Blue Roses (13 page)

“Damn straight,” Megan replies. “I had to share mine with Teenie, so I’ve only had half of one. Hey, I’m getting an idea. The band isn’t starting up for a bit, so how about I go get another deep-fried Mars bar, and you can eat half of it?”

He says, “What if I want a whole one, and I don’t like sharing?”

She gets up on her feet, using my shoulder to steady herself. “That’s a great idea, Luca! I’ll be right back. Teenie, watch my stuff.”

She walks off, leaving me alone with Luca.

I glance over at his face for a second, then look away. By the look of the new beard he’s sporting, it’s possible he hasn’t shaved since the last time we spoke. His wavy brown hair is much longer, too. I get a chill, wondering if he stopped shaving and getting haircuts as of that very night.

He clears his throat. “Tina, I don’t know how to be around you.”

I keep staring straight ahead at the empty band stage.

“Just relax. Stuff happens. Sometimes things don’t work out, because they were wrong to begin with.”

“I didn’t know you felt that way,” he says.

“Thanks for cheering me up, anyway. I had fun with you, and I’m doing a lot better now. Just so you know, I took all those photos in my house down, and I got some new ones to put up. I’ve got a great picture of my mom, in Italy.”

“I’m happy for you.”

“I’ll probably fly out to see her soon. I got my passport and everything. I’m moving on, exploring the world.”

“Tina.” His voice is deep yet quiet.

I turn to Luca. His face is so damn attractive that it hurts to look directly at him. My eyes are burning. I grit my teeth and hope he doesn’t say anything kind to me. One kind word or heartfelt apology, and I’m going to lose it.

“I never meant to make you feel bad,” he says. “There’s no excuse for how I am sometimes. I should get a bunch of cards printed up, and on every card, it will read: Sorry I’m a jerk.”

I feel myself melting under his gaze.

“You’ll need a lot of those,” I say, acting tough.

“Will a thousand do?” The corner of his mouth quirks up.

A woman approaches and flops down on the blanket next to Luca. “A thousand what?” she asks.

He turns to her and says, “A thousand pre-printed apology cards, just for me.”

The woman has straight, black hair cut in a bob. She’s stunning and petite, with an adorably tiny nose and small ears.

“Apology cards,” she says, laughing as she speaks. “Oh, Luca, what are we going to do with you?”

I sit quietly and watch as they give each other a series of funny looks, as though they’re communicating without words.

I wish Megan would have warned me Luca has a new girlfriend, because I might have been prepared for the murderous feelings I’m having right now.

Sitting next to me in a recycled shopping bag, I have five or six beaded necklaces. Each of them would be perfect for strangling this chick to death.

She reaches across Luca’s legs with her adorable, dainty hand.

She tells me her name, but my head is buzzing with static, and every nerve in my body is telling me to run. I don’t hear a word of what she’s said. I shake her pretty hand and mumble my name with all the grace of a tranquilized bear.

I feel a hand on my shoulder, and Megan plunks down beside me.

“I got the last two they had.” She hands one paper plate to Luca. “Want another bite?” she asks me, waving the other one under my nose.

I launch myself forward and lurch to my feet, holding my stomach.

“I don’t feel so good,” I moan to her, avoiding looking at Luca and his girlfriend. “I’m going home now to beat the crowd.”

“You sure?” she asks.

Luca says something as well, but I don’t hear him.

I throw myself into the gathering crowd, and disappear.

I’m woken from my sleep by a phone call. My eyes are sore, because I got home from the block party and cried in bed.

The call is coming from the hospital.

My blood runs cold, and I’m awake.

“Hello?”

“Don’t panic,” says the female voice on the line.

“Megan? Rory?”

“I’m a nurse,” she says. “Are you Tina?”

“Yes.” I hold my hand over my chest to keep my heart from leaping out of my chest. “This is Tina. And I’m in a panic. Tell me what’s going on, or you’d better send an ambulance over for me.”

I can hear people laughing in the background, and a man’s voice. In a flash, I know it’s Luca.

“Listen, it’s not an emergency,” she says.

“Is this some sort of sick joke?”

“Ma’am, do you have a vehicle that’s not a motorbike? Would you be able to come and pick up Mr. Luca Lowell?”

The phone slips right out of my hand. My palms are so moist with sweat, my phone slipped out like a bar of soap.

I pick up the phone again. She’s reciting the address, but I know the way to this hospital. I tell her I’m on my way, and I grab my keys and jog out to the car.

My mind is blank on the drive over. I’m locked down, emotionally. In survival mode.

I’m pulling into the parking lot for the hospital when I realize I’m wearing thin cotton pants, a tank top, and no bra. At least I’m wearing shoes. Two completely different shoes.

I sit for a moment in the parking spot, thinking about returning home for a jacket and matching shoes.

I check the time. It’s three o’clock in the morning.

To hell with it. Anyone awake at three in the morning doesn’t have the right to be offended by my appearance.

I walk into the hospital and check in at Emergency. They’ve changed the flooring, and painted the walls a different color. The same giant mural of ducks flying over a lake is still on the main wall.

A nurse comes to bring me to Luca. She keeps sneaking peeks over at me, pressing her lips tightly to keep from laughing.

We reach a door, and she pauses for a minute.

She looks up at me and says, “He’s a lively one.”

“Was anyone else hurt?” I ask.

She gives me a puzzled look.

“It was a motorbike accident, right?”

