Authors: Mellie George
The
next morning, I woke up to the smell of coffee and warm scones. I felt so groggy.
I blinked my eyes a few times, adjusting to the light streaming in through the
window. It took me a minute to realize I was on one of the couches in the
living room, covered up by a soft tan fleece blanket. Why was I on the couch?
When my eyes scanned the room, I saw a pillow and crumpled blanket on the other
couch, and I remembered, Daisy and I decided to sleep down here. We had stayed
up most of the night talking and never went back upstairs. Slowly, I sat up,
and winced when I did. My arms and legs were stiff from lying in the same
position all night. I must be getting old. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw
Mama peek her head out of the kitchen. “Good mornin’, honey. I just made a
fresh pot of coffee, you want some?”
I smiled at
her, and yawned. “Sure, Mama, that sounds great,” I said, standing up and
walking toward the kitchen. “Where’s Dais?”
“When I came
down, she had just gone to the bathroom.”
“Oh, okay.
So, how did you sleep last night?”
“Just
wonderful, honey. I was surprised to find you and Daisy down here this
mornin’,” Mama said. “You two must have been up late.” She handed me a mug of
coffee that she had already poured for me.
“Yeah,
we both couldn’t sleep, so we ended up having some tea and just chatting all
night. It was nice,” I said. And it really was. Daisy sure was a lot
different than she was when I left, but it was fun getting to know her as an
adult. She was pretty awesome.
“That’s
so nice. So far you seem to be having a good time being back home,” Mama said,
a hopeful tone in her voice.
“Yeah,
I am,” I admitted reluctantly. “It is strange though, waking up here for the
first time in over a decade.”
“I
know what you mean. It took me a minute to remember that I had you here again
when I saw you sleeping on the couch. I thought I was having a really good
dream,” she said, sitting down across the table from me. I reached out and
placed my hand on hers. At that moment, Daddy and Daisy walked into the
kitchen.
“Mmm,
what smells amazing in here?” Daisy asked.
“That must be
your mother’s scones,” Daddy said, putting his arm around Daisy.
“Well,
you help yourself, darlin’, there’s plenty,” Mama said.
Daisy
sniffed the air. “Did you add something different to them?”
Mama
shook her head. “No, they are the same as they always are.”
“That’s
weird, they smell different to me. It’s probably because I haven’t woken up
here to that smell in a long time,” Daisy said. She put a hand on her
stomach. “Which, by the way, y’all got any antacids? I didn’t see any in the
downstairs bathroom.”
Daddy
squeezed her shoulder. “You okay, darlin’?”
“Oh
yeah, fine. My stomach was just a little flippy when I got up. Must have been
all the tea I drank last night.”
“There
should be some in the drawer next to the sink,” Mama answered.
Daddy
let go of Daisy’s shoulder and she walked to the drawer and started searching.
At that moment, Daddy walked over to me, hugged me around my shoulders, and
kissed the top of my head. “Good mornin’, sweetheart.”
I hugged him
back around the waist. “Good morning, Daddy.”
“You sleep
okay?” he asked, as he poured himself a cup of coffee.
“Yeah, it was
good. I’m a little stiff though. It’s been a while since I slept on a couch.”
He smiled at
me, and sat down next to me at the table. “Well, you know what will solve that
problem? Sleeping in a
bed
,” he laughed, and I playfully stuck my tongue
out at him.
“So, do you
girls have any plans today after you meet up with Violet?” Mama asked.
I
really didn’t want to tell Mama that I was meeting Luke after we had breakfast
with Violet; she might make a big thing out of it. Before I could think of
something to tell her, thankfully, Daisy interrupted. “Actually, Lilly, I was
wondering if you might be up for a little shopping. We both still have to get
Evan and Vi a wedding gift, and I haven’t even started on Christmas shopping
yet, so I thought we’d make one big day out of it,” she said, smiling. If I
had to give Daisy one thing, she could make up a good lie on the spot.
“Yeah,
sure, that sounds great, Dais.”
Mama
smiled. “Well, that sounds nice. That’s good you both will be out of the
house today anyway, because your Daddy and I were thinking of seeing a movie.
You know, going on a date,” she said. I looked at Daisy, and she had a wide
smile on her face.
“Aw, that’s so
cute that you two still do things like that,” I said. I hope it’s like this
for me when (and if) I ever get married.
“Well, no
matter how busy you are, you have to make time for the ones you love,” Daddy
said, kissing Mama’s hand. I felt a little pang of guilt.
“Speaking of
making time, you girls had better get dressed. You’re supposed to be at
Grady’s in thirty minutes,” Mama reminded us. With that, Daisy and I both
quickly got up and went upstairs, each of us kissing Mama and Daddy on the way
out of the kitchen. Once I was in my old room, I unzipped my suitcase to try
and find an outfit that I could wear. I was meeting Luke that afternoon, and I
didn’t know if I would be back home in enough time to change, so I had to wear
something cute that wouldn’t raise any suspicion from Violet. After looking at
everything I packed ten times, I decided on my favorite pair of jeans (they
made my butt look good), my brown leather pointed toe boots, and a cream cashmere
sweater that hung off one shoulder with a burgundy lace camisole underneath. I
quickly tucked my hair behind one ear and pulled it into a side ponytail. I
looked in the mirror. I was getting pretty good at throwing a cute outfit
together in a few minutes. I grabbed my bag and was heading out my bedroom
door, when I remembered suddenly that Luke was supposed to call me this
morning. I searched through my bag and found my cell phone, where I unread
text messages. I scrolled through them quickly, and saw several from Tara, and
two from Alejandro. None from Luke yet. As I read through Tara’s messages, I
rolled my eyes and sighed. They started off innocent enough, with her asking
how my flight went and if I made it home safely. The more recent ones were
angrier, with my favorite reading,
“If you don’t text me back soon, I will
fly there and murder you in your sleep.”
