Chapter 39
It was the first time I saw Lily run.
Really run.
Not hurry because someone told her to.
Not move quickly to avoid being scolded.
Run.
Her curls bounced behind her as she chased Owen across the grass, both of them shrieking with laughter while Nathan pretended to be too slow to catch them.
Marco stood beside me near a bench, holding a paper bag of sandwiches.
“You’re smiling,” he said.
“No, I’m not.”
“You are.”
“Don’t make it strange.”
“It’s already strange.”
I glanced at him.
He nodded toward the children. “Good strange.”
Owen tripped and fell, palms first into the grass.
Everyone froze for half a beat.
Then Nathan walked over calmly. “You okay, buddy?”
Owen looked at his hands.
No blood.
No tears.
He looked at Nathan. Then at me.
“I fell.”
“I saw,” Nathan said.
“Am I in trouble?”
Nathan sat down in the grass beside him. “For falling?”
Owen shrugged.
“No,” Nathan said. “Grass gets lonely. Sometimes people visit.”
Owen stared.
Then he laughed.
Lily dropped beside him dramatically. “I’m visiting too!”
Nathan fell back on the grass with an exaggerated groan.
Soon both children were laughing on top of him, and Marco looked away quickly.
I pretended not to notice his eyes had gone wet.
That afternoon, Owen handed me a dandelion.
It was half crushed.
“For your office,” he said.
“My office may not deserve something this nice.”
“Then put it somewhere else.”
“Good advice.”
Lily ran up with three more. “You need a family of flowers.”
I took them carefully.
That night, I placed all four dandelions in a glass of water on my kitchen island.
May you like
They looked absurd there beneath the modern pendant lights, surrounded by marble, steel, and silence.
They also looked like the first honest decoration the place had ever had.
