Hothouse Flower (Addicted #4)(73)

Live in the moment with Ryke Meadows.

If I ever die, I want that across my headstone.





< 29 >

DAISY CALLOWAY



Janet hands me a plastic bag with all my valuables and the bloodied maroon turtleneck I was wearing that night. I slip the gold ring on my thumb while Ryke heads down the hall, talking on the phone and waiting for me to leave.

“You need to go over to that cashier’s window and they’ll give you the hospital bill.”

I nod. “Will the ambulance fee be added with that?” I don’t know how the French medical system works.

Janet frowns. “There is no ambulance fee. Didn’t you know that?”

I shake my head. “No, but I…” I blink as I wrack my brain. The pub isn’t even close to this hospital, so how…

“He carried you,” Janet says, a hand to her chest, like that night was emotional, even for her. “You were in his arms when he reached the hospital doors. He arrived about ten minutes before anyone else from the riot.”

Tears well, and I suppress them as best I can. My voice trembles. “He ran here?”

She nods and reaches out to touch my wrist in comfort. I glance down the hallway at Ryke who speaks with force into the phone, like he wants the person on the other end to fully listen to him. He’s the hero of my story, but he refuses to claim any of those moments, as if they don’t matter.

They do matter. Everyone sees partial sides to Ryke, and he lets them think he’s just an athlete with no brains, an aggressive *. It’s like he’s been alone for so long that he’s lost any interest in showing off his worth.

I think I’ve hit the lottery—to have him in my life.

To me, he’s worth every loud moment, every peaceful silence, the crazy and the sad, the restless and the quiet. I would trade it all to be with him, but I have a feeling there will be no price for my mom. She’ll keep us apart at any cost.

I feel it in my bones like a bad, bad omen.





< 30 >

RYKE MEADOWS



“What the f*ck is Rose hiding?” I snap at Lily on the phone. I decided to call her while I wait for Daisy to finish sorting through her belongings.

Daisy looks up at me with a plastic baggy in her hand and then points to a cashier’s window, standing in the line.

I nod to her and listen to Lily’s response. I’m not expecting much.

“Like I told Lo, I’ve made this pact with Rose not to talk about it, like a Ya-Ya Sisterhood thing, and I can’t go back on my word. And just so you know, Rose is scary. She took out a knife and was saying something about blood oaths, and before I knew it, she slit my palm.” Her voice lowers, almost comically that it’s hard to take her serious. But she is. “And this comes from a girl who cannot walk on the hardwood without shoes. You don’t have to say anything, it surprised me too.”

I roll my eyes. “Lily,” I say forcefully. “If it’s something serious, you need to tell my brother.”

“The pact,” Lily hisses. “What if Rose put a curse on me? I can’t say anything.”

“You can’t be that f*cking superstitious.”

“Rose might as well be a supernatural force when she’s upset. You haven’t seen her truly angry, so you can’t say anything.”

“I’ve seen her so f*cking pissed that she almost tased my brother, how’s that?”

“This is a different kind of upset,” Lily says. “We’re handling this, okay? I think it’s good that Lo is with you, and I’m here with Rose for a little bit.”

I frown, never thinking I’d hear Lily say that. She’s usually glued to my brother’s side and vice versa. “You’re really okay without him?”

Silence stretches before she says, “I mean, I miss him a lot more than I can articulate. It hurts without him here. But I’m better than I was when he first left for rehab. I’m at a better place.”

“I know you are,” I tell her. Back then, she was almost in tears every time I called her. It was kind of f*cking pathetic, but I didn’t understand their relationship. I didn’t understand that kind of unconditional love. And then Daisy left, and I felt out of my f*cking mind for three days. I yelled at Lily for bitching after only seven days without Lo, so who’s the hypocrite now?

“We’re meeting you in two weeks right?” Lily asks. “It won’t be too long.”

“You sure you want to keep it a f*cking surprise from Daisy?” I ask. Rose has been calling me non-f*cking-stop, trying to find ways to see Daisy without upsetting her. I told them that they should just meet us on the road, but to wait until her face heals a little. They agreed.

“She likes surprises,” Lily says. “Otherwise, we would have told her.”

She’s right about that. “Just don’t come early. I can’t spend thirty days in a car with all of you. Eighteen is already too f*cking much.”

“Weren’t you the one who wanted to start the road trip in New York?”

I groan in agitation. “You’re annoying me, Calloway.”

“All I’m saying is that you could have picked a closer place to California, and then we wouldn’t have to be in a car for so long.”