A Measure of Love

by Sophie Jackson

  Riley grimaced in confusion. “But we’re friends and . . .”

  “And she was probably waiting for you to ask her.”

  His words slowly settled around them. She had been acting weird recently. She’d snapped every time the dance was mentioned and commented frequently about how she “didn’t want a new dress anyway.”

  “Oh, shit.”

  “Yep,” his father agreed.

  Riley dropped his face to his hands. “What do I do now?”

  He didn’t care that he sounded desperate. He was desperate.

  “You go and ask her.”

  Wow. Didn’t that sound simple?

  “She’s not speaking to me,” Riley confessed. “I told her she was an idiot for going with Blake and . . . a few other things.” He cleared his throat, hating every barbed word he’d thrown at her the last time they’d spoken. “We haven’t talked since Monday.”

  His father sat forward, reaching into his jeans back pocket, and pulled out his wallet. From its depths he retrieved ten dollars and handed it to Riley. “Then my second piece of advice about women is, flowers always work as an apology.”

  Riley gaped. “You want me to buy her flowers?”

  Park nodded. “And apologize your ass off.”

  “Then what?”

  “Then you ask her to the dance.”

  “But what if—”

  “She won’t.”

  “But how can you be sure that—”

  “She will.”

  Riley stood, the ten dollars clenched in his hand. “Okay.” He pointed at his dad. “Flowers. Then I ask her.”

  Park stood, too, his smile wide and maybe a little proud. “Sounds like a plan.”

  · · ·

  Riley grabbed the flowers he’d tied to his handlebars before he dropped his bike on Lexie’s front lawn. He ran up the porch steps, lifted his hand to knock on the door, and paused. Christ. He was suddenly finding it hard to breathe and his heart thumped so hard he could hear it.

  “Grow a set,” he grumbled to himself, knowing that’s exactly what Tate would have said to him had he been there. He gathered himself and knocked twice.

  After a brief moment in which Riley took a few calming breaths, the door opened, and he came face to face with a blue-and-red plaid shirt and a waft of cigar smoke. “Mr. Pierce,” Riley muttered, looking at the man with a nervous smile. He hated that Mr. Pierce intimidated him, especially when he saw how nice the man was with his wife and daughters. Lexie found her father’s contempt toward Riley hysterical. But then, she was and always had been a daddy’s girl.

  Mr. Pierce eyed the flowers in Riley’s hands and cocked an eyebrow.

  Heat surged into Riley’s face. “Is Lexie in, sir?”

  Mr. Pierce exhaled in that disgruntled way he always did around Riley and shouted over his shoulder, “Alexis, that boy is at the door.”

  Lexie’s voice came from the top of the stairs and Riley’s throat tightened. “What?”

  Mr. Pierce turned back into the house, almost closing the door in Riley’s face as he did. “That boy. He’s at the door. With flowers.”

  “He’s here with what?”

  Riley closed his eyes and lifted his face to the heavens. This wasn’t exactly how he’d imagined this would go.

  “What are you doing here?” Lexie’s question had Riley’s eyes snapping open. She stood with her hand on her hip, her expression stern. Like her father, she glanced at the flowers with a mixture of suspicion and surprise.

  He coughed and lifted them, holding them out to her. “Here. These are for you.” She looked at him as though he’d grown a second head. “They’re daisies,” he said, stating the obvious. “I know you like them.”

  She looked between the damned things and Riley’s face a few times before tentatively reaching out for them. “Um, thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.” Riley watched her hold them up to her nose and smell them. “They’re to say I’m sorry.”

  “For what?” Lexie asked quickly. Her expression knew very well what he was apologizing for.

  “For being an idiot.”

  “Riley,” she uttered in exasperation. “If you brought me flowers every time you were an idiot, I’d be able to open my very own florists.”

  Riley couldn’t have been certain, but the laugh he heard come from inside the house sounded like Mr. Pierce.

  “I know,” Riley agreed. “But they’re also to say sorry for . . . not asking you to the dance.”

