Page 41 of Lovewell Lane

“What did I do wrong?”

“Nothing, that’s great. This is where you make your wish. So think of a good one while I get out the seeds for you.”

Margo closed her eyes and held out her hand while I fished through the bag of seeds. I dropped a couple into her open palm and was half-convinced she was going to try doing this blind when she opened her eyes again.

“I have my wish,” she said.

“Good, now drop them in the hole your thumb made,” I coached. Her face scrunched up. “I know. Weird phrasing, sorry.”

She fell into a fit of giggles at that. “At least you realized it.” Then she reclosed her eyes and covered the seeds with dirt with her pointer finger. “Is now when I make the wish?”

“Go for it.”

I watched her standing there in a room full of people with her eyes closed and her smile wide. There was a lot going onaround us, families singing along to whatever song was playing, kids screaming and chasing each other with bubble wands in their hands, and a few dogs running around the birds outside. Yet, the only thing I paid attention to at that moment was her. Everything else fell away.

I snapped back to reality when her eyes opened again, only to look straight at me. “You like staring at me,” she murmured quietly.

I scoffed. “Next time, you want to wait until the end to cover the seeds up with dirt. We have to plant the rest of this tray and will lose your original seeds.”

She smiled at me despite my pickiness. “Okay, Derek,” she said, her voice far too intimate for this setting.

Tessa ran up beside us. Somehow she’d found herself a flower crown in all of the chaos. “Are we planting seeds, Daddy?”

“Yes, Margo just planted hers. Want to do yours in the same tray?”

Tessa nodded excitedly. I reached down to lift her up to stand on the bench. The tables were higher than her eye line, so she needed a boost up. At six, she was already a pro at this and jammed her thumb into the dirt while I fished out more seeds for her.

“Is this how you plant all of your crops?” Margo asked.

“Hell no,” I laughed. “This is more for fun. A lot of our friends take these trays home and use them for their own gardens. We just keep the leftovers.”

“Sienna said she’s making a fairy garden at the Inn with her mom,” Tessa said.

“What’s that?”

Margo laughed at my gruff question. “You’re telling me you seem to know all about fairies and you don’t know what a fairy garden is?”

“You do?”

“Yeah, they’re just cute little gardens where you add in mini figures and stones and houses for the fairies. I’ve made one before.”

Her excitement was endearing. If she talked about anything with that level of happiness, I’d make it for her in a heartbeat.

“We can make one in the backyard, then,” I decided. “Tessa, you should get pointers from Sienna.”

“I will, Daddy,” Tessa said proudly.

“Alright, time to make your wish, honey.”

Margo and I shared a look while Tessa squeezed her eyes shut as hard as she could. Somehow, she’d gotten soil on her forehead, blue Powerade stains all around her mouth, and what I could only guess to be soap from the bubbles in her hair. I watched as Margo brushed some of the dirt off of her face gently.

Tessa looked up at her and smiled gleefully. “I made my wish!”

“Great job, alright, help me finish this tray before you run off again.”

All three of us pitched in to plant the rest of the tray before Sienna stopped by and offered Tessa some sort of candy.

“Sienna, have you gotten to plant one yet?” I asked. My hand held Tessa’s shoulder so she wouldn’t run off again without another word. Big events usually made her pretty uncomfortable. Usually, she stuck beside me and avoided talking to others. The only exception was when Sienna was around, suddenly she was happy as a clam to run around and play without any care for who was watching.

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