Hearts and Flowers (Hearts Series Book 2)

by A. M. Brooks

  It’s early afternoon and it’s the time of the year where the days are longer. I type another quick text to Lily then run to my bathroom to throw my suit on. She chimes back quickly.

  Nora: Surf?

  Lily: Hells yeah ;)

  I pocket my phone with my wet suit and race out the door. Releasing myself from my sadness is liberating. I crank up some old school “Put On” by Jeezy and Kanye while cruising down the hills. When I get to the last light before my turn, I catch sight of a tattoo shop across the street. My fingers tap against the steering wheel while I contemplate which way to turn.

  Nora: Better idea…tattoos?

  The bubbles appear.

  Lily: How about we surf then tattoos…

  I laugh and type back before my light turns green.

  Nora: ;)

  A week later, I’m standing on our front steps in my red cap and gown smiling for pictures. Not surprisingly, Darrian had been right. Staying busy had made the time go by faster. As promised, we talked every day and I loved hearing how excited he was about the campus and the team. He was excited to hear about my tattoo. I promised to show him after the party today. I had decided to get an ocean wave on my ribs. It was less tender by now and did not peel. I had thought my sleepover would be the highlight of my weekend, but it was actually during brunch at Tilly’s when my dad got down on one knee and proposed to Jodi that took the honor. I couldn’t be happier for them. They were already planning a wedding for the following winter during my school break. Jodi wanted a destination wedding and my dad wanted whatever Jodi wanted.

  I stood between them as my dad tried to get us all in the frame for a selfie. They already were bickering like a married couple. I was paying more attention to them I didn’t notice anyone else until I was lifted off my feet.

  “Ah!” I laugh, expecting one of the twins. I turn, ready to pull him in for a headlock when sparkling grey eyes met mine.

  “Darrian!” I fling my arms around his neck, holding him tighter.

  “Happy graduation day,” he says, spinning me around.

  “When did you get in?” I question once he put me down. “I thought you were going to call me?”

  “I just got in a little while ago.” He shrugs. “I wanted to surprise you.”

  “You did,” I say. I smile before he leans in and kisses me. Although it’s a simple kiss, my parents are around, it still sends a flicker of heat through me.

  “All right, all right,” my dad says, pretending to push an arm between us. Darrian steps back laughing. He and my dad shake hands. “How’s the first week of practice been?” my dad asks him.

  “Brutal,” Darrian admits. “It’s been all strength and conditioning so far.”

  “Yikes,” Jodi says, stepping up next to my dad.

  “I hear congratulations are in order,” Darrian says. My dad and Jodi both smile and thank him.

  “We should probably get going,” my dad warns after glancing at his watch.

  “Is it okay if I ride with Darrian?” I question. My eyes plead with them to say yes.

  “Fine by me,” my dad answers.

  Darrian takes my hand and we dart to his Jeep.

  “I’m so happy you made it,” I tell him again. He maneuvers us through traffic to the school. Graduation would be taking place outside on the new field.

  “I wouldn’t miss it, baby,” he states. His voice a soft caress to my ears. He was only gone a week and I missed him this much. “Do you have plans after the commencements?”

  “No,” I respond. We talked about getting food but never really decided on anything.

  “Will you go with me then?” he asks.

  “Yes!” I answer enthusiastically. “Where are we going?”

  “Surprise,” he smirks. I smile back. I’d go anywhere with him if I’m being honest. I’d probably jump off a cliff if he said it looked like fun and jumped too.

  When we get to the school, I have enough time to run in and join the alphabetical line. My veins hum with excitement. Almost two years ago, when my dad said we were moving to Araminta, I never could have imagined my life turning out this way. I thought we would have just been another blip on the town’s radar as we passed through. Exchanging smiles with Olivia and Shea, Lily blows me a kiss, and Ethan and Elijah give me a head nod, I realize how crazy my life turned out here. I never wanted to make friends. I never wanted to stay in place. I had only wanted to get out from under my dad’s thumb. Now he was getting married, with no plans to move anytime soon, and I had ride or die friends who have proved their loyalty to me on more than one occasion. Risked their safety for my own, and never let me feel like I was alone. When I finally flipped my tassel and threw my cap in the air, I felt a peace I had been missing. This chapter was closing. The book was ending. My happily ever after though…that was just starting.