  For a split second, Lexie looked shocked as hell. “It’s okay.”

  “No,” Riley countered. “It’s not okay. I should have . . . I should have asked you.”

  She toed the floor. “But you didn’t, so . . .”

  Noting her bitter tone, Riley ploughed on regardless. “I know you’ve agreed to go to the dance with Blake. And I know I said some not-so-nice things to you.”

  Her head snapped up, eyes blazing. “You called me a desperate sheep, a Hannah Grand wannabe!”

  Riley winced, his stare on his feet. The underlying hurt in Lexie’s words blatant, now he realized what an ass he’d been. “I know. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.” He shrugged. “Well, I did, but that’s only because I was mad because he doesn’t deserve to take you, and he only wants to take you because you’ll look beautiful and he wants to look good and, Lex, you’re better than that and—”

  “Riley.”

  He snapped his mouth shut and took a deep breath. “Look, I was wondering if—”

  “If what?”

  “If you’d go with me instead.”

  She pressed her lips together, pursing them to the left. “You think you deserve me looking, what was it you said, ‘beautiful’ next to you?”

  Riley’s gaze meandered up the doorframe as he considered his answer. “No.”

  “No?”

  “You’ll look beautiful no matter who takes you,” he said with a lift of his shoulders. “But that’s not why I want to take you.”

  Lexie sighed, apparently confused and losing patience. “Okay. Then why do you want to take me?”

  “Because you’re my best friend,” he answered quickly. “And because . . .”

  Gathering his courage, Riley reached into his back pocket and pulled out the piece of paper he’d kept folded in a box at the back of a drawer for the past four years. “Do you remember giving me this?” he asked as he unfolded the picture of the Earth she’d drawn him on the day he’d defended her.

  Something flashed across Lexie’s blue eyes as she nodded, something that made Riley’s stomach lurch. God, she was so very pretty. “Do you remember what you said it meant, what I meant to you?”

  Lexie licked her lips and nodded again. He’d never known her to be so quiet, but he refused to let it worry him. “Well . . . I brought it to give it back.”

  Lexie blinked as though finally coming to. “What?”

  “I’m giving it back,” Riley repeated.

  The bunch of daisies hit her thigh at the same time a V appeared between her brows. “Why?”

  Riley swallowed and lifted his chin, staring straight at her. “Because I wanted you to know that you mean the same to me.”

  “The same?” Lexie whispered.

  “All the world.”

  For the first time ever, Riley watched as a flush of beautiful pink washed over her cheeks. She shifted on her feet and dipped her chin as though hiding a smile. “Oh.”

  “So,” he breathed and lifted his chest. “I know I’ve been a jerk, but I wanted to ask . . . would you go to the dance with me?”

  The smile started at her eyes and drifted down her cheeks to her mouth. Her mouth, which Riley suddenly had the urge to kiss. His lungs squeezed.

  “Okay,” she answered quietly.

  Riley blinked, meeting her stare. “Okay?”

  “I said so, didn’t I?”

  Riley grinned at her sassy tone. The tone he loved to needle out of her at every opportunity. “Yeah. Okay. Great!”


  “Alexis!” Mr. Pierce’s voice came from the depths of the house, sounding even more amused. “Tell that boy to go home. You have schoolwork to do, and then we’re going to Grandma’s.”

  “Okay, Dad,” she called back, still smiling. She turned to Riley and whispered, “I’ll come over when we get back.”

  And without another word, she leaned over and kissed his cheek. Before Riley could do or say anything, Lexie giggled, clutched the daisies to her chest, and closed the door.

  6

  “Dad’s awake.”

  Tate’s voice drew Riley from a deep sleep filled with sweet and vivid memories of daisies, dances, and pink dresses.

  As though it were just yesterday, Riley remembered him and his parents picking Lexie up the night of the dance, her amazing dress, the coy glances and torturously fleeting touches, and finally, finally getting so close to her that he was unable to resist placing his mouth on hers. Their first kiss. His first kiss. She’d been so damned soft, and the taste of vanilla had made his head spin. He’d gripped her waist as she’d squeezed his arm, hoping to God that he was doing it right. Because it had felt so right. It always had with her.

