“Fantastic,” Lily sighed.
Emergency lighting kicked on a second later—just enough to navigate by, casting everything in a greenish glow that made the flowers look otherworldly.
“Back room might have more light,” I suggested, already moving toward it. “The window faces south.”
She followed me into her workspace, and I was right—marginally. The window was bigger here, though the rain streaming down it turned everything outside into an impressionist painting. The room smelled stronger back here, more concentrated—roses and eucalyptus and that green smell of cut stems. Ribbons hung from wooden dowels like silk waterfalls, and mason jars full of tools lined the shelves with military precision.
“At least it’s cozy,” Lily said, but she was rubbing her arms. The temperature had dropped with the storm.
“Here.” I shrugged out of my jacket without thinking, draping it over her shoulders.
“Oh, you don’t have to?—”
“I’m fine.” And I was. The cold felt good, actually. Cleared my head from the fog I’d been walking around in lately.
She pulled the jacket tighter, and something in my chest did a weird flip seeing her wrapped in something of mine. The jacket swallowed her, sleeves hanging past her fingertips.
Thunder crashed directly overhead, loud enough that Lily jumped, bumping into me. I steadied her automatically, hands on her upper arms, and suddenly we were standing very close in the dim light.
“Sorry,” she said, not moving away. “I’m not great with storms.”
“Since when?”
“Since I was seven and lightning hit the tree outside my bedroom window. Split it right in half.” She was talking faster now, nervous. “The sound was incredible. Like the world cracking open.”
Her hands were still pressed against my chest from when she’d bumped into me, and I could feel them trembling slightly. Without thinking, I covered them with mine.
“You’re safe,” I said quietly.
“I know that. Logically. But my body has other opinions.” She laughed, shaky. “This is embarrassing.”
“It’s not.”
The rain was coming down so hard now it sounded like static, white noise that made the rest of the world disappear. It was just us in this green-tinted bubble, surrounded by flowers and ribbon and the smell of approaching winter.
“Can I ask you something?” Lily’s voice was soft.
“Yeah.”
“Why did you come back here? Really? Ben said you had options. Other places you could have gone after...” She trailed off.
After the crash. After my career ended. After everything I’d built fell apart in two point three seconds of twisted metal and screaming tires.
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “Ben offered, and I just... didn’t have the energy to say no to anything.”
“And now?”
“Now?” I looked down at her, still wrapped in my jacket, still letting me hold her hands against my chest. “Now I’m starting to think it wasn’t about energy at all.”
“What was it about?”
The words came without permission, pulled out by the storm and the strange intimacy of being trapped together. “My father called yesterday. First time since the crash.”
Her fingers curled against my chest. “Mario...”
“Eight months of silence. Then yesterday, out of nowhere, he calls. You know why?”
She shook her head.
