by Nella Tyler
“All right. First I need you to help me with some things.”
“Okay!” I unlocked the car and got out, walking around to the back seat to help Landon out of the booster chair.
We went into the florist’s shop and I spotted the woman I hoped I had talked to earlier in the day. “Hey,” I said, letting Landon close the door behind us. “I called earlier to ask if you had any peonies.” The woman’s eyes widened slightly in recognition and she grinned.
“I remember,” she said, coming out from behind the counter. “It’s not the usual request for this time of year, but we do actually have some in. They’re not as beautiful as the ones we get at the beginning of summer, but they are still up to our standards.” She looked down at Landon. “Do you want to help me wrap them up?”
“Yeah!” Landon practically jumped up and down at the offer. I followed the florist to the back area of the shop, and saw the flowers I’d requested; she’d set them aside when I called, and when I saw them it was easier to understand why Mack loved them so much. The big bouquet of peonies was just beginning to open, revealing fluffy cream-pink flowers that looked delicate and intricate and strong all at once—just like Mack. The florist gathered them up in her arms and trimmed the leaves from all but the top of the stems, and I watched as Landon helped her wrap them up in ribbon and plastic to keep them neat.
I paid for the flowers and thanked the woman and hurried Landon back out to the car; we were going to be cutting it close, but I hoped that we’d still be able to get to his session on time. I wanted to surprise Mack—but I didn’t want to give her any more reasons to be upset at me. I wove through traffic from the flower shop to the clinic, feeling jittery and as nervous as I had the first time that I’d gotten Mack to meet with me at the coffee shop.
“Okay, bud,” I said when I pulled into a parking spot in the structure attached to the clinic. “One last thing I need you to do for me. Think you’re up to it?”
“What is it?” Landon was fidgety with excitement in the back seat.
“Take the flowers in for me, okay? I’ll be right outside. You run in first with the flowers and tell Mack that they’re from me, and then I’ll come in. How’s that sound?”
“Should I tell her you’re sorry?” Landon grinned.
“Yes,” I said, smiling in spite of myself. I was starting to get excited by my plan. I felt a flicker of doubt. I hoped that Mack wouldn’t think that this was too much, that she wouldn’t be embarrassed at the big gesture. “Tell her that I’m really sorry for how I’ve messed things up. Can you do that?” I held out the bouquet to my son.
“I can do that!” Landon took the flowers from me with a quick snatch.
“Be careful with them,” I told him sharply. “It’d be terrible to hurt the flowers before you get them to her, wouldn’t it?” Landon considered that question and then nodded.
I let him out of the car and watched him race towards the front door of the clinic as fast as he could; his limp was almost completely gone, and I thought that it was just as well that I’d managed to luck into a chance to make things right with Mack when I had—Landon couldn’t possibly have too many sessions left before Mack cleared him.
I locked up the car and waited for a moment before following my son into the clinic. I opened the door and saw that he had somehow managed to convince Mack to come out from the back right away. She was standing frozen in shock, staring at the flowers, the sweetest smile on her face that I had ever seen in my life. I strode from the door to where Mackenzie and Landon stood, and she looked up from the bouquet, her eyes still showing her shock. She shook her head, and smiled again. “You remembered.”
“I did,” I said, nodding. The other members of the staff had gone quiet; everyone was watching us. “I know you wanted to keep things professional whenever we’re here together, but I wanted to show you how sorry I am that I let everything fall apart the way I did.”
“It’s—no, it’s fine,” Mack said quickly. “I’m just so surprised you were able to get peonies…and that you brought them…” She looked down at Landon and then looked at me again. “They’re beautiful.”
“That was the first part,” I said, smiling still. “I was also wondering if you had any plans for after you get done with work for the day.”
“No,” she said.
“Would you do Landon and me the honor of coming to dinner with us? I know you have to do some more things after the session is over, but we can wait for you.”
“You want to take me to dinner with you and Landon?”
I chuckled at the sheer surprise in her voice. “I do. And Landon wants to go out with us, too,” I said, reaching out and fondling my son’s hair.
“Does that sound good to you?”
“It does,” Mack said. She buried her face against the peony blooms and I saw her take a deep breath. “No one in this office is ever going to let me live this down,” she told me, grinning wryly. “But it is totally worth it.” She took another deep breath and I saw one of her hands dart up to dash away a couple of what I hoped were happy tears. “Let’s head to the back and I’ll put these in some water.” She looked down at Landon. “We’ve wasted too much time on your session sport.”
“Let’s get to work then,” I agreed. “The sooner we get started, the sooner we can meet you outside to go to dinner.”
The session itself went by faster than I thought it would, and Landon was still brimming with energy by the time Mackenzie told him he was done for the day; he hopped up and down while she and I went through the motions of being professional, discussing his progress. She told me that she thought that by the next week, she could re-evaluate his condition and that she might be able to even move him down to once or twice per week sessions for a few more weeks, and then discharge him to go about his life as normal.
“I just need to do some paperwork and then I can meet you outside,” Mack told me, glancing at the bouquet that she’d put into a vase of water before we’d started the session. “I have a change of clothes in my locker too, if you can wait for me.”
