.” His voice gets thicker, deeper, and as if giving a confession, he says, “We’ve been on the same team since day one, and you and I both know that.” He pauses and then … “Fuck, I’m getting a call from the hospital?—”
“Take it.”
“You gonna let me call later and talk to Lily?” he asks.
“Of course I am.”
“Shit, yeah, of course. Um, I gotta?—”
“Take the call then call me back if you need to. I’m here,” I assure him.
“Gonna be my queen, Sydney Sparks.”
I feel like I’m on a rollercoaster, and I have never enjoyed them much. I sit down in the chair in the corner of my room and watch Lily sleep. It’s calming … until I get another text.
Boone
Bags are inside the back door. Remington gave me the code.
I push up out of the chair, make my way down two floors, and see the adorable patchwork pink quilted bag with Lovey and Cakey placed on top of the bag, and beside them, two bouquets of flowers wrapped in brown paper.
I squat down and hug my knees to get a closer look, but for some reason, I’m not ready to touch them. The lilies are beautiful, pink, and easy to understand. The other bouquet, I have no idea what they are. They’re a winter white, not blinding, but soft and a whisper of ivory, shaped like plumes with a graceful arch, a slender stem, with cloud-like blossoms covering them. There’s something whimsical and dreamlike about them.
I brush my fingertip over a blossom, and they feel soft like silk. The scent is a faint, barely-there fragrance, unless cool and crisp had a scent, then it would be those. There’s something about their elegance and beauty.
I pull my phone out and take a picture. Then I run an image search, and then search Winter White Astilbe’s lore.
Perfect choice for someone who embodies quiet elegance, unwavering love, and a heart full of warmth, even in the coldest of seasons.
And another reads, “ The astilbe floweris also known as false spirea, false goat’s beard, or feather flower, and they are said to have the meaning ‘I will be waiting for you’ or ‘I’ll still be waiting,’ symbolizing patience and dedication to a loved one. ’
I pick up the duffle, place it in a crossbody position, and hold the bouquets of flowers in my arms as I head up the stairs.
I kick the door closed behind me and place everything on the counter, where I notice a Crockpot full of something that smells suspiciously like Molly Ross Sparks’ famous chicken noodle soup. It’s more stew-like, which makes it so much better. But right now, I’m not feeling food. I’m feeling … flowers.
My phone rings, and I see Riley’s name and hit accept . “I’m not talking about Boone.”
“Bzzzzz, wrong answer. I need to know how Lily is, and she’s a Boone.”
“We,” I hear Hudson in the background. “We need to know how Lily is.”
“Lily is as sweet as ever and currently asleep in my bed.”
“She have her training panties on?” Riley asks.
“She doesn’t, but what’s the worst thing that can happen? She pees the bed, and I have to change the sheets.”
“Or get a new mattress.” Riley snort laughs.
That wouldn’t be that bad of an idea. Although the mattress is mine, it was in my old place with my ex.
“Oh my God, you haven’t replaced that thing, have you?” Riley gasps.
“Why are you in my freaking head?”
“Look, I can’t tell Lily a story tonight, so I thought I’d share one with you.”
“Do you have a fever?” I ask. “Because you’re acting?—”
“That night that Hudson kicked me out of his house when he found out the secret I was keeping,” she starts.
“You needed some time with your thoughts,” Hudson says in the background, and I then hear a thwack and an “ Oof ! and then Hudson chuckles.
Riley continues, “I’m not going to say any names, but the man who drove me home said if he had a hot piece of ass who’d given me her heart, he wouldn’t mind the thirty-minute drive into class every day.”
“He said what?” Hudson snarls, but she continues without missing a beat.
“I informed him that I love my girl time as much as he loves his golf and that I prefer the bed to myself at night so that I don’t get stuck with the wet spot.”
“Jesus, Riley.” I laugh in surprise, which makes no sense because that is really not surprising coming from Riley.
“My driver made a joke. I whacked him in the gut and told him he was no better than any asshole out there, and his ‘I’m a girl dad’ BS was just that. A real girl dad is a man like Cory Sparks. His response was a faraway smile as he said, ‘He’s got one hell of a girl, too.’ I called him a dipshit and asked how he would feel one day if Lily gets her heart crushed and some shit-hot football player tells her she’s got the kind of face any man would dream of falling to sleep looking at, that her body is sexy as fuck, and what else was it? The ultimate stepmom?”
“You didn’t!” I gasp, feeling betrayed by her telling him what I’d told her in confidence.
She continues, “He told me those were facts, and I informed him I could see how an idiot would think that, but an asshole would kiss her.”
I palm my face, because I can’t believe she outed me like that.
