“No, don’t...apologize for him. But...is there, like, a plant I could get him?” she asked. Maybe a peace offering was the way to go. Right now she seemed to just be going the Purposefully Ruffle His Feathers Route, which was honestly really stupid and wasn’t going to solve anything.
“Well, sure...you could get him an azalea,” Kate said.
“An azalea?”
“Yeah, it’s a flower, but they grow native here so it’s less...groomed and more...manly. A manly flower.”
“Okay,” Sadie said. “A manly flower. I’m down with that. I’ll get him an apology azalea. And then maybe we can try to talk again. Like adults instead of sniping children.”
Kate winced. “Was it that bad?”
“I don’t know. But some of it was my fault. We just...rub each other the wrong way.” And she had a feeling that a lot of her annoyance boiled down to the strange tightening in her stomach whenever he was around.
Of course, putting it like that made it seem like she didn’t know what that was, when she knew full well what it was. It was just...unusual in this context.
Usually she felt that level of excitement, that sort of low, giddy tug, when she was about to have sex. A brief little flash of anticipation. If she remembered right. It had been an awfully long time.
She was not used to it in regards to a man she wasn’t interested in. Was not used to it being connected to a man she didn’t like, much less a man she wasn’t in a relationship with.
She was something of a serial monogamist. She’d meet a guy, they’d go on a few dates and they’d have fun while it lasted. And when things got...un-fun, they’d stop. There was no second-guessing, or yelling at each other. There were no question marks. She liked it straightforward and simple.
Her most recent ex, Marcus, was a classic example of that. They’d met at her gym. He was hot. He was fun. They’d gone on some dates, and then slipped easily into a physical relationship. And then, he’d gone and screwed it up by asking for a drawer. The man had never spent the night, and he wanted a drawer in her dresser.
It had been, to Sadie at least, a clear sign that they wanted two different things. And while her instinct had been to placate him or string him along, she knew that it wouldn’t benefit either of them. And a lovely time in their lives would only be remembered for the discord in the end. She said a big no-thank-you to that.
It was always better to let someone go too soon than to hold on too long.
She liked it clear. And she liked it simple.
There was nothing simple about the way Eli made her feel. And there was nowhere for it to go. So, it could just stop.
But then, even when she’d been a teenage miscreant, loath to deal with his presence, she’d found him hot. So, if she knew anything about herself, it was that her body was die-hard stupid for Eli.
“Well, Eli really is a decent guy,” Kate said, adding a plant with fuchsia flowers to the cart. “So I’m sure once you get on the same page he’ll be reasonable.”
“You think?”
“I don’t know. But I’m just his sister. So often he’s not reasonable with me, but I tend to think that’s genetics at work.”
“Right. Well, I’m an only child, so I’m not really up on the dynamic.”
“That must have been lonely,” Kate said.
For some reason, her words hit a sore spot. “Uh...” Sadie cleared her throat. “I had a lot of friends.” Friends she hadn’t spoken to in a decade. Were they here? Were they gone? She had no idea.
She didn’t hold on. It wasn’t healthy. And she was a bastion of positive mental health and good feelings. And stuff.
“Well, that’s nice. I have...minimal friends, actually,” Kate said. “But you know, the ones I have are good. People who love horses as much as I do.”
“Hey, that’s important. And it’s better than lots of crappy friends anyway.” Her friends hadn’t really been crappy. Sure, they’d been terrible influences on each other, but they’d all had sucky lives. Smoking in the woods, drinking beer and making out were the best they could do since their homes were in such a sorry state.
“Yeah, I’m sure that’s true,” Kate said, putting a few leafy greens onto the cart. “Do you want some basil or mint or anything?”
“Oh, yeah!” she said. “Any. All. Can I put those in the windowsill in the kitchen?”
“Yep. I’ll grab herbs on our way back inside and you can wait for me at the counter.”
“Thank you,” she said. “For your help and the discount and...not hating me.”
“Eli doesn’t hate you,” Kate said, shoving the cart in through the door, her petite frame obviously a lot more muscled than it appeared at first glance. “He doesn’t hate anyone. He’s really very decent down to his core.”
Sadie went to the front of the counter and set her coffee on the rough-hewn wooden top, digging in her back pocket for her credit card. “He seems like he is.”
“He took care of me for most of my life. Our mom left when I was little. You probably knew that. Everyone knows that.” She reached around and tugged on her braid, the gesture so childlike and sad it made Sadie ache a little bit. “Anyway...” She flipped her hair over her shoulder and went about grabbing the scanner and checking the plants. “Our dad... Things were hard for him after that and someone had to take care of the ranch—that was Connor. And someone had to take care of me and the house. And...Eli did that.”
Sadie cleared her throat, strange, aching emotion pressing in and making it feel tight. “Well, then it’s a good thing I plan on extending an olive branch. Apology azalea. Whatever. I mean, since he’s such a good guy.”
The total flashed up on the screen, and Kate tapped away on the ten key, bringing the amount down by almost half, and Sadie sighed in relief. “Really. Really, thank you.”
“Really, no problem. Maybe...maybe we could hang out sometime?”
“Yeah, maybe. I think...I probably won’t get to plant these until tomorrow. But if you’re around, maybe we could work on it together?”
Kate brightened. “Sure! And actually, if you don’t need them now, if you want I could put them in the bed of my truck and bring them home tonight. Then you wouldn’t get dirt in your car.”
Kate’s offer gave Sadie serious feelings in the region of her heart. She wasn’t sure she deserved the other woman’s friendliness. But she wanted it. She wanted a friend, darn it. “Thanks. I’ll take the apology azalea, though, since I need to talk to Eli and I’m not doing it without reinforcement.”
Kate grabbed the largish potted plant from the cart and handed it to Sadie. “Here you go.”