“You look beautiful no matter what you wear,” I told her. The rest of the staff at the clinic had looked at us over and over again during the session, grinning in a truly happy way.
“Give me maybe fifteen minutes, and I’ll be right out,” Mack told me.
“Remember to take the flowers with you!” Someone told her.
“I will,” Mack said, rolling her eyes. “Hurry up and make your escape before someone finds the mistletoe from the holiday party.” I laughed and made my retreat, leading Landon through the waiting room and out to the car outside.
“What are you going to get at the restaurant, buddy?” I asked my son while we settled in to wait for Mackenzie to be able to leave the office.
“Mozzarella sticks!” I laughed at his choice.
“You’re going to need more than that,” I pointed out. We discussed the different things that he could make a dinner out of, and fifteen minutes later—maybe a little less—I saw Mackenzie come out of the building and head for the parking structure. She looked around and I honked the horn to get her attention, rolling down my window. Mack started slightly at the loudness of the car horn and then hurried over to my SUV, smiling and carrying the flowers I’d gotten for her in the vase she’d put them in.
“They told me I could leave my car here if I had to,” Mackenzie told me. “I have tomorrow off, I can take the bus up here from my apartment.”
“Hurry up and get in before you freeze,” I told her, unlocking the car door. Mackenzie handed me the flowers and then hurried around to the passenger side, and I realized that she had taken the time to change into a pair of jeans and a sweater under her big coat.
In minutes we were out in the Chicago traffic. Mackenzie turned around, peering over the back of her seat to talk to Landon. “Do you know where we’re going for dinner?”
“Ed Debevic’s!” Landon exclaimed, looking pleased with himself that he had managed to get
the name out clearly.
“Oh? Awesome!” Mack glanced at me and grinned. “That sounds like the perfect place for everyone to find something.”
“There’s another reason for it,” I told her, licking my lips and stopping as smoothly as I could at a light. I looked at Mack, wondering if I was overplaying my hand a little bit. “It’s the first restaurant that Joanne and I took Landon to, a couple of months after he was born.”
“Really?” Mack looked at me sharply for a moment and then her expression softened. “I’m flattered.”
“Obviously Landon wasn’t eating actual food then, and we went during their quiet hours instead of during the dinner rush, but Joanne had been craving their chili fries ever since she’d delivered.” I smiled, remembering that we’d put off going in the hope that we’d be able to use it as our celebration of successful treatment of Joanne’s cancer; instead, when it became clear that the treatment wasn’t going to work, we’d stopped the chemo and gone that same night to the restaurant, bringing in a sleeping infant and going to town on all of our favorite foods until we were uncomfortably full.
“She seems to have been a woman with very good taste,” Mack said.
“Dad says she had horrible taste—she married him.”
I snorted, shaking my head at what Landon felt the need to contribute to the conversation.
“That was a joke Bud,” I told my son.
“Well I think she must have been a beautiful, wonderful woman,” Mack said, looking from me to Landon. “Your dad has worked hard to make sure you’re growing up to be a good kid, but I think your mom must have been great for him to be so successful.”
We arrived at the restaurant; it was just starting to get busy, with people coming in as much for the warmth as to eat dinner, and I was glad that we were able to get a table—and that Mack hadn’t needed another fifteen minutes, though I would have given them to her if she’d asked.
I ordered the mozzarella sticks that Landon wanted, but under Mack’s influence, my son ordered pot roast instead of his usual chicken strips, and when I asked him whether he’d eat the vegetables if I got it for him, he just gave me a look that told me I was embarrassing him. Mack ordered the meatloaf, and I got a burger.
I had worried more than a little that Landon wouldn’t be up to behaving himself through dinner, with Mack there and with the noisy atmosphere of a restaurant after being so hyped up from his PT session; but he was polite, letting Mack and me talk, sticking with his coloring or playing with one of the toys I’d let him bring with him into the restaurant. Mack made a point of asking him about school, about soccer, all the things that Landon loved.
By the time we ordered a dessert to share, I had relaxed completely. Landon was perfectly fine with Mack outside of the session, and Mack was able to handle my son just as well in a restaurant as she did while she was putting him through physical therapy. Everyone was happy—most of all me. “I just have to drop him off at my sister’s,” I told Mack.
“Can’t I stay with you guys?” Landon asked from the back seat of the car.
“Not tonight bud,” I told him. “Mack and I need a little time alone.” I looked over at the woman I loved and grinned.
“Maybe next time we all do dinner together we can go home and you and I can work on that kite,” Mack suggested. Immediately Landon was on board, and the whole way to my sister’s house that was all he wanted to talk about. I couldn’t wait to get him to Jess’ place so that I could be alone with Mack—it had been far, far too long since we’d been alone together.
Chapter Three -Mackenzie
“Are you sure you want to go home with me? I mean—if you do, I’m totally thrilled, but I can drop you off at your car if you want to wait a little bit.”
I grinned at Patrick as I fastened my seatbelt. I was a little uneasy at the fact that I had started to become turned on while Landon was still with us, but now that Patrick and I were alone together, I wouldn’t have let him drop me off at my car if he paid me.
