by Ava Miles
“Oh, Sadie,” Shelby said. “I hadn’t really thought about it that way, but I feel the same about the whole daddy stuff.”
J.P. and Susannah nodded as well, and Paige gave a watery laugh.
“The family I grew up in was pretty much a freak show. But I’ve already fallen for your sister here, and I don’t think it will take me long to fall for y’all too.”
“I’m writing it down that someone fell for Sadie first and not J.P.,” Shelby said, winking tearfully at their older brother. “J.P. has been our rock since Daddy left, and like you said about Mark, he’s one of the best men we know. Other than our mama, we wouldn’t be as ‘normal’ if it weren’t for him looking out for us.”
“They’re not trying to suggest you need me to look out for you,” J.P. told Paige. “Beyond the fact that you’re obviously a strong woman, it’s clear as glass Mark here has your back like a husband should. But I’m here for you—we all are—should you need us. Beyond the getting to know you and all, which I hope will continue.”
“I’d like that very much,” Paige said, wiping more tears. “I need to ask though. How does your mother feel about all of this?”
Everyone looked at J.P. “We agreed I would talk to Mama once we met with you, and that’s something I’m planning on doing after church tomorrow. I don’t know whether your mother said anything about our mother—and honestly I don’t need to. I only want to tell you she’s a good woman who overcame a horrible situation. What’s more, she helps a lot of people as a preacher. She’s got one of the most open hearts imaginable, and she would never hold any bad feelings toward you. Like you said, none of us are responsible for our daddy’s choices.”
“All J.P. is saying is that you don’t need to worry that our mama would ever hurt you,” Sadie said, feeling the sweat in Paige’s hand. “You’ve already been so hurt—like we were when our daddy left…and then a few months ago when we learned why. None of us want any more hurt to come to this family.”
On that they all agreed. Sadie wouldn’t have asked Paige to join her quilting class otherwise.
“It must have taken even more courage than I originally thought for you to come to our front door, Sadie,” Mark said, gazing steadily at her face. “Thank you.”
Sadie remembered what Riley had said about her courage inspiring him, and she found herself breaking into a huge smile. She’d done that. And all by herself.
“Yes, thank you,” Paige said, leaning down and giving her a half hug.
“Well, it surprised the heck out of me,” Shelby said. “I was planning to reach out to you too, only I hadn’t gotten to it yet. I’m newly engaged, you see.”
“Meaning she has her mind on other matters,” Susannah said, elbowing Shelby in the side.
“I’d like to meet your partners,” Paige said. “I appreciate you allowing Mark to be here.”
Shelby waved a hand. “We didn’t want you to feel ganged up on. I mean, this is a lot for anyone to take in.”
“It hasn’t been that bad and I chose my home turf to be more comfortable,” Paige said. “Honestly though, I took one look at that baby blanket Sadie brought over, and that was it. I knew she was someone I wanted to know.”
“She’s always worn her heart on her sleeve,” J.P. said. “To my mind, it’s her best trait.”
“Are you trying to say Susannah and I don’t, J.P.?” Shelby asked, giving him a determined look.
“All of the women in this family have big hearts,” he said with a slow smile. “They each have their own unique way of expressing it.”
“J.P. appears to be a diplomat,” Paige said, smiling.
“He’s had to be, having three younger sisters,” Sadie told her, feeling her heart glow. “Now he has four.”
Paige’s eyes grew wider as she took in the fact that she’d been included in that number.
“I hope that’s okay to say,” she immediately said. “I mean—”
“She knows what you mean, Sadie,” J.P. said in that steady tone of his. “It’s going to take a while for us to build up our relationships, but from where I’m standing, they look to have a strong foundation.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Mark said, standing. “Now, why don’t we break out something stronger to celebrate? I took the liberty of buying some champagne.”
Paige’s head swung in his direction. “You did? I didn’t see it.”