  The kiss had lasted mere seconds but when they broke apart, breathing heavily and both a little dazed, Riley had known, from the look in her eyes, that everything between them had changed.

  He opened his own eyes to find Tate standing at the side of his bed. It was early. The sun had yet to hit his bedroom window, which it always did from 8 a.m., but Tate was fully dressed. Despite his not being an active Marine in over five years, he was still usually up before sunrise.

  Tate’s words eventually seeped into Riley’s consciousness, forcing him to sit up quickly. “Is he okay? Mom all right?”

  Tate nodded. “The hospital just called; Mom spoke to them. He’s groggy, but he’s okay. He spoke with the nurse and the doctor is on his way to see him.”

  Slumping back in relief, Riley rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands. “You’re going to the hospital?”

  “Yeah. I’ll take Mom. Can you tell Seb?”

  “Sure. We’ll come up later. Maybe best not to overwhelm him.”

  And Riley wasn’t quite ready to see his father just yet. He would, of course, but he didn’t want to add any more tension and stress to an already emotional time. As long as he knew his parents and brothers were okay, he was happy to take a backseat. He and his father would talk, they had to, but not while he was in intensive care recovering from a second heart attack.

  “Gotcha,” Tate said as he turned to leave. “I’ll call you. Maggie’s coming over with Rosie. I think she’s worried we can’t fend for ourselves.”

  Riley smirked. “We’re grown men. Of course we can’t fend for ourselves.”

  Once Tate and their mom had left the house, Riley made his way downstairs, brewed some coffee, and sat with his mug at the kitchen table, trying not to think about what seeing Savannah the day before had made him feel. God, she’d looked shocked as hell when she’d seen him, which shouldn’t have surprised Riley all that much—it had had been a long time since he’d traveled back to Michigan. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to it than that. Riley could have sworn he’d seen panic.

  And the little boy. That was weird. Riley knew the Pierce family had moved from Traverse City not long after Riley’s last visit five years ago, but surely someone would have known about Savannah having a kid. But then, what business was it of his? None. It was none of his business. Riley sighed, glancing out the kitchen window to the yard, where the fence he’d built with his father fifteen years ago still stood tall and strong. He smiled, recollecting what had been a great day. The feelings, though, were so much more potent than usual with the previous night’s dream still tap-tapping at his brain.

  The house phone ringing jolted Riley from his memories. He hopped off his stool and pulled it from its place on the wall. He had to say hello three times before there was a response.

  “Riley? Riley, it’s Dex. Can you hear me?”

  Riley pushed the tip of his finger into his other ear, blocking out any other sound. “Just.”

  “It’s this crappy cell,” Dex grumbled. “Wait a minute.”

  Riley did as he was asked, hearing white noise, a buzz, and then a beat of silence. When his brother’s voice returned to the line it was much clearer. “Jesus, man,” Riley teased. “What shitty company are you working for that your cell doesn’t work properly?”

  Dex snorted. “Tell me about it. The weather’s been playing havoc with the Internet and phone lines here. Lemme tell you, for a group of computer nerds and geeks, it ain’t pretty.”

  Riley leaned his forearm against the wall, realizing belatedly how nice it was to hear Dex’s voice. “How’re things apart from that? Thailand, huh?”

  “Yeah,” he answered nonchalantly. “Things aren’t bad. Busy, you know? How’s Dad? I got a text from Mom saying he was awake.”

  “Yeah, he woke this morning. He’s okay. Tate and Mom have gone to see him. I’m here with Seb.”

  There was a sigh on the other end of the line. “I wish I were there.”

  Riley nodded despite the fact that Dex couldn’t see him. “I know, man, but apart from worrying and pacing, there’s not much to be done.”

  Dex huffed a laugh. “I guess. But knowing he’s ill just makes me feel even farther away from home.” He cleared his throat. “Good to speak to you, though, Riley. It’s been a while.”

