A Forever of Orange Blossoms (The Merriams Book 5)

by Ava Miles

  “I worry about that with my girls,” she admitted, putting her hand on his chest. “The age difference makes their interests feel worlds apart sometimes. As a mom, I just want them to love each other and have fun together.”

  “My mom always says the only thing you can do is your best,” Flynn said, stroking her back. “I used to roll my eyes a little when she’d say that, but it makes a new kind of sense to me. Caitlyn would say it’s because shit got real.”

  Chuckling, she said, “You mean seeing me with my girls? I almost had a mommy meltdown tonight. The twins kept trying to intentionally delay me, and it made me feel awful because I wanted to get ready before you came over.”

  He pointed to himself. “This boy? Well, babe, you’re in luck. Even though we’re just doing a movie, I decided I should do everything I would normally do for a date. I forgot to call the florist, so I went to the grocery store and bought you most beautiful thing I could find. You’ll have to squint to see what I see. I put it behind the couch.”

  She took his hand as he led her to its hiding place. The saddest holiday poinsettia sat on the floor, most of its leaves missing or shriveled from a lack of water. “A poinsettia?”

  “It was lean pickings, but you like red and it still had one leaf that color.” He leaned over and plucked the plant off the floor, gracefully presenting it to her like a cavalier of old. “I had a low moment when I thought about stealing one of Penelope Wingate’s plants in the lobby and reimbursing her in the morning.”

  “You are too sweet.”

  He put his hand over his heart. “I hope you will accept this small token of my deep affection for you, Ms. Loudermilk.”

  She curtsied, laughing as she took it. “Thank you, Mr. Merriam, for this beautiful…plant.”

  “And then the romance fell flat. Hey, maybe we should watch Pride and Prejudice tonight. Caitlyn used to make me watch it every time she broke up with a boy, so I know it by heart. I can be Mr. Darcy, and you can be Elizabeth Bennet.”

  She raised the back of her hand to her forehead and said in her best British accent, “Not Ms. Elizabeth Bennet. She’s way too prejudiced for me to ever contemplate playing her.”

  He swept the plant out of her hands and opened his arms. “But of course. I’m a cad for even suggesting it. You should punish me. But cast me not out of your affections.”

  She found herself giggling. Giggling. “That’s as much British playacting as I can muster. Oh, Flynn, you’re so funny. I…thank you for the plant. Thank you for everything.”

  He set the plant aside and cupped her face. “Thank you, Annie. Until I met you, I thought I had a pretty great life. But I knew something was missing. It was this.” He motioned between them. “I’m glad we can laugh together.”

  “Me too.” She hadn’t been able to laugh with Ben, but she wasn’t going to talk about him. That was the past, and this was their present.

  “Come, let’s follow my uncle’s suggestion and watch something we’ve both seen.” He waggled his eyebrows at her. “I can cuddle up with you on the couch, and you can tell me how far I can go.”

  Grabbing a blanket from the couch, she held it up and gave him a wicked grin. “Who knows what our hands might get up to under this?”

  She’d just have to make sure she didn’t moan aloud. Of course, she’d keep her eyes on the doorway. But the girls usually slept through the night once they went down.

  “I like your thinking,” he said, lying back on the couch and holding out his arms. “Your resting place, my dove.”

  She cocked her hip as his British accent returned. “You really want to watch Pride and Prejudice, don’t you?”

  “Why not? It’s a classic romantic movie, and I’m a classic romantic kind of guy.”

  Yes, he was, and for a romantic couple, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet weren’t half bad.

  But they barely watched the movie.

  Chapter 16

  Amelia was turning out to be one hell of a journalist.

  Arthur put his hand on her little back as she backed into him. The little one liked to cuddle close, and he had to admit, the trust and affection was heartwarming.

  “So you want to do a story on twins,” he said, turning her around to face him, his tone as serious as if she were a student in one of his old journalism classes.