“It’s in Riley’s fridge,” Mark said, ruffling her hair softly. “He’s our next-door neighbor and close friend. His daughter Jess is our daughter’s best friend.”
Sadie was grateful Mark hadn’t mentioned anything about her personal connection to Riley. If their second date went well, she’d tell the rest of her siblings about him.
“You know me, honey. I believe in celebrating. I had high hopes for this meeting. Be right back.”
Paige watched as Mark left and then turned and looked at all of them. “He brought back a bottle of champagne from his parents’ house to open after our first date. With their permission, of course. He said he wanted to celebrate being with the most beautiful woman in the world.”
“I love him!” Shelby said. “I can see why you married him young. He’s a keeper.”
Paige stood slowly, keeping a hold of Sadie’s hand. “I’d like you to meet Haley…if that’s okay.”
Sadie felt a smile spread across her face.
“We’d love that,” J.P. said. “My kids are going to want to meet her too, I expect. We’d love to have her over for a play date when you feel comfortable.”
“Thank you,” Paige said. “I’ll let you know. Umm…let me go get her.”
As she left the room, Shelby lurched out of her chair and flung her hands into the air. “Oh, she’s so wonderful. Thank you, God!”
Then she launched herself at Sadie, hugging the starch out of her.
“You did good, Sadie,” J.P. said, rising from the sofa.
When he knelt on the floor and wrapped his arms around them, Shelby pressed her face into his neck. Their family was starting to feel complete. Funny how she hadn’t known something was missing before learning about Paige.
“Get in here, Susannah,” Shelby drawled.
Soon they were all hugging each other, and Sadie felt her heart explode with joy like the champagne coming their way.
Chapter 8
According to Riley’s late-afternoon debrief with the Bradshaws, the sibling reunion had gone swimmingly, and his friends had been delighted to hear he and Sadie were going out again. Sadie was bound to be in a good mood too, and despite the epic thunderstorm that had rolled into Nashville, the violent bolts of lightning and percussive thunder sounding like the very sky was being ripped open against its will by a super-villain, Riley found he was eager to see her.
Jess had screamed at various intervals while insisting he wear the only other sport coat in his closet, a tan one this time. Riley was still tugging on his ear, hoping she hadn’t made him deaf for life.
“Dad,” Jess said from the doorway as he slapped cologne on his freshly shaven cheeks, “tonight you need to pick up some flowers for Sadie. And this time you’d better kiss her goodnight.”
His daughter had strong opinions about courtship, it turned out, most of them springing directly from Disney movies. She’d embarrassed the hell out of him, asking in front of the Bradshaws if he’d kissed Sadie goodnight after their last date. He’d told her a true prince never told, and she’d simply responded, “Well, that’s really silly. Everyone knows a prince kisses a princess goodnight.”
Chastised by a second grader on romance. It had felt like a low moment. Especially since he hadn’t had a kiss to speak of.
“Flowers,” he simply replied to her latest request. “Check.”
“What kind of flowers, Dad?” she asked him, edging closer and adjusting his jacket like she was a Parisian fashion designer.
He knew a trick question when he heard one. “What kind of flowers would you recommend, Jess?”
She gave a dramatic sigh, cute as a button in her Beauty and the Beast nightgown. He’d already seen to her bath and gotten her in her nightgown. Knowing her, she’d probably have a snack at the Bradshaws’ before she went to bed.
“Well…I think you should give her daisies.”
He’d been expecting roses. “Daisies?”
“Yes. You see, Flynn Ryder gives Rapunzel daisies for her hair. Sort of. It’s not important. Focus, Dad.”
How did she know he was starting to sweat?
“I mean, Snow White had roses, but we figured that’s an older Disney movie. And Haley’s grandpa gives her grandma roses for their anniversary, and they’re like really old.”
The logic employed by his daughter sometimes mystified him so much he thought NASA should study her brain to predict the future of the human race on Earth.
“Where am I supposed to get daisies, Jess?”
