Page 11 of For My Finale
“You’ve got a key?” Lilah asked suspiciously.
“Just in case of accidents,” said Blossom. She looked at Lilah’s face, then held the key out. “You can take it if you want.”
Lilah looked like she was seriously considering this, but she shook her head. “Better keep it. Just in case my wallet gets eaten by a sheep or something.”
“Oh, that wouldn’t happen,” Blossom said cheerfully as she let them both out of the back door. “A goat, perhaps, but not a sheep.”
Lilah muttered something that Blossom didn’t quite catch, something about angering a higher power and rude words and animals. She decided it would be diplomatic to pretend that she’d heard nothing.
They walked around to the front door of the next cottage, and Blossom opened up the door, letting Lilah walk in first.
The place was small but cozy, with exposed beams and a stone fireplace. The furniture was a little matchy-matchy and minimalist for Blossom’s taste, she preferred an armchair that would swallow her whole, but the owners had done a nice job with the cottage.
Lilah stood in the middle of the hall, still dripping on the floor, surveying what was presumably her new home with a long-suffering expression. “Does the fireplace work?”
“Yes. You put some of the logs in and then set them on fire,” said Blossom helpfully.
Lilah shot her a withering look. “I know how fireplaces work, thank you.”
Blossom screwed up her face and eyed Lilah. “Are you sure? Because you really look like you might not. I mean, you do kind of look like you’ve only had electric fireplaces before. Or those posh ones that look like they’re real fires but they’re like holograms or something.”
Lilah scowled but didn’t deny anything.
“So, um, I suppose I’ll go and let you get settled in,” Blossomsaid. “If you need anything, just give me a knock.”
She was almost at the door when Lilah’s voice stopped her. “You haven’t asked why I’m here,” she said.
Blossom turned back. “Um, it’s none of my business,” she said.
Lilah’s eyebrows raised and she looked sort of… shocked. “Right.”
“You haven’t asked my name,” said Blossom, thinking that it was odd that Lilah hadn’t.
“Oh. Right.” Lilah scowled again. “What’s your name then?”
“Blossom,” said Blossom.
“You’re kidding,” said Lilah.
“No,” Blossom said. “Why would I be?”
Lilah shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just a bit too à propos, isn’t it? You being Little Miss Sunshine and your name being Blossom.”
Blossom wasn’t entirely sure what à propos meant, so she just smiled and shrugged. “Definitely my name, though. It’s on my birth certificate and everything.”
“Right,” Lilah said. She nodded toward the door. “I’ll let you know if I need anything.”
Which was clearly a dismissal. Blossom let herself out and wandered back to her own house. Only when she shut the door did she let out a long breath.
Lilah Paxton was her neighbor.
Lilah Paxton had sat in her kitchen.
She grabbed her phone, fingers hovering over Ives’s number. Then she reconsidered. She had a feeling that she knew how that conversation would go, and it would definitely involve her being teased mercilessly about something that had been just a teenage crush. No, Ives would find out sooner or later.
In the meantime, Blossom hugged her little secret close, a giddy smile creeping up on her face.
Maybe Bankton wasn’t quite so boring after all.