Alejandro’s messages were
definitely nicer, but they sounded like Tara had harassed him into texting me
as well. I decided to send one text message to both of them, letting them know
that I was okay and at the moment, on my way out to meet my sister. I quickly
typed,
“I made it home okay, calm down. I’m having breakfast
with my sisters this morning-on my way out the door right now. I’ll text when
I can, but I’m gonna be busy with the wedding, so don’t panic if I don’t get
back to you asap (Tara). Love you all, and I’ll talk to you soon!”
I hit send, and then
decided to check my phone to see if Luke had maybe called and I missed it. He
hadn’t yet. I felt a bit disappointed, but shook it off and tossed my phone
back into my bag as I walked downstairs.
Daisy was
already downstairs wearing her coat, and handed me mine. “You ready to go?”
she asked me.
“Yeah, let’s
do this,” I replied. We called our goodbyes to Mama and Daddy. Just then, I
heard my phone ping. I had a new text message. I sighed, reaching back into
my bag, expecting to have yet another crappy message from Tara. I looked at my
phone, and smiled brightly. It was from Luke. It read,
“Too early to call
yet?”
“Who’s that
from?” Daisy asked playfully, as we walked out the door. Yeah, like she didn’t
know.
“It’s from
Luke, obviously,” I answered.
“Well, it must
be good if you are smiling like that,” she said.
“Oh, Daisy,
it’s nothing. I told you he was supposed to call me this morning. He was just
wondering if I was up yet.”
“Hmm, eager,
isn’t he?” she said, her mouth curling into a smile on one side. I ignored
that comment. I am sure that he wasn’t eager, just keeping his word. “So, are
you going to text back?”
I put my
finger up as if to quiet her, and dialed his number. I didn’t want to text
him. As silly as it sounded, I already wanted to hear his voice. I saw Daisy
smile widely as we both got into her car. After two rings, he answered the
phone. “I guess not.”
If it were
possible, my smile got even wider. “Yeah, I was already up. Daisy and I are on
our way to Grady’s to meet Violet. You know, wedding stuff.”
“Well, sure. I’ll
bet she has a lot to catch you up on,” he said.
“Yay,” I
laughed. “I just hope the bridesmaid dresses aren’t horrid.”
“Lilly, you
could wear a paper bag and you would still look sexy,” he said, and then
nervously laughed. He seemed like he said that without thinking first.
Before I could respond, he
said, “So, we still on for lunch this afternoon?”
“Yes,
absolutely!” I said, with a little more enthusiasm than I meant to. “I mean, you
know, if something hasn’t come up and you aren’t busy or anything.” I heard
Daisy snicker from the driver’s seat, and she started the engine. I leaned
over and swatted her on the arm, which seemed to push her over the edge into a
full blown laugh. I could have sworn I heard her softly singing to herself,
‘Lilly and Luke sitting in a tree…’
“Well, I was
just heading to the hospital to check on Shawn, and then I’m free as a bird
after that.”
“Shawn?
Oh…yeah, your patient. You never mentioned his name before.”
“Oh, I thought
I did, sorry about that,” he replied.
“No worries.”
We both sat in silence for a moment. On the other end of the phone line, I
swear I could actually hear him smiling. “So, you’re still free this afternoon
then?”
“Uh, yeah.
Was there any place you wanted to meet?”
“To tell you
the truth, Luke, I actually hadn’t thought it through that far,” I admitted,
and we both laughed.
“Well, would
you be up for a drive? There is this amazing little Italian place a few miles
outside of Kingsland I tried one time, and I think you will love it.”
A drive to
Kingsland would have Luke and me alone in his car for almost an hour. I felt
my heart skip a beat. “Italian sounds great.”
“Okay,
awesome. Is eleven okay? That way we should make it there around noon,” he
said.
“Eleven works
for me.”
“Great, so
should I pick you up at your parent’s house then?”
Oh no. Mama
thought that I was going to be shopping with Daisy all afternoon. I really
didn’t want anyone to know I was going to lunch with Luke, especially Mama.
She was sure to get too excited about it. Or maybe, I was already nervous
enough about being around him, that I just didn’t need the added stress of my
mother beaming at us. “Uh…”
“Or, I could
just meet you at Grady’s once you are done there,” he suggested, obviously
sensing my hesitation.
“Sure, that
would be great,” I replied. We would obviously have to distract Violet
somehow, but I’m sure Daisy could help me with that. I shook my head just then,
thinking this was quickly becoming some sort of covert operation.
“So, you ready
to talk about centerpieces and dresses and wedding cake all morning?” Luke
asked me.
“Oh, yeah,
bring it on,” I joked.
“Don’t worry.
She’s not been a bridezilla or anything. At least, not around us guys anyway.”
“Well, I wouldn’t
know, I haven’t been here for any of the planning so far,” I said. At that
moment, we pulled up outside Grady’s Diner. Daisy parked in a spot close to
the front door, and shut off the engine. “We’re here already. Wow that was
fast.”
“Well, I’ll
let you go then. Have fun with your sisters,” he said.
“Thanks, I’m
sure I will. See you at eleven,” I replied.
“See you
then. Bye Lilly,” he said.
“Goodbye
Luke,” I answered, and then reluctantly hung up the phone. With a huge smile
still on my face, I took off my seatbelt, and got out of Daisy’s car.
“Eleven
o’clock, huh? Kind of early for lunch, don’t you think?” she asked me, eyeing
me speculatively. “The way you were blushing just now, I will be surprised if
you make it to the restaurant with your clothes still on,” she joked. Even
though I knew she was just teasing, for some completely unknown reason that
irritated me.