Love Blooms

by Jo McNally

  “She didn’t take me anywhere. She left me behind. She didn’t want me here...”

  “If she didn’t want you, why didn’t you turn around and come home?”

  “Because I wanted her. And I was willing to fight for her.”

  “Well that’s just... I don’t know. I don’t want to say it’s weak, but...”

  Owen buried his face in his hands. “I’m weak because I decided to fight for what I wanted? How does that work, Mom?”

  His father leaned forward, but was shut down again when Faye Cooper replied.

  “What makes you weak is chasing some girl and ignoring your responsibilities at home. It’s bad enough the Army made you stay away longer than expected...”

  “I volunteered, Mom.”

  “They gave you no choice, I’m sure.”

  “Mom, I had a choice. I chose not to come home.”

  But she refused to listen. Her nose wrinkled. “Nonsense.” Owen met his father’s eyes, and the older man gave a slight shrug as she continued.

  “My point is we deserve to be able to retire, and you need to step up and take over the business. You don’t need a wife to do that, and even if you did, there are many fine young women in Greensboro. Women who aren’t...flighty.”

  “Mom, Lucy isn’t flighty. She’s the most grounded person I know. And the strongest.”

  “Oh, please. She left on her wedding day. We’ll never outlive the humiliation of that. And if you think I’ll let you marry her after doing that to us...”

  He sat up straight. “That’s enough. You’re talking about the woman—not a girl—who invited you into her home and then left so we could talk. In her house. She’s apologized to you. To me. She sent apology notes to all the guests. And I’m the one who was left on my wedding day, not you. So knock it off.” He pointed at her, and she sat back, looking surprised. “You’ve never once asked why she left, or if she’s okay. Just like you never once asked if I was okay when I got home from overseas.”

  Her face paled, and her mouth opened and closed a few times without forming words. His father started to answer.

  “Son, I think I’m beginning to—”

  But Mom interrupted. “Your father built that busin—”

  “Goddamn it, Faye!” His father erupted in a rare show of temper. “His father is sitting right here and can speak for himself, if you’d give me a chance. We came to New York to talk to Owen. That’s what you wanted. That’s why we flew up here. But you never told me you didn’t intend to give him a chance to talk. You’re not even trying to listen to the man. You just want to talk about you. And you are nowhere near as fascinating a topic as you may think.”

  Mom’s mouth snapped shut, her eyes narrowing to slits. “I beg your pardon?”

  Now it was Dad’s turn to wave her off. He turned to Owen.

  “What is it about Lucy Higgins that makes you so happy, son?”

  He took a deep breath, trying to compose an answer that held all the reasons he loved her.

  “I feel lighter when I’m around her. I laugh more. I...”

  He remembered Lena’s words from the bookclub meeting. That love wasn’t about how Lucy made him feel. It was about who she was. He cleared his throat and started again.

  “She’s smart. And funny. And she cares more than any person I’ve ever met. I mean...she cares right from the bottom of her toes. All in. For family. For friends. For total strangers. She’d literally give you the shirt off her back if she thought you needed it. Hell, she knows how much you resent her, Mom, and she still let us have this conversation in her living room. She’s all in with her caring, which is why she had to leave.”

  There weren’t enough pieces left to hold me up...

  “She cared so much she had to humiliate us?”

  “Be quiet, Faye. Let the man speak.” Owen’s father nodded to him to continue, while his mother’s face grew more red.

  “She cared so much about what other people wanted, needed, expected...that she forgot to care about what she wanted and needed. She got lost, Mom, and none of us saw it. Not even me.” He scrubbed his hands down his face. “Not even me, and I loved her. Or...thought I did.”

  His mother pounced on that. “Thought you did? What...?”

  “I loved her, Mom. But not as the way I should have. As a friend pointed out recently, I loved how I felt around her, without actually loving her.” His eyes suddenly began to burn at the truth of what he was saying. “And all that time, she was trying so damn hard to love me, no matter how messed up I was. Until she just couldn’t do it anymore.” He looked at his parents. “And now I’ve had to earn her love all over again. But she never stopped caring, even when she didn’t want to.”