She shakes her head. “No. He was helping to take down the band stand, and someone in a truck backed into him.”

I turn and look at the door. He can’t be that bad if they called me to pick him up, but I’m still afraid to go inside.

“Don’t I know you?” the nurse asks. “You’re Jonathan’s girlfriend.”

I turn and look into her eyes. She’s an older lady, near retirement age. Her hair wasn’t white back then, so I didn’t recognize her at first.

She blinks rapidly. “I didn’t mean it that way. I’m sorry. You have a name. It’s just that I remember people through their connection to the patients.”

“Don’t apologize. I’m proud to be Jonathan’s girlfriend. I’ll always be his girlfriend. And he really liked you, Doreen.”

She looks wistfully at the door. “You’re a lucky girl to find love twice. Now get in there and take that guy home before we decide to keep him.”

I give Doreen a hug and step into Luca’s room.

“Teenie!” He’s sitting up on a bed, holding his arms out for a hug. He looks fine, except for a fresh cast on his left foot. He’s wearing the same shirt I saw him in earlier tonight, and the bottom of his jeans have been cut away on the cast side.

“Someone hit you with a truck?”

“Didn’t hurt at all,” he says, his words slurring. “Would you like a pill? I have some.”

“I’m good, thanks. I’m just here to give you a ride home.”

He eases himself off the bed and grabs a pair of crutches. With a big grin on his face, he makes his way over to me.

“Where’s your friend?” I ask.

“You’re my friend. And your sister is my friend. But you’re my favorite one. We’re going to get married. Did you know that?”

“You are high.”

His blue eyes are unfocused as he looks around wildly. “Don’t tell the nurses,” he whispers.

I look around the room behind him. “Do you have all your stuff?”

He reaches out and squeezes my breast.

“Honk,” he says.

“Very mature.”

He squeezes the other one. “Honk.”

I turn and hold open the door, waving him ahead of me.

We get all the way out to my car, where he tries to take my keys.

“I’m driving,” he says. “Lemme drive.”

I calmly steer him around to the passenger side.

“If you’re a good passenger, we can switch drivers halfway,” I tell him.

“Good plan!”

I lean into the car to adjust the seat. I push it all the way back to make room for his long legs plus the cast.

He grabs my ass and says, “I missed you.”

I push his hands away and wheel around. I grab his crutches and help him into the car. I am thanked for my efforts with yet another honk on my breast.

Finally, we’re driving. Luca’s just barely staying conscious, and he tells me to take him to my place. He says there’s no way I can help him up the stairs at his place.

I can’t argue with that logic, so I take him to my place.

The bed is already pulled out of the couch because I didn’t fold it away before I left in a rush.

I kneel down and pull off my mismatched shoes.

He drops the crutches and climbs onto my bed like it’s his own. Within seconds, he’s fast asleep, still in his clothes. He’s still wearing one boot, on the foot that isn’t in a cast. I pry it off his foot for him. He doesn’t wake up.

I set down the large boot and slip my foot inside. My feet aren’t small, but I could wear thirteen pairs of socks and still get my foot in Luca’s boots.

I set the single boot over by the door, turn off the lights, and climb in next to him.

I could go over to the main house and sleep there in my mother’s room, but something is keeping me here.

Outside the windows, the sky is getting lighter. The sun is already coming up. I roll onto my side and study Luca’s face.

I wonder how serious he and that other woman are, and why she wasn’t the one who picked him up from the hospital.

Oh, Luca, why are you here when you don’t belong to me? This moment is out of place, not part of our timeline.

I reach out and stroke his furry beard.

He looks so rugged, even in his sleep. I don’t know if I like the beard that much, but I definitely like his face.

I wonder what he’s going to say for himself in the morning.

I wake up to the sound of cursing.

I sit up in my bed, and twist around to find Luca in my kitchen. By the smell of it, he’s burning toast.

There’s not enough space in the little galley for him, let alone him and his crutches.

“Good morning,” he says. His eyes are as clear blue and beautiful as the sky outside the window. He’s stuffing the last bit of toast into his mouth. “Don’t mind me. I need to take food with those painkillers, or I might get funny.”

I jump out of the bed and fold it up into the sofa.

Luca says, “Don’t do that. I was going to bring you breakfast in bed.”

“If you were hungry, you should have woken me up.” I toss the cushions back in place hurriedly. “Come and sit down. I’ll take care of that.”

“Tina, it’s just a broken bone. I can make toast.”

I walk over to him, grab his big arm, and try to pull him out of the kitchen. He grabs hold of the counter and won’t budge.

“No, you don’t. I won’t make this mistake again.” He grabs me and pulls me into an embrace.

“What are you doing?” My voice is muffled from him pressing my face against his shoulder.

His chest rumbles, and with a gravelly voice, he says, “You’re not pulling or pushing me out of your life again. I know I shouldn’t have left you that night.”

I squeeze my eyes shut, my body tense, like I’m rejecting his hug while still being in it.

“No, you shouldn’t have left, you big jerk. But you did. And you broke my heart.”

“What about you? You didn’t come to my grand opening. You sent me those funeral flowers and a generic card. You may as well have stuck an ice pick in my chest.”

My body gradually relaxes, conforming to his. He squeezes me tighter, and my arms wrap around his middle.

It’s hard to talk, but I choke out, “I don’t understand what happened with us.”

“We had our first fight, and I didn’t know how to apologize, because I couldn’t go see my florist for advice.”