Page 25 of Paper Flowers (Stonebrook #1)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

DAYNA

Luke: Miss talking to you.

I have been avoiding Luke all weekend and getting that message right now from him just makes my heart skip a beat.

I wanted to give him space, but I only spent the entire weekend thinking of him.

This morning when I got to work there was a blueberry muffin on my desk.

Mrs. Emily said Sadie made them and they were so delicious.

I miss talking to you too.

I can’t stop thinking about him no matter how much I try to distract myself. I’m falling for him so fast but I know I’m going to be the one hurt.

Walking into the staff break room, I see Dean warming up his mug of coffee on the back corner.

“Hi, Dean.” He looks up from the microwave and walks towards me.

“Did he tell you about Sadie’s session?” I wasn’t aware Sadie had her first session already.

I feel terrible, I hope it was helpful for her.

“Actually no, I haven’t seen him today.” The microwave beeps and Dean gets his mug of coffee out.

He blows on it and sips it. “Did it go okay? Talking to Luke?” He doesn’t look at me when he says, “Are you asking if I was professional and kept my feelings to myself, yeah. It went okay. Not like I can tell you much, anyway.” Dean never shared anything before and I wouldn’t want him to start now.

I grab my lunch bag from the refrigerator and head back to my office leaving the break room to Dean.

It’s a little after 5 o’clock, I’ve been home for an hour before I decided to go for a run. I put on my running outfit and grab my headphones. Stonebrook isn’t that big of a town but I want to go a different route than my usual one.

My playlist consists of country music or 90s boy bands, there’s no in between.

I’ve been running for 30 minutes and I got lost in my own head and music when I realized I was on Luke’s street.

I see Luke outside with Sadie. He has his mitten in one hand and he’s wearing a t-shirt that fits like a second skin on him.

The joggers he has on, hugs him in all the right places.

Don’t get me started on his backwards baseball cap.

The two of them are playing catch and Sadie is wearing a princess dress with her own backwards baseball cap.

She spots me first and I wave, Luke turns his upper body towards me and his smile intensifies. “Miss Dayna, were you running? For Fun?” Sadie asks in a sassy tone. Closing the gap I respond with a laugh, “Yes, it helps me clear my head.”

“What is it that you have to clear?” She drops her mitten and walks to her water bottle on the wrap-around porch.

I close the gap between the three of us and I have a drink of water left in mine.

Luke notices my empty bottle and reaches for it.

“Hand it over, please.” He says as he is holding out his hand.

I give him my bottle and he jogs inside.

I walk up the porch steps and Sadie sits down with the book Cara got her.

“Do you have a bike?” She asks with curious eyes.

“As a matter of fact, I do. I just got one this summer.” She scrunches her eyebrows together and I see the same face Luke makes.

It’s almost comical if it wasn’t so cute.

He walks back through the front door and opens the screen door.

“I added ice as well, I hope you don’t mind.

” Luke hands back my newly refilled water bottle. “I don’t mind, thank you.”

When he closes the door behind him I get a smell of something amazing. My stomach makes the loudest rumble and I instantly regret eating my lunch for breakfast.

“I have meatloaf in the oven, it should be ready in a couple minutes. Would you like to stay for dinner?”

“That sounds really good but I think I’m okay.

Thanks.” My stomach makes an even louder rumble and I swear Luke’s neighbors can hear it.

“Please, stay?” I look down at my black sports bra and matching running shorts.

“I’m not dressed for dinner.” I tell him as I flip my small ponytail nervously.

He slowly raked his eyes over me and my nipples hardened against my sports bra.

“I have an extra sweater if you’re… cold? ” He said with a side grin on his face.

“And you said Sadie can be persuasive…” As I cross my arms at my chest. Luke lets out his gorgeous laugh and throws his head back.

“Alright, Sadie Girl, go wash your hands, Miss Dayna is going to join us for dinner.” Sadie goes to pick up her mitten from the front yard and tucks it underneath her arm.

She walks inside the house and runs upstairs to the bathroom.

Standing in their foyer, Luke retrieves a flannel shirt from the hall closet.

He hands it to me and I put my phone and water bottle down on the side table and slip my arms through it.

The flannel falls at my thighs as I adjust it to show my shorts.