  “I don’t understand any of that,” his mother said. “You were never messed up, Owen.”

  “That’s the thing, Mom. I was. I am. And Lucy saw it. She was helped convince me to get help.”

  There was a beat of silence, and it was his father who broke it.

  “The VA?”

  Owen nodded.

  “And did that...did it help?”

  “It’s a process, Dad, but yeah, it’s helping.”

  His father’s jaw worked back and forth. He’d always been a man of few words, only loosening up on the rare occasions he’d had a few drinks. Even now, with so much he clearly wanted to say, he managed just one word.

  “Good.”

  His mother let out a dramatic sigh, apparently frustrated to no longer be the center of attention. “Oh, for heaven’s sake. None of this means anything.”

  Thanks, Mom.

  “What it all comes down to is that we need you at home. You took time to recover from the wedding fiasco, and that’s fine. You needed...closure, or whatever, so you came here to talk to her. Fine. You’ve done that.” She swept her gaze up his nearly naked body. “You’ve had some fun. But it’s time to come home.”

  “And if I told you I’m already home?”

  His mother went very still.

  “If you told me that, I’d say you’re being irresponsible. Disrespectful. Foolish...”

  She would have gladly kept going, but he held up a hand in surrender. “I get the idea, Mom. But I’m telling you that anyway.”

  “Are you...are you seriously saying you might move here? To New York?” Her accent grew ever thicker. “I’ve never heard anything so...so...”

  “Romantic?” He gave her a lopsided smile. There was a spark of amusement in his father’s expression, but not his mother’s. “Look, Mom. I came here to bring Lucy home. That was always the plan. But...plans change. I’m still trying to figure out how to make everything work.” He was trying to break it to his parents as gently as possible, giving them a glimmer of hope and tying himself in verbal knots in the process. “Lucy loves this place right now. Maybe it’s a fluke. Maybe she’ll forgive her parents. Maybe she’ll forgive you. Maybe she’ll get homesick. You shouldn’t give up hope...”

  “Oh, yes, you really should.” Lucy stood in the hallway entrance. She must have come in from the kitchen. Her expression was flat. Cold. And she was looking straight at him. “You should give up hope.”

  She held up his phone, and even from six feet away he could see it was open to the Dr. Find-Love app. Of course she knew the passcode for his phone—they’d both used the same code. The day they’d met. And of course, he’d put the app on his home screen page. Front and center. He scrambled to his feet, but she held the phone back and warned him off with a furious glare.

  “I can explain that...”

  “Really? You can explain Make her laugh? Or maybe you can explain When all else fails, puppies and kittens almost always work? Oh, here’s a good one—Try a picnic lunch with friends to break the ice.” Her voice had somehow managed to grow colder with each tip she read. So cold that it cracked on the next one. “But we both
know the winner, don’t we? Be her hero—look for opportunities to come to the rescue. When you showed up that night during the storm, it wasn’t out of concern for me. It was because you saw an opportunity to play on my emotions. To take advantage of me...of my fears...”

  “No! I wasn’t even using the app by then. Everyone convinced me it was a bad idea. That I needed to follow my heart if I wanted you back...”

  “Everyone? Who else knew you were just roleplaying this whole time?”

  “That’s not what I meant... I wasn’t role-playing...”

  “What is going on?” He’d forgotten his parents were there until his mother stood, indignation dripping off every word. “Did that girl go snooping through your phone? And this is what you want to build a marriage on?”

  “I didn’t snoop. I grabbed his phone by mistake and didn’t realize it until I opened it to make a call and saw...” She stopped as soon as she heard the tremor in her own voice. A tremor that gutted him. Unintentional or not, he’d hurt her badly. Again. She bit her lower lip.

  “You should go.” There was no tremor in Lucy’s voice now. She was calm. Deadly calm.

