The Resurrection of Wildflowers (Wildflower #2)(66)

Thayer walks out with me to the SUV. I hop inside the driver’s seat and roll the window down so he can lean inside.

“Where do you want to go?” he asks. “I’ll follow you.”

There’s only one answer. “Home.”

His eyes light up. “I like the sound of that.”

“Me too.”





CHAPTER 42





SALEM





The back room of A Checkered Past Antiques is full of a mixture of empty boxes and ones that are filled with random items that never made it out front.

This … this is harder than the house.

This was my mom’s love, her passion. This was the thing she made her own after my dad passed away. She worked so hard to make the store a reflection of herself. Filled with items that were beautiful but maybe a little broken, in need of some TLC and a little elbow grease.

I let myself cry instead of keeping the emotions bottled up.

Packing this up is like saying goodbye to the last substantial piece of my mom.

“What do you need me to do?” Thayer asks from across the room.

I know he’s concerned about me, but he also knows I need to feel these things. I remind myself that every tear is filled with love. I didn’t shed a single one for my father. There was no love in my heart for him. Now, my whole-body weeps with this loss.

Sometimes I think if I close my eyes tight and think hard enough about it that I can conjure her image and bring her back to the living.

Is that how Thayer felt? That if he tried hard enough, he could undo what happened?

“Just cut down the empty boxes for now and set them outside. Bring any full ones to me and I’ll go through it.”

“All right.” He pulls a box cutter out of his pocket and gets to work.

I sort through the things, tagging some as I go. There’s a flea market in town soon so I figure I can try to sell some of the smaller items that are in good shape.

I pick up the box with my candles, the one I brought back when my mom said someone already bought them. Only I have no idea who that was, and no one’s ever tried to contact me about getting them.

I pull one out, looking at the label. It’s peeling up on the right corner.

Just like baking, I stopped making candles.

When I left this town, so young and pregnant, I left behind pieces of me. It was like I was trying to forget the parts of myself that reminded me of Thayer.

“Hey, is something wrong?” He approaches me, gently settling his hand on my lower back.

“No.” I set the box down. “It’s just some of my old candles.”

“I wondered where those were. I bought them forever ago and Allie was holding onto them for me.”

I whip around, almost smacking my head into his chin. He takes a step back, putting out a hand to steady me.

“You’re the one who bought these?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?” I blurt out, surprised.

His brows furrow in confusion. “You really have to ask why?”

I nod. “I want to know.”

“Because, you left and I had nothing but our memories, that ring,” he points to my finger where the ring sits that he got me so long ago, “and a few candles. When I burned all those up and the house didn’t smell like you anymore, I came here and bought more.”

“They’re all peony. I smell like peonies?”

“You do. And they’re your favorite flower. I guess it had a two-fold purpose.”

“So, you what, just bought up all the peony candles?”

“No, I bought them all.”

“Yeah,” I point at the box, “all the peony ones.”

“No.” He shakes his head, gripping my hips. “No, Sunshine. I bought all of them. Every last candle you made, and I’ve slowly went through them over the years. This just happened to be what I was saving for last. I just never got it picked up. Your mom held onto all of them for me since it was a lot.”

“You … you got all of them? Thayer,” I choke out a laugh, “there must have been at least two-hundred.”

“At least,” he agrees. “But I couldn’t let anyone else have them.”

“You … I …” I can’t seem wrap my head around this.

He cups my cheek. “I lost you, for what I thought was forever. I wanted to hold onto you in any way that I could.” He presses a gentle kiss to my lips. “Let’s leave this for now. There’s something I want to show you.”





I'm surprised when we pull into the driveway of the house. “Why are we back home?”

Thayer puts his truck in park, shutting off the ignition. “Because what I want to show you is here.”

I rack my brain, trying to think about what he could possibly be referring to but nothing comes to mind.

Undoing my seatbelt, I climb out of the truck and follow him. He doesn’t go inside like I expect, instead I follow him out back.

He leads me around the fenced in pool, following the pathway that leads to the greenhouse. I haven’t ventured out here yet. I’m not even sure why.

Opening the door, he waits, letting me go in first.

My jaw drops. Spinning in circles, I take in the beautiful pink flowers. They’re everywhere. The entire greenhouse is filled with peonies.