  “Just admit it,” Lily says over the phone. “You are more excited to be moving in with him than you were with me.”

  “Nah uh,” I act shocked while shoving more of my clothes into boxes. “I was very excited to live with you. Plus, let’s not talk about who was more excited to leave. You haven’t been living here for almost six months,” I remind her.

  “That was special circumstances.” She laughs on the other end of the line.

  “Yeah,” I huff. “Special circumstances. You eloped in Vegas.”

  “You of all people should know what it’s like going through what I did. He was very persistent,” she argues, and I smile. At nineteen years old, my best friend is married to the love of her life after a quickie wedding at the Little White Chapel. A week after that, she transferred colleges and has been living with her husband in New York. I roll my eyes.

  “Yeah, yeah,” I agree. Being chased by a King was not an easy task to avoid. Once they had you in their sights, you were toast.

  “When do you leave?” she asks.

  “I’m shipping the last of my stuff there tonight then my flight is tomorrow morning at six,” I tell her.

  I lasted a year at UNC before missing Darrian became too much. My dream changed. Being with Darrian became more important. I was ready to leave when Lily did, but my amazing boyfriend made me stick it out to make sure it’s what I really wanted. When I told him I was one hundred percent in, we started looking at majors, and I filled out my application for Gonzaga. I didn’t let him use his connections for my admittance. I wanted it all on my own. A month later, I received my acceptance letter and I slowly started the process of transferring credits. I also took the time to say goodbye to my family in the area. It had been nice to reconnect with them, but I was now a west coast girl in my blood.

  “Is Darrian picking you up at the airport?” Lily asks. I hear another voice in the background and figure Ethan must be home.

  “Yes,” I answer her. “They’re done with morning practice for a few months, so he is able to get me.” After his sophomore year, Darrian earned back respect from players and coaches both on the court and off the court. He earned back a scholarship and is heading into his junior year as a starter. At the end of last year, he has been averaging thirty-four minutes of playing time and scoring twenty to twenty-two points a game. He was turning heads and creating a name for himself at the college level. If the year went well, Darrian was planning to declare for the draft at the end of the season.

  “Good,” she answers. “I didn’t want you to have to get an Uber or something in a new place.”

  “I’m going to be just fine,” I tell her. “And I will just say again, you live in New York.”

  She laughs loudly over the phone before turning serious again. “Oh hey, I almost forgot, have you talked to Liv yet?”

  “No, why?” I ask, feeling uneasy.

  “I guess she went to visit Trent recently,” Lily answers.

  “Oh fun!” I say, not understanding why she seems so irritated. “That little shit never answers his phone anymore these days.”

  “I think he lost it,” she replies. “Anyway, Liv met the ne
w girlfriend.”

  “And…” I say, my voice trailing off.

  “Liv said the chick gave her weird vibes.”

  “Weird vibes? Like how?” I ask.

  “I don’t know, Liv thought she was being sneaky about stuff. Then there’s the whole phone thing. This is Trent’s fifth phone number in six months,” Lily says.

  “Could be a coincidence,” I throw out there.

  “Yeah,” Lily agrees, but I can tell she doesn’t fully believe it. “I don’t know. Liv just seemed kind of freaked out I guess.”

  “But Trent likes her?” I inquire, reminding her of the most important part.

  “Yeah.” I can hear her eyes roll over the phone. “He’s head over toes for that one I guess.”

  “Well, there isn’t much we can do then. You know how it is when you love someone you shouldn’t,” I remind her.