  Best idea ever. He and she needed to talk this through. Owen started nodding. “Yes. Mom, Dad, you should go to the inn and we’ll talk in the...”

  “You too, Owen.”

  “What?”

  Lucy blew out a slow breath. “I want you all to leave. I want you all to just leave me the hell alone.”

  “No...babe, you don’t understand.” Panic rose in Owen’s chest. “I was desperate when you left, and so afraid of screwing up. I didn’t know what to do. I needed to win you back. I wanted to do it right, and the guys convinced me this stupid app might work.” He gestured to the phone gripped tightly in her hand. “I just needed you to give me a chance, and I thought if I followed a plan I’d have better odds...”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Better odds? Win me back? My God, this really was just a game to you, wasn’t it? What’s the rest of the plan? Soften me up until I agree to go back to Greensboro with you? To follow your plans instead of mine? So you can be the winner?” She gestured angrily at his parents, both standing now. His dad had his hand on his mother’s shoulder. “Or should I say so they can be the winners? After all, their plans have always been more important than mine, haven’t they?”

  Owen had no words. He barely had a pulse.

  His mother straightened, shoulders straighter than any soldier. “If you think bringing the woman who humiliated us back into our lives is part of anyone’s plans, you are sadly mistak—”

  Her husband’s fingers gripped her shoulder tightly. “Be quiet, Faye. This isn’t our fight.”

  “The hell it isn’t!” Faye bristled. “She just brought us into it.”

  Edward Cooper closed his eyes, shaking his head. “Only because we’re standing right here in her living room, and because you can’t let our son solve his own problems.” His father looked at Owen solemnly. “I think it’s time we listened to him and let him make his own choices about his own damned life.”

  There was something in his father’s steady gaze that made Owen stand taller. The warmth in Dad’s slow smile made him feel as if he’d been...heard. He swallowed hard. That’s what Lucy told him she’d needed. To be heard. In this instant, he realized what she’d meant. She hadn’t wanted the literal sound of her voice to be heard. She’d wanted someone to listen. To understand. To respect. To support.

  There had been a shift in his father’s view of him. He was the man’s son, but he was no longer a child, held to some long ago promise made before Owen had a chance to truly live his life and find his own purpose. That shift in perspective made Owen feel...free. He turned back to Lucy, still wrapped up in the steely coldness of her hurt and anger.

  “I’ve made my choice, Dad. My choice is to love this woman the way she deserves to be loved.” Lucy started to protest, but he talked over her. “And that means listening to what she wants. It means being the man she deserves. And a man she can trust.” He held out his hand for his phone. “The only way I can win that trust is by respecting her boundaries. Which means we’re all leaving. Right now.” He took his phone from her, feeling the snap of heat from her fingertips when they grazed his palm. “But I need you to know this, Lucy Higgins—when I use words like winning, it’s not because this is a game. It’s because you are a treasure, and having you by my side would be the greatest achievement...the greatest win...of my life.”

  She didn’t answer, but he could see in her shining eyes that she wanted to believe him, which gave him hope. And hope was good enough for now. One of his shirts was hanging on the back of a chair, and pulled it over his head. His dad directed his mother out the door without giving her a chance to do more than bluster a few words about how “she’d never!”

  Owen stopped in the doorway, capturing Lucy’s watery gaze. No doubt tears would be falling as soon as he left. She was still chewing on her lip. He wanted to stay and comfort her, but staying right now and fighting it out was not what she wanted. And he was done trying to bend her will to his. She needed to be in charge here, and he needed to step back. Even if it meant losing her.

  “Luce... I get why you’re mad. I know how it looks. But how it looks isn’t the whole story. I hope you’ll give me a chance to explain. I hope you’ll think back on the past couple weeks and know that none of my words were scripted. Especially the ones about loving you.” She winced, but he couldn’t tell if it was defensiveness, or acknowledging the truth of what he was saying. “I’ll go back to the inn because you asked me to. But I’m not going anywhere.”