  “Yep.” She put her hand on his arm, finding her feet and staring right into him. “You said to do a story on something I wanted to know more about. Well, my sisters are twins. Why are they twins and not me?”

  For a four-year-old, her mental aptitude was incredible. “Aren’t you a smart cookie?”

  She narrowed her eyes. “I didn’t know cookies were smart. Does that mean some of them are… I’m not supposed to say stupid.”

  “Only the gingerbread men.” He laughed, putting his arm around her. “They always look a little slow to me. As for your story, Amelia, I think it’s a great idea. Now that you have it, what do you do next?”

  “In… Instigate.” She beamed.

  Gosh, this was turning out to be so much fun. “Close. Investigate.”

  She repeated the word and then clapped. “Now we ask those W questions, right?”

  He couldn’t wait to tell his granddaughter, Meredith, and her husband, Tanner, about his four-year-old prodigy. Too bad she lived so far away. If Amelia had black ink in her veins like he thought, he’d have suggested they have her intern at the paper he’d founded once she was old enough. “Who, what, when, where, why, and how. Although how is with—”

  “An H,” she said, clapping again. “I learned the alphabet when I was three. Iris taught it to me when we used to play school. She was the teacher, and I was her student. But Eloise wanted to be a teacher too, so we stopped. You can’t have two teachers, you know. Now we don’t play anything.”

  He hugged her to him again, knowing she’d chosen this story to better understand her sisters. He hoped it would help. Heck, maybe it would end up helping Flynn with his own twin issues. Hadn’t Arthur pursued many of his most lauded stories because they’d promised to open his mind and others’? “They’re getting older, aren’t they? Well, you have Carrot and you have me right now.”

  She wrapped her arms around him. “I love you, Mr. Hale.”

  Man, this one was turning him to mush on the inside. “I love you too, cutie. Let’s investigate. Then you can go outside and play with Carrot.”

  He was starting to look forward to seeing the pony himself, but he didn’t plan on mentioning it.

  “Yay! I can’t wait. I’m going to dress him like one of Santa’s reindeers.” She clapped again and raced over to pick up the tablet Annie let her use.

  For the next hour, he helped Amelia research twins on the internet. Or, in truth, she helped him. She was really good at clicking, something his weathered hands simply had never wanted to get the true hang of. Call him old-fashioned, but he liked to hold his research. In fact, he and little Amelia were going to make a trip to the library. As far as he was concerned, it was a tragic state of affairs that so few people used them anymore.

  She started to read a video title slowly. While she had a good handle on reading for her age, she still needed help with some of the words. “Forty percent of twins invent their own language and signals.”

  “How many is that?” she asked.

  He tried to give her an example that would make sense. “If you have a field with one hundred cows, forty of them would be like this.”

  “Okay, so that’s like almost half, right? Mom helps Iris with her fractions, and I listen.”

  The kid listened to everything. “That’s right.”

  “Mom always said Iris and Eloise used to talk to each other in their own way when they were little. They still do. I mean, they don’t even have to say anything to each other to know what the other is thinking. It’s kinda creepy sometimes. It’s like they know what the other is thinking all the time.”

  He thought about his great-granddaughters and figured that was a
bout right.

  “What does that picture with those babies say?” she asked, pointing to it.

  Arthur summed it up for her by saying, “When twins are inside their mommy’s tummy, they start playing with each other early.” Like as early as fourteen weeks. Incredible.

  “So they’ve been playing with each other a long, long time,” Amelia said, her chin resting on her chest now.

  “Don’t be sad, Amelia,” Arthur said, patting her on the back. “A good story is supposed to inform you and make you feel smarter and better equipped. What this tells me is that twins have a really special bond, something unique just to them. If I were a twin, I expect I’d feel grateful for it.” Heck, he was going to sit down and talk to Jill about this when they got back to Dare Valley.

  She barely lifted her head when she nodded. “I guess.”

  “What about this fact? Polar bears have twins almost all the time.”