  “Touché,” she fires back. “Alright, I have to go. Ethan needs my help with something.”

  “Right,” I answer, laughing. Ethan always needs her help with something...something in the bedroom. We hang up and I finish packing. I could wait to move tomorrow. But I can’t wait to be in the same space as Darrian, breathing his air, and holding him tight. Absence did make the heart grow fonder. So fond it decided to pack a bag and create a new life in Washington.

  Darrian: I can’t wait to officially live with you tomorrow. I love you Nora Sutton.

  Nora: I love you too Darrian King <3

  Back in high school if anyone had told me I would be getting married one day, I would have laughed and punched them out. If they had told me I would be drafted sixth over-all pick in the NBA draft to the Phoenix Suns and getting married a year later, I would have told them to get their brain scanned. Being drafted was the goal, but getting the chance to make Nora my wife was a fucking dream come true.

  I admit I was skeptical of her moving back across the country to live with me her sophomore year. I didn’t want people to think I made her give up her dream or was pressuring her in any way. The first year was tough, but we stuck it out and saw each other as often as we could. I wasn’t too bummed when she said enough and that she was transferring to be with me. I rented a place for us the next day even though the whole moving process took months. I had been excited. I didn’t care.

  Junior year turned out to be a huge season for me. Whether it was Nora being close by or just back in my zone and sober, I’m not sure. It wasn’t a surprise to anyone I decided to declare for the draft, even though my coach had to basically bribe me to do it. Then actually being drafted…that feeling when the team manager calls your name and hands you a jersey…it was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. All the noise faded. Only Nora’s smile and Ethan and Elijah’s congratulations kept me together.

  Thankfully, Nora agreed to follow me out to Phoenix. She was completing her degree in a few months as an addiction counselor. A career I had no doubt she was perfect for. Nora flourished everywhere we went. She made new friends and somehow still managed to keep in touch with old ones. She called our parents once a week on FaceTime and I would participate. Some old wounds might never heal, but Nora sure was trying. Mr. Sutton and Jodi had tied the knot on a beach in Aruba. We both had been able to attend. Nora was happy her dad was settling down and ‘found someone to put up with him,’ she liked to joke.

  The night I proposed to her was our last night in Araminta before moving to Arizona. We had planned to stay at our house before another flight that would take us to our next home. I rounded up Ethan, Elijah, and Lily to set up the house. I wanted it to look exactly as it did the first time I brought her there after the school dance. I took the cheesy route and used purple rose petals to create a path to the back patio. I’ll never forget the look on her face when she stepped out the glass doors. She’s always beautiful to me, but there was something different about that night. She looked softer, fragile almost. She was hopeful and she was completely loved. Tears had shone in her hazel eyes. I hit play on her still favorite song of all time, and I completed it all with the down-on-one-knee act. Thank fuck she said yes.

  It took Nora only a year to plan our dream wedding. Finding a date had been the only challenge as we were forced to pick from the offseason. We made it work though, and Nora handled everything with ease. I couldn’t wait to see her. I couldn’t wait to slip the sparkling gold band in place next to the single solitaire diamond already resting on her finger.

  “No fucking way,” Elijah says from behind me. I turn around to look at what he’s talking about. He holds up his phone for me to see.

  Professional Motocross Racer Trent Nichols Arrested This Morning on Drug Charges

  The headline reads.

  “What does it say?” I demand as he scans the article. We’re making a commotion now.

  Ethan walks toward us, joining the circle. “What happened?” he asks.

  “Nichols was arrested for drug-related charges in the second-largest drug-related raid in California since 2019,” Elijah reads word for word from the article. I shake my head, not believing it.

  “Yeah right,” Ethan says, taking out his phone.

  “Did this happen after he got in last night?” I question, scanning my own news feed.

  “Must have,” Elijah replies. “Dude doesn’t live here. He’s only in town for the wedding.”

