Standing, I gave Jax another apologetic look. “I’m sorry about this.”
“It’s okay, I understand. I think Ashley and I will head on out of town and get into Boston early to surprise my folks.”
Ashley jumped up and down, forgetting all about the marshmallows. “Yes, let’s do that!”
Jax held out her hand, and I shook it. “It was fun, Bishop. I hope everything works out for you and Abby.”
“Thanks, Jax. You guys have a safe trip back to Boston.”
I watched as they got into Jax’s car and then headed down the driveway.
Once the car was down the hill, I turned and headed back into the house.
One quick look around told me Abby had cleared off the table. The food was still out, but covered, and Abby was nowhere to be found.
“Abby?” I called out as I looked around. Rushing through the house, I yelled her name again before a thought hit me. Had she waited for me to come back inside before she left? I rushed back through the kitchen and into the mudroom. Her coat was gone. “Fuck!”
I opened the door to the garage and grabbed the keys to my newer truck; I couldn’t afford breaking down on the side of the road if I was going after Abby. I needed to bring her back.
As soon as the garage doors opened, I stopped and stared at Abby’s car, still parked there. I spun around. Where in the hell had she gone?
Hitting the button, I closed the garage again and went back into the house. “Okay, she’s gotta be outside somewhere.”
Then it hit me. The greenhouse. Abby would have gone to her greenhouse.
I walked out the back door. Sure enough, I saw her footprints trailing off in the distance, heading toward the greenhouse.
I hadn’t set foot in the greenhouse since Abby left, and had no idea if Ken or Bryce had been tending to the flowers in there or not. I’d gotten drunk once and told them both to stay out. Whether they’d heeded my drunken command, I wasn’t sure.
My heartbeat kicked up the closer I got. You couldn’t see the greenhouse from the house, and that was part of the reason I was able to forget about it. When I finally got close enough to see inside, I froze.
Abby was sitting on the floor of the greenhouse, her back to me.
“Oh, Abby,” I whispered, looking at all the dead plants through the glass. Stepping inside, I softly shut the door.
She didn’t move a muscle, though I was positive she’d heard me come in. It was fucking freezing inside. Ken or Bryce must have turned off the heater. I worked at the lump in my throat and tried like hell to say something, but nothing would come out.
After a minute or two, I finally managed to speak. “Why are you on the floor?”
She jumped and looked back at me. She clearly hadn’t heard me come in. “Where are Jax and Ashley?”
I frowned. “You didn’t really think I was going to leave you to go roast marshmallows with them, did you?”
The corner of her mouth rose slightly, and she chuckled softly. “I did, as a matter of fact.”
“Well, I didn’t.”
“Was Ashley upset?” Abby asked, worry etched on her face.
I shook my head and took a few steps closer. It was then I saw she was holding something. A pot with a flowering plant in it. I focused on the green stem plants with a white flower that seemed to be dangling off of it.
As I stared at the plant, I said, “No, she wasn’t. Not after I explained a few things to her.” I looked back at Abby. “Why are you sitting on the ground in here, and where did you get that plant?”
She looked at it. When she spoke, she sounded so far away. “It’s root-bound and needs to be repotted.” Then she lifted her head and let her gaze travel around the greenhouse. “You let them all die.”
I exhaled, following her gaze. “It was too hard to come in here after you left…and honestly, it’s been out of sight, out of mind.”
Her head wobbled with what I thought was a nod.
“Was that plant in here?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said softly. Then she stood and headed toward the back of the greenhouse. She put the plant down, opened a cabinet door, and pulled out a larger pot.
“It’s lived in here the whole time?”
Abby cleared her throat. “I planted it the day I found out I was pregnant. From some bulbs I’d ordered. I wasn’t sure they would take, since they tend to grow in Asia and Eastern Europe. But…it looks like it’s done well.”
She got to work opening a bag of soil. As she started to transplant the flower, I sat down on a stool at the workbench.
“What does the flower mean?” I asked.