“At the store, Dad,” she informed him in her take-no-prisoners tone.
“The grocery store?” he asked, checking his watch. If he left right now…
“Yes, Haley and I checked it out in the grocery store after your first date with Ms. Sadie. They’re by the produce aisle.”
He shook his head, marveling at their strategy. He hadn’t even expected another date with Sadie, and here they’d been preparing for it. “Okay, if I’m going to get flowers for tonight, I need to hustle.”
“Cool!” She jumped in the air. “Let’s get you on the road.”
He scooped her up, making her laugh.
“Oh, you smell so good, Daddy.”
He didn’t hear that term of endearment often anymore. She was getting older and apparently saying ‘Daddy’ just wasn’t as cool.
“Do you know how much I love you?” he asked, stopping in the hallway.
“So much,” she cried, throwing out her hands and grinning.
“You’re my whole world,” he said, giving her angel kisses with his nose against hers.
“Dad, that’s so sweet,” she said, “but it’s time for you to broaden your world. I won’t always be here, and I want you to be happy.”
Crap. She was going to make him cry. He’d had that thought as well, but for some reason it struck him differently hearing it from her.
“Oh, Jessiekins, you’re growing up way too fast,” he whispered, kissing her cheek. “Okay, enough mushy stuff. Let’s get you over to Haley’s house.” When he and his daughter arrived at the Bradshaws’ back door, he was running a little late. But he’d just text Sadie. He figured flowers would be a good reason for some slight tardiness.
“Hey, good-looking,” Paige said, smiling when she opened the door. “Ready for your date?”
“Yes, he is,” Jess said, hugging his leg and then running inside. “Have fun, Dad!”
“Yes, have fun, Riley,” Paige said.
“Don’t rush home,” Mark called, jogging over to the door after closing the dishwasher he was loading. “Jess is staying the night like usual.”
“Tell Sadie hi for me,” Paige said.
Riley nearly took a step back.
“Is that weird?” she asked. “I’m just so happy things turned out like they did today. They’re all so wonderful.”
“It’s good to see you on cloud nine. I’ll tell her you said ‘hey.’ Okay, I’m outta here. The girls have insisted I pick up some daisies for her.”
The grocery store was a zoo and people were cranky from the torrential rain no umbrella in the world could protect you against, but he found the daisies, except they were potted and not wrapped in a bouquet like he’d expected. The mixed bouquets had a couple of daisies, but it didn’t seem like enough.
He texted Paige, refraining from asking, Where are the f-ing daisies? Instead he said, Daisies are in a pot. Help.
She gave him a LOL and a smiley face before typing, The girls said they imagined you giving her the plant and plucking one of the stems and putting it in her hair.
Holding the pot in the middle of the crowded produce section, his first thought was, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Then he picked it up and headed to the express checkout, texting Paige back a smiley face when he got to the parking lot. Soaked, of course.
When he pulled up in front of Sadie’s townhouse, he took a moment to smooth back his wet hair in the mirror. The rain was going to make it curl up like the Oxford comma, no doubt. Sometimes he hated the humidity of Nashville. But it was home. His parents might have moved to Florida, and his ex might have made him hate the country music scene, but there was still something about the town he loved. The artiness. The creativity that seemed to blow through the air.
But rain should be outlawed on dates, he decided as his umbrella blew upward off its spikes the minute he emerged from the car. Here he was trying to make a good impression, and Mother Nature was messing with him. He fought a growl, focusing on holding the broken umbrella and the pot of daisies.
Then he heard someone call his name through the storm, and he looked up and caught her curvy silhouette outlined in the doorway. Oh, the lines… The daises almost slipped out of his hands. He ran toward her, stopping short on her blue and white Welcome mat to dry his feet.
By God, she was a vision.
Her dress was one of those little black varieties men lit candles to in pure male gratitude. It ended a respectful inch above her knees, but he found himself thinking about the mist from the rain landing on them and how he wished he could turn himself into that mist like a shape shifter.