“My driver informed me that it was supposed to be a quick peck, and that he didn’t know she tastes like sugar. You know I called him a moron for that, too, because hello … what is wrong with boys?” she huffs, and I fold over my counter , placing my cheek on the cool counter and groan. “He then told me if Lily’s mom weren’t getting her shit together, that Sydney Sparks would be in for a world of hurt, but in a good way. I told him to leave you alone and let you heal. He responded with a whisper, ‘She’s going to make the right guy the happiest man in Blue Valley.’ He sighed and then said ‘But enough about sugar tits.’”
“He did not say that,” I groan.
“My point? He freaking adores you, calls you Cupcake to your face, sugar tits behind your back, and basically every free moment he has, he’s sitting at your shop, so I’m going to tell you, Sydney Sparks, to grab the bull by the horns and suck all that love he’s dying to give to you up, or cut that leash now.”
“I do not have him on a leash,” I defend myself.
“Syd, babe, you do,” Hart says. “Not gonna lie and instead say I’m so stoked and rooting for two of my favorite people to get their happy beginning.”
“It’s ending,” I correct him.
“Like hell it is, and anyone who sells that shit is pushing the wrong drug. I want the beginning, the now, until the very end.”
I set out all of Lily’s things on the island so that when she wakes up, she can pick out what pajamas she wants to wear. I then send a text, asking for coverage tomorrow and possibly Friday, and within just a few minutes, I am approved for both.
As I am about to get things out to make Mom’s recipe for homemade electrolyte, my phone rings, and as I reach over to hit accept , I see it’s a FaceTime call from Beau Boone.
I hit accept and see he in his vehicle and in what appears to be a parking garage.
“Am I playing offense or defense, Coach?”
“That’s up to you, player, but before we get into all that, tell me: does Lily like orange or lemon better? I’m going to whip up some electrolyte drink for her and want her to like it.”
“Just whip her up some Pedialyte?” He smiles a gentle, tired smile.
“Our grandparents were making all the stuff they sell now in their kitchen without preservatives and additives so they could sit on a shelf.”
“Convenience comes at a cost, I suppose.”
“We got lazy.” I shrug.
“Overworked.” He nods.
I rest my elbows on the counter and set my chin on my clasped fingers. “ Sixteen ounces of water, three tablespoons of lemon juice, an eighth teaspoon of unrefined salt, and two tablespoons of honey. The orange is the same water and salt, one teaspoon of honey, and one cup of orange juice.”
“Guessing she’ll like the orange better.”
“Sweeter,” I agree.
“I appreciate the hell out of this, Sydney.”
“Sydney? Not Cupcake or sugar tits?” I ask, opening a bottle of water and pouring about half a cup into a glass.
He scrubs a hand over his face, trying to hide a smirk.
I arch a brow as I dump the rest of the ingredients in the bottle using a funnel so as not to spill any then put the top back on the water bottle and shake it up.
“And just like that, you made a five-dollar sports drink with things you have lying around in your kitchen, which is cute as fuck, might I add, just like you.”
“Flattery will get you everywhere, Boone.” I smirk as I grab three quart-sized jars and set to mix up a batch of lemon, which I prefer, and two batches of the orange to put in the fridge for later.
“I like your glassware. Looks a lot like home.”
“Let me guess, your sweet-tea-sippin’-out-of-Mason-jars, sitting-on-the-porch kind of guy when you’re back home during the off-season.”
“Part of that’s right. Willowridge isn’t the only place that feels like home now. I can’t imagine a Christmas without snow or not being on the lake for the Fourth of July outside of Blue Valley.”
“Lily’s gonna love the fourth.” I smile as I continue mixing ingredients. When he doesn’t say anything, I look to where I have my phone propped up and see his head is somewhere else. “Where you at, Boone?”
“Hospital. I’m gonna try to get some info on some shit I have rattling around in my head, and then see if I can’t talk some sense into her brother, Mitchell, who they said was here. Kind of hoping Lily wakes up so she can say prayers with Lindsey before all that shit happens tomorrow.”
“Beau, you do know that if she can’t breathe on her own right now, they will put it back in, right?”
“Yeah, but …” He shakes his head. “Her family … Fuck, Syd, they just ain’t right, you know?”
“I got a good sense of that, yes.”
“Fuck.” He smashes his eyes shut. “There are a million things going on. Shit about your ex I haven’t even told you, and the tires, her mental health, and?—”
“Beau,” I say, trying to remain calm, and he looks at the screen. “You with me?”
His lips curve up in the corner. “Yeah, Sugar Tits, I’m with you.”
“You’ll get a free pass for that right now, but probably not again.”
“Understood.” He smiles softly.
“You can only play one play at a time. You’re being so strong for Lindsey and Lily. Keep doing that.”
“I miss my kid. When I leave here tomorrow, I don’t give a shit if she’s sick. I’ll come grab her so you can go to work.”
“I already called out for the next two days.”
“You’re the best, you know that?”