  She gave a low, humorless laugh. “That’s not what your mother thinks. They came here to take you home.”

  “You don’t get it, babe. I am home. Wherever you are is home for me.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  LUCY WATCHED OWEN walk out the door, feeling both angry and confused. He’d left. Because she’d told him to leave. She felt like a balloon with a slow leak, deflating from her white-hot anger and trying to wrap her mind around what had just happened.

  Seeing that ridiculous app on his phone really had been an accident. She’d been so stunned by his parents’ arrival, and so eager to escape, that she’d grabbed his phone off the kitchen island without remembering that hers was on the charger. So there she was, stalking angrily down the sidewalk, when she realized she needed someone to talk to. Someone to vent to. She’d whipped the phone out of her pocket to call Piper, then muttered when it wouldn’t open on facial recognition. Still suspecting nothing, she’d tapped in the unlock code—the date she and Owen had met. That’s when she finally realized it wasn’t her phone. It opened, but the apps were all wrong on the home screen.

  Realizing her mistake, she’d started to turn back when one app—with a big red cupid’s heart on it—popped up in the middle of the screen. Dr. Find-Love? Technically, it wasn’t her phone. And it wasn’t her place to open apps. But it wasn’t as if she’d opened his text history or anything. It was an app. And she was curious about what kind of love Owen was trying to find.

  It opened right up to what she assumed was the last page he’d used on it—Here’s How to Win Her Back. It was funny at first. Leave it to Owen to use some online planner in order to reach his goal. But as she started reading through the list of tips on winning back a woman, her blood had run cold. She recognized every single one.

  Stay in her orbit. He’d done that by taking the job with Connie.

  Show her you know what she likes. It was tough to narrow that one down, but she couldn’t help thinking of him referring to making a spreadsheet. Or had she mentioned that? It didn’t matter. He’d claimed he wanted to know her. Because Dr. Find-Love told him it was a good idea.

  Sometimes it takes a really grand gesture to soften her heart. Buttercup had clearly been his grand gesture. You couldn’t get much more personal than her grandmother�
��s car, and he’d definitely gone big with that move. And she’d fallen for it.

  Instead of an intimate dinner, start with a casual picnic lunch. She wouldn’t put it past him to have arranged the entire Falls Legend al fresco luncheon just to woo her. He must have really patted himself on the back after that kiss they’d shared at the waterfall.

  Be her hero—look for opportunities to come to her rescue. Tears had stung her eyes reading that. The night he came with the lanterns, so very concerned for her safety. The night they’d made love on the sofa by lantern light. It was just a...a trick. She felt used.

  When all else fails, puppies and kittens almost always work! Yeah, that kitten had broken the ice, all right. And nearly sent her into anaphylactic shock. She’d wondered what had possessed him to bring her a kitten. Now she knew. A five-dollar app on his phone. The thought made her feel used. Betrayed.

  That’s when she’d hurried back to the house and thrown the Coopers out. All of them. Even Owen. Especially Owen. She had every right to be angry. He’d played games at a time when her trust was at its lowest. She was offended. And hurt. And mad. She stomped her way into the kitchen and pulled a bottle of wine from the rack. A Finger Lakes pinot noir Owen had brought home. Because he knew it was her favorite. She stared at the bottle, trying in vain to keep her anger burning.

  ...none of my words were scripted. Especially the ones about loving you...

  She was mad at Owen, damn it. So why was she still hearing his arguments in her head? And why had he sounded so...believable? She opened the bottle, filling a wineglass with the ruby red wine. He’d used an app. He’d trusted someone called Dr. Find-Love. Who does that?

  I thought if I followed a plan I’d have better odds...

  She sat in a kitchen chair with a deep sigh, taking a drink of her wine. That was definitely believable. There was a reason she called him her Man with a Plan. He was lost when things veered off-course, and a wedding being canceled at the last minute was about as off-course as things got. So he’d panicked.