“It’s raining cats and dogs outside,” she said. “Come in. You’re soaked.”
He held out his umbrella. “The storm broke it,” he responded like a total moron.
Then she gave him a soft, luminous smile, and he accepted he was going to be a moron for the rest of the night.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said, feeling like he was in a trance.
She took the broken umbrella from his outstretched hand and laid it on the floor outside her front door. “Come inside, Riley.”
He followed her in, her perfume wrapping around him like the fog rising from the sidewalk outside her porch. Where had the fog come from?
“Are these for me?” she asked, gesturing to the pot of pink daisies in his hand.
His movements felt like he was underwater. He slowly snapped a stem from out of the pot and tucked it behind her right ear.
Even over the thunder of the rain, he could hear her sharp intake of breath. The girls hadn’t steered him wrong. Sadie was feeling what he was feeling all right.
“I couldn’t find an iguana at the grocery store, so these will have to do.”
She surprised him by punching him playfully. “These are better. Do you need a towel?”
He lifted a shoulder. “No, I wear rain all the time. I’ve found it makes my complexion better. Don’t you?” What in the hell was he saying?
Then she started laughing, and he felt himself return his body. Was his attraction to her making him levitate or something?
“Riley, you’re too funny.” She picked up her purse, and he noted it was gold. “Shall we go?”
He nodded and couldn’t help but notice what an incredible ass she had when she bent down to pick up a perfectly dry golf umbrella resting in the corner. After they exited her house, he unfurled the umbrella to shield them from the rain as she locked the door.
“Care to share where we’re going?” she asked when they were inside the car.
The rain sounded like a million nails raining down, and he felt time slow again. Outside, there was no world. In this moment, there was only him and Sadie, with her perfume curling around him like the fog had, albeit even more inviting.
“I gave some serious thought to this after the first-date mess up,” he admitted. “How do you feel about pimento cheese beignets and pork belly pop tarts?”
She made a sexy humming sound. Oh, his brain was going to turn to mush tonight.
“Sounds delicious.”
He started the car a
nd took off, the windshield wipers on high. Even still, he drove slowly, both for safety and because he wasn’t so sure he wanted this moment to end. “Good. I thought we’d go with a normal restaurant like The Farm House. Sounds pretty wholesome, right?”
There was a pause, and he reached for the radio.
“Do you think we need to do wholesome because of me? Riley, I’m no farm girl.”
The rain was coming down in sheets, and this was clearly an important issue for her. He pulled over to the shoulder so they could talk and give the weather some time to settle. “I figure we worked our way through some of my hang-ups this morning. Do you want to let me know why this bothers you?”
“I don’t mean to make a big deal of it, but we went from a burlesque venue to a farm restaurant. It’s like we swung in the opposite direction. Do you see what I mean?”
“Not really,” he answered. “Sadie, it’s a farm-to-table restaurant. I loved the story I read online about one of their farmers bringing in fresh trout. They used his name and everything. For me, it was like they were honoring the man’s art. Trust me, if you’ve ever gone fishing—my dad used to drag my brother and me out—you’d know there’s a lot more art than science to catching a fish. And the food and venue look great…but that doesn’t seem to be what’s upsetting you.”
When she didn’t say anything, he turned in his seat. She was looking straight ahead with her hands fisted in her lap.
“Sadie, talk to me.”
“Some people think…I’m a goody two-shoes because I’m a preacher’s daughter, and they have this idea in their mind of the kind of woman I’m supposed to be.”
Suddenly it all clicked. “Ah…so you thought I’d reverted to seeing a cardboard cutout of you and not the real you.”
“Yes,” she said quietly.
Then she looked up and met his gaze, and her brown eyes looked so vulnerable he wanted to reach across the center console and hold her. Funny how he’d been told he was too “out there” while she’d been penned in for being the daughter of a preacher.