  He clicked on the picture of a mother with her little cubs playing in the snow. “Aren’t they cute?” Of course, it was shoddy journalism to include one bear fact in an article devoted to the ten most common facts about human twins, but at the moment he was grateful for the lapse.

  “They’re funny,” she said, her head finally lifting. “I like the way they roll in the snow.”

  He set the tablet aside and stood. “Speaking of… This old man hasn’t seen anyone make a proper snow angel. Do you know someone who might volunteer?”

  A huge grin stole across her face, and a hand shot into the air. “I will. I will.”

  That was more like it. “Excellent. Now, let’s bundle up and head into the tundra.” He checked his watch. “Flynn said the portable building is going to be here around noon. Then it’s lunch for you and me. Wonder what Hargreaves is going to serve today?”

  “Indian food! I love it.”

  He groaned. “Not you too. I’m surrounded by people who like Indian food.”

  “Why don’t you like it, Mr. Hale?” she asked, following him to the door.

  Because it was fun to be contrary with Hargreaves, but it wouldn’t do to say so. “I just don’t. Come on.”

  She tugged on her snow boots and then sat on the floor to pull on her snowsuit. Arthur did up his coat as he watched her stand, pull up the thick suit, wiggling her way into it, and then stuff her arms in before zipping herself up. It had been ages since he’d stuffed himself into such an outfit, but it was funny how little things had changed in that department. “I remember it taking me forever to put my winter clothes on and then take them off again.”

  “Yeah, but you have to stay warm outside or you’ll freeze, Mom says.” She pulled her stocking hat on her head and smiled. “Are you ready, Mr. Hale?”

  He tucked his scarf under his chin. “Let’s go.”

  When they left the house, he had to squint from the sunlight on the snow. But the fresh air was welcome on his old cheeks. They’d turn ruddy, but he didn’t care. There was something cleansing about winter air. He looked over as Carrot raced across the yard, his small white body thundering across the snow, his mane streaking behind him. Amelia went running toward the little pony, already giggling.

  Carrot dug his face into the snow and flung a streak of it at Amelia in what Arthur could only term a snow shower. She fell onto the ground, giggling. “I’m gonna do a snow angel for you, Mr. Hale.”

  The pony locked eyes with him, and Arthur knew mischief when he saw it. “Don’t you dare spray me with snow, Carrot.”

  His long head bounced up and down, almost like he was nodding his response, and he wandered over and rested his head against Arthur’s arm. A pretty endearing gesture, all told. Arthur pulled out a red hot and popped it into his mouth, crunching, and gave in to the urge to pet the pony’s mane. They watched together as Amelia made snow angel after snow angel.

  Scanning the farm, he looked around for Tom. There was no sign, but he knew the man was around. There was always something for him to do, Arthur imagined, regardless of the season. It was tough not to admire a man who worked that hard, even if he was a cold man.

  “Mr. Hale, let’s go watch the goats,” Amelia said, popping up off the ground. She was charging toward the south pasture as soon as the words left her mouth.

  He heard an unfamiliar rumble from far off, and it took him a moment to make it out. The semitruck was here, pulling the portable Flynn had ordered. Knowing Amelia was fine for the moment, he walked over to the lab’s main window and rapped on it. Annie and Flynn came toward it immediately.

  “Your delivery is here!” he yelled, pointing to the main road.

  Boy Wonder and Annie both beamed back at him before disappearing from the window.

  “There’s a huge truck coming, Mr. Hale, and it’s pulling this really long rectangle,” Amelia called out to him as she ran back across the expanse of the yard.

  Tom emerged from the barn in his winter work clothes, his worn John Deere hat covering his head. He put his hand to his forehead as if shading his eyes so he could better see what all the commotion was about.

  “They’re early,” Arthur heard Flynn say behind him. “I like a company that’s eager to finish a job.”

  He turned to face them and noticed that his nephew was holding Annie’s gloved hand.

  “Mommy! What is that thing?” Amelia raced over.