  Riley grimaced. “I know. We should arrange something for when you’re next in NYC.”

  “Sounds like a plan, as long as you don’t take me to that club again. There are some things that can’t be unseen.”

  Riley laughed at the memory of the strip joint he’d taken Dex to on Dex’s birthday two years before. His face when he’d walked in the place had been a goddamn picture, and he’d nearly had a coronary when Riley paid one of the girls for a birthday dance. Dex could drink and party with the best of them, but, of the four brothers, Dex was possibly the least open about anything sex related. And it wasn’t that he couldn’t snatch up a hot chick; he just didn’t seem interested. It was almost hilarious how oblivious the man was to the attention he got from members of the opposite sex—the geeky, glasses, tie-wearing look was apparently a turn-on.

  If it hadn’t been for Riley walking in on Dex and a girl he’d met at college one time, he would have wondered if Dex even knew what to do with a woman.

  “I’ll be good, I swear,” Riley offered.

  “I’ll believe that when I see it,” Dex retorted, humor in his voice. “You still young, free, and single?”

  “Yup,” Riley answered, his dream about Lexie flittering through his mind. “Best way to be, man.” Seb appeared in the kitchen doorway, hair in disarray, scratching his bare chest. Before Dex could ask any more about Riley’s relationship status, he said, “Seb’s here. You wanna talk?”

  “Sure,” Dex said. “You take care, yeah?”

  “Always do.” Riley passed the phone to Seb and wandered back to his stool, sipping on the coffee that had cooled. He listened to Seb’s half of the conversation and his reaction to hearing that Park was awake, until his younger brother said good-bye and hung up the phone.

  “So it’s just us?” Seb asked with a yawn.

  “Maggie’s coming later,” Riley said, standing and wandering over to the sink, where he placed his cup.

  Seb nodded while pouring his own coffee. He leaned a hip against the counter’s edge. “So what’s the plan until then?”

  Riley looked out at the blue sky. The sun was still low, but it was already getting warm through the window. It was going to be a gorgeous day. He smiled. “You feel like getting your hands dirty?”

  In fairness, Park hadn’t done a bad job of fixing the roof, but there was still a lot of work to do. After clambering up the ladder to the top of the house, Riley and Seb began pulling up the damaged slate and lining, and reminisced about when they were kids. They laughed unt
il they cried about Tate shooting himself in the ass with a pellet gun. “I was trying to be John McClane!” And about Dex throwing up after getting drunk when he was seventeen, and their dad making him drink more as punishment. “Don’t you dare vomit and waste that beer, son.” And about a three-year-old Seb getting a toilet-training seat stuck around his neck and the three hours it took for their mother to get it off him again. “I am not taking him to the hospital with a toilet seat around his neck, Park!”

  After a good few hours’ work, both of them shirtless, they lay back on the part of the roof they’d fixed and took a break. Tate texted Riley to tell them their father was being moved from ICU to high dependency, where he would stay under observation, but the surgeon was happy. It was good news, and the tightness that had wound through Riley from the minute he’d heard his father was ill eased a fraction.

  “So guess who I saw at the park yesterday,” Riley said casually. Seb looked over, one eye closed against the bright sun. “Savannah Pierce.”

  “No shit.”

  Riley lifted his eyebrows. “Right? Kind of weird to see her there.”

  “How’d she look?”

  Riley exhaled an amused breath. Seb and Savannah had shared a few drink-fueled nights together during their senior year. Savannah had grown quite attached, but Seb had never been serious about her. “Shocked as hell,” Riley replied.

  “No doubt, but that’s not what I meant.”

  “I know.” Riley closed his eyes against the sun. “She looked good. Did you hear anything about her having a baby?”

  Seb’s head snapped back as though he’d been slapped, his expression stunned. “She had a baby?”

  “She was at the park with a little boy,” Riley said with a lift of his shoulders. “You didn’t hear anything?”

  “Not a thing. I never heard much after they moved.”