The wave of emotions comes bursting in as I smell his scent over me.

I closed my eyes for a split second and when I opened my eyes, Luke’s eyebrow was slightly raised and my ears were burning.

Leaning in, he quietly whispers as he reaches to push the strand of hair behind my ear.

“It looks good on you.” He begins to button it from the bottom up leaving my sports bra exposed.

God— that felt so good but so wrong. My face is so warm, I take a sip of my ice water and his blue eyes gaze at my lips as I wipe my bottom lip with the back of my thumb .

“Luke, I—I didn’t mean to hurt your mother-in-law. Or anyone in your family for that matter.” Taking a step back putting some distance between this thing we’re doing.

“You didn’t do anything wrong, I should have been honest with them from the beginning. It’s my fault for any hurt feelings this weekend.” It’s just like Luke to always take accountability when he doesn’t have too. “Is that why you haven’t talked to me?”

“Yes.”

“I wish you didn’t have to feel like that.

” He pulls me into a hug and I just embrace it, He smooths the back of my head and I rub the small of his back.

“Things are so complicated. I want you to always talk to me. Can you do that for me?” I’d do anything for him at this point.

Damn, I sound so desperate. We pull apart as we hear tiny footsteps ascending towards us.

Sadie heads back down the stairs in a different outfit than her princess dress. Holding onto the end of the banister she asks, “Miss Dayna, can I show you my room?” I look at Luke and he waves his hand in an after you motion. Sadie grabs my hand and leads me upstairs to her room.

It’s the perfect little girl’s room that smells like vanilla and cotton candy.

The walls are painted pale pink with her bed in the center of the two large windows looking over the front yard.

Two nightstands on both sides of her bed.

There’s a large bookcase with trinkets and books.

She has a reading corner with a fluffy bean bag and I see the blanket Cara got her is already in use on her bed.

The art set I gave her is open and on her desk.

It looks like she’s in the middle of a drawing.

There is a hint of sport theme objects placed throughout her room.

Signed baseballs and a signed jersey by no other than David Ortiz himself. I’m in awe of that.

On the contrary to what Dean thinks, the Boston Red Sox is my favorite team. I never told him because it was too hard to talk about it. Even if he was my husband, I couldn’t get myself to talk about my grandpa with him. Dean bought me dozens of Dodger shirts and sweaters and I never wore them.

My grandparents are originally from Cambridge, Massachusetts before moving to Southern California.

Every summer, my grandpa would take me to Fenway Park but then he got sick and things progressed so fast. I didn’t get a chance to tell him goodbye.

The day he passed, Luke and Cara came over to my grandparents’ house after school to be with me.

That was the first time I held Luke’s hand.

It wasn’t anything more than him trying to comfort me.

I only wanted to be in one spot and it was sandwiched by the two of them in my grandpa’s closet.

The three of us sat on the floor underneath a row of shirts.

I leaned my head on Cara’s shoulder, held Luke’s hand and I cried.

After what seemed like hours later, my grandma found us.

Luke had reached up to grab a sweater and handed it to me.

Without looking, I knew I had wrapped myself in my grandpa’s favorite baseball sweater.

She took one look at me and knew the sweater belonged to me.

Knowing how much baseball meant to my grandpa and I, she said he would have wanted me to have his sweater. So I’ve held onto it all these years.

What catches my breath is the family portrait above Sadie’s bed.

It looks like the most recent photo they have.

Possibly their last. Luke’s blue eyes are soft around the edges and Sadie is missing a tooth that has since grown in.

Juliette looks absolutely stunning. Sadie breaks my concentration and says something about flowers.

“I’m sorry, what was it that you said?”

“I wanted to show you something over here, look.” She points to the other nightstand, and she has the first couple paper flowers I made her, even the one from Alfredo’s pizza . It held up for being a napkin.

“Awe— Sadie, that’s so sweet. I’m so glad you really like them.”

“They make me happy, and sometimes, I’m not always happy.” Her little voice trails off.

At that moment, I see Luke is leaning against the doorframe. His eyebrows furrowed at his daughter’s words with his arms crossed at his chest and his legs crossed at his ankles. With Sadie’s back to Luke, I see that she wants to say something.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I ask cautiously.

“Do you know anyone who has died? ”