  “It’s Mommy’s new assembly area,” she told her, tapping her on her little nose. “We’re going to bottle everything up and then assemble the holiday baskets in there.”

  “Cool! Can I see?” She started jumping up and down like a pogo stick.

  “You bet!”

  The semi lumbered slowly down the main road, coming up to the farm.

  Tom strode out from the barn until he was standing in the middle of the road. He made a slashing signal with his hands. “Stop! You have the wrong place.”

  The truck’s air brakes whined out in the quiet, coming to a stop, the cab’s engine still idling.

  The driver opened the door and called down, “Where do you want it?”

  “I’ll be with you in a second,” Flynn shouted back.

  Tom came marching toward them, his face a thunderous glower now that he knew the driver did have the right place, and Flynn and Annie walked forward to meet him, Amelia and Carrot traipsing by their side.

  “What in the Sam Hill do you mean you want to put that infernal monstrosity on my land?” Tom bellowed.

  Arthur didn’t need his reporter’s instincts to know this wasn’t good news.

  Chapter 17

  If Flynn hadn’t been totally sure Tom was behind their inability to secure workspace in town, the man’s angry bellow was all the convincing he needed.

  Carrot gave a loud neigh, almost as if he was pissed at Tom for upsetting Amelia, and the older man gave him a swat on the flank. “Get back to the barn.”

  “You leave my pony alone,” Amelia shouted.

  “You be quiet. Are you behind this?” He flicked an accusatory glance at Flynn.

  Annie pulled the little girl to her, and Flynn stepped in front of Tom. “There’s no need to fly off the handle here.”

  “Don’t tell me how to act.”

  Flynn stared the man down, anger licking up his spine. Tom had likely kept them from finding a space in town, and now he was trying to get in the way of their solution too. Why did he care anyway? They weren’t going to infringe on his space—Annie was putting it on her land. It only had to go through the farm to get there. “Yes, Tom, I rented it. We needed the space.”

  “Tom, I didn’t think to ask you,” Annie said, trembling so hard beside him Flynn put his hand on her back to bolster her. “I’m sorry for that. I realize the trucker had to use the access road to the farm to get to my place. I was going to have them put the portable out of your way, between our house and the lab.”

  An old tan station wagon drove around the truck, honking twice, and Flynn watched as June and the twins exited.

  “Goodness, what’s this huge thing?” Jun
e called as she and the girls ran toward Annie, their jewel-toned backpacks bouncing on their backs. “We followed it for the last mile. I was floored when it turned into our farm.”

  “You aren’t the only one,” Tom growled.

  “Mom, what is it?” Iris asked.

  “An eyesore,” Tom spat, “and something I won’t have on my land.”

  The twins exchanged a wary look and edged closer to Annie and Amelia. Flynn had the urge to push them behind him too.

  “Hey!” the driver called again. “Have you decided where you want it?”

  “Not yet,” Flynn shouted back before Tom could reply. “Give me a few more minutes here.”

  “Take it away!” Tom’s voice rose. “I don’t want it here.”

  Thankfully, the driver was already closing the cab again so Flynn didn’t have to deal with both issues at once.

  June stepped closer to Tom, her mouth pinched with concern. “Okay, now. What’s going on here?”

  “We rented a portable to assemble the holiday baskets.” Annie cleared her throat. “I’d planned to put it next to the lab. I didn’t think it would be a problem. We couldn’t find space in town so we had to think outside the box.”

  “You couldn’t?” June asked, scratching her head. “That’s odd. I would have thought the church hall or the old school auditorium would have rented you space. Heck, even the dance hall downtown.”

  More confirmation that the rejections had been personal, Flynn thought.

  “We tried them all, June,” Annie said, her face stricken. “We wouldn’t have gone this route if we’d had another choice. But Tom is a little concerned about having it around.”

  June faced her husband. “You are? Why ever would you feel like that, Tom?”

  “Yeah, Grandpa,” Amelia said, craning her neck to look up at him. “Why are you getting so mad at us and Carrot?”