“I am absolutely sure that if you try to avoid sex with me, I’m going to be disappointed no matter how great the rest of the night has gone,” I told him. Patrick chuckled and turned the key in the ignition, starting up the car. He pulled out of the driveway and turned onto the street, and as soon as he straightened the car out, he reached over and took my hand in his.
“I’m not even sure if the apartment is worth seeing,” Patrick told me, shaking his head and smiling. “It’s pretty much a constant disaster area, no matter how often I make Landon clean up after himself.”
I shrugged, rubbing my thumb against his palm. “You live with a five-year-old boy,” I pointed out. “I would be more weirded out if your place was absolutely spotless.”
“As long as you know what you’re getting into,” Patrick said, raising an eyebrow. I giggled and nodded.
“I can deal with some mess,” I told him again. “I’m just glad to be alone with you again.”
“You have no idea,” Patrick told me, his hand tightening on mine. “I kept wishing I could spend the day with you all alone ever since the last date.”
“Even with how weird things were?”
I looked at Patrick sharply. It was hard to believe that even when things had been strained between us—and I still didn’t quite know why—he had been thinking about me, wanting to be alone with me.
“That was my fault,” Patrick said, shifting uncomfortably.
“How’s that?” I kept playing my thumb against his warm, dry palm, tracing the lines as Patrick drove us out of Jessica’s neighborhood and towards his place.
“I got all in my own head,” Patrick explained. “I had been…well, I guess you probably realize that with Landon I have to be pretty serious about anyone that I date. I can’t just have a lot of casual flings.”
“I can get that,” I said, nodding.
“And things had been going so well between us that I wanted to kind of—sound you out, I guess. See if you were looking for something more than what we’d been up to.”
“Not looking for it exactly,” I said, thinking about what he said. “But I’m not against the idea of things getting serious.”
“I was trying to find out without being direct,” Patrick said. He sighed. “That was why I asked you all those questions about getting married and having kids. I wanted to know whether you’d be okay becoming part of a family.”
“I’ve been thinking about that a lot,” I told him. “I’m…” I took a deep breath and tried to think of how to say what I wanted to say. “I was worried that you wouldn’t think I’d be a good part of Landon’s life. And I don’t know if I’m exactly ready, but I’m not—I’m not against the idea of becoming a more stable part of you and Landon’s life.”
“One of the things Jessica beat me up over was the fact that I didn’t just ask you outright what you wanted—and what you were comfortable with—in the relationship,” Patrick said. He shook his head briefly. “I can see I was just being an idiot.”
“Well I wasn’t exactly at my best on that either,” I said; I didn’t want him to feel completely horrible about how things had almost gone wrong between us. It was only fair to take my own part of the responsibility. “I didn’t really know what to say when you asked about family and marriage…it’s been so long since I’ve really thought about it as something I could have.”
“I’m glad that we had a chance to talk alone,” Patrick said. “I’m not about to tell Landon that you’re going to be his new mom, but I wanted to make sure everything was clear between us, and that we both knew where we stood.”
“That’s a good idea,” I said. My heart beat faster in my chest; I’d never been to Patrick’s place but from the way he was driving I could tell we were getting closer by the moment. He turned into a driveway outside of a nice-looking clump of row houses, and let go of my hand long enough to park the car before turning to me once more.
“I want you to know,” Patrick said slowly. “I love you.”
/> I stared at him, stunned by his confession.
“I know it’s really soon to say it, and I’m not telling you to try and make you say it back, but I love you.”
“You do?” My voice came out in a squeak.
“I haven’t felt this way about anyone since my wife passed away,” Patrick told me. “Joanne was a wonderful woman, and if she had lived she would have been a great mom to Landon; but I’ve come to terms with the fact that she’s gone and never coming back.” He licked his lips and held my gaze for a long moment of silence. “I don’t want you to ever think that I’m comparing you to her, or that you come in second, or anything like that. I care about you. I want to see where this goes.”
“Thank you,” I said, smiling through the tears that had started to form in my eyes at his beautiful words. “I—I don’t know if I can say ‘I love you, too’ just yet—I’m still kind of jumbled up inside. But I care about you a lot. I like you a lot; and I like Landon too. You’re the best guy I’ve ever met.” I swallowed against the tight feeling in my throat and suddenly my whole body began to relax.
Patrick leaned in close and brushed his lips against mine. I kissed him back slowly at first, almost hesitating from how strangely nervous I felt. Then as Patrick deepened the kiss, I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, pulling him closer to me, pressing my body against his in the little bit of space we had in the front of the SUV. For what felt like almost an hour we did nothing more than kiss, holding each other, touching each other all over, exploring each other’s bodies through our clothes as our tongues slid against each other.
I felt the heat building up inside of me, my muscles tightening, and every moment I became more and more turned on as Patrick broke away from my lips to kiss along the column of my throat, down to the collar of my sweater and then back up to my mouth once more. I felt like I was on fire, tingling all over, and when I broke away from his lips to catch my breath, I could see the condensation fogging the windows. “Maybe we should go inside,” I suggested breathlessly. Patrick looked around, dazed, and then nodded, chuckling lowly.