  “Set-up?” I ask. They both go still. It had been almost four years since Trent helped against Pierce and the cartel. We had thought he made it out without looking like a narc, but this didn’t add up right.

  I glance at the clock and see the ceremony starts in five minutes. “Okay, no one says anything to Nora until after the reception.”

  “How are you going to explain that one of her best friends couldn’t make it?” Ethan asks.

  My mind blanks.

  “Ahh, guys,” Elijah says, tapping my shoulder.

  I turn and see my beautiful bride looking pissed off, not crying as I had imagined. “Too late,” she tells me before collapsing against my chest. I hold her tight in my arms. “What are we going to do? There is no way that is real,” she argues.

  “I’ll look into it after,” I reassure her, pulling her closer against me. “Don’t worry, baby.”

  I feel her nod against my chest. She pulls back and I get a better look at her. This is not exactly how I pictured our first look would be, but she’s beautiful all the same. The white satin material clings to her curves. There is minimal glitz and glam because that’s just Nora. She doesn’t need the bling and there is something elegant in the plainness of her dress. Around her neck is the gold chain and solitaire diamond I gave her the Christmas after our engagement. In her ears is a pair of her mom’s earrings. Her hair is swept over her shoulder in a curly braid, white flowers weaved through it.

  “You clean up nice, Sutton,” I say, taking her usual line she likes to use on me.

  Despite the circumstances that brought her down here, she smiles. “Not so bad yourself, King.”

  I press a light kiss next to her lips. “Let’s get married,” I say, returning her smile. She nods.

  Half an hour later it’s official. Nora is mine and I am hers forever. I glance down at the simple black band on my finger, amazed at how my life has turned out up until this point. The love of the girl next to me saved me over and over. I’ll never forget how I put her through hell, but I will also always remember her unbelievable strength. Her loyalty, and most importantly, the kindness of her heart.

  Pulling her to my side, where she will forever stay, I lean down, my mouth brushing her ear. “I love you, Nora King. So fucking much.”

  She smiles when I use her new name. “I love you, Darrian King, so much. Always.”

  eyes closed and I lost to the shadows.

  Sneak Peek….

  WHERE DEMONS HIDE

  Winter 2019

  Gathering my long black hair off my neck, I paced around the back parking lot, breathing deeply and letting the tension roll off me. Nothing has been the sa
me. I was left all alone. The guys started flaking off. True, I didn’t answer their phone calls, but I was pissed. We were supposed to be a family. When one of your own dies you stick around a lot longer than till after the funeral. Except if you’re Seth, because he didn't even bother to show up at all. I get it, Seth and Blake were tight, but so were Blake and I. We shared more than the same DNA. Even though we were three years apart in age, Blake had raised me when the woman we call mom couldn’t. Our sperm donor hadn’t stuck around long enough for me to know him or for Blake to even know how to say the word dad. I hadn’t even bothered to find him to let him know about the funeral. It had always just been Blake and I and now it was just me. I had no idea what I was doing half the time. I felt like I was sinking. It was time to decide what I wanted to do for the rest of my life and I was avoiding it.

  “Palmer, I said five minutes, not a lunch break,” Luis yelled out the door. "You have company, don't take long, April just sat you a three top by the bar.”

  “Yes, sir.” I saluted to him as I whisked back inside.

  I generally like Luis, for the most part. He was gruff at forty-five and looked like he had the body of a teddy bear. I didn't like to piss him off. He gave me a job when I wanted to help Blake make our rent so we could stay in Nevada. In the past, Luis had often turned his head the other way if I stole a can of tomatoes and didn’t ask questions when we would take off to Las Vegas once a month. During that time, Blake and the guys would work at the hotels as any type of help that was needed. Many times I went with, even when I got to the age where I could stay behind if I had wanted. The guys never made me feel awkward about being the little sister. I had been adopted by all of them. Too bad that courtesy didn't last past identifying Blake's body at the morgue.