Page 124 of Poetry of Flowers

Those weren’t the tears of the person he once was. The tears that made me feel terrible. These tears were honest.

“I’m proud of the woman you are today, Tillie. You remind me so much of your mother, in the best of ways.”

“Thank you, Dad.”

My heart warmed, those were the most beautiful words he had ever said to me.

I finally had my father back, the once eight-year-old me had missed.

Epilogue

MATILDA, THREE YEARS LATER

Sunbeams woke me from my sweet dream. I had told Kayden several times to close the curtains before we went to sleep. Not least because I was paranoid that someone would watch us while we were sleeping. That’s what living in a bus felt like.

Who was I kidding? I actually loved our little life inside that old boy we bought two years ago.

After high school, neither of us wanted to go to college.

No, we were going to live our dreams.

So, we worked hard to get money together to buy us a home where we could live while we traveled. Sadly, the Jeep wasn’t an option. Even though we learned it was big enough to do other stuff in the back seat, it was too small.

Kayden started to record his songs and uploaded them. Thanks to his old life, he had already had a few thousand followers. Those people loved him and begged for more.

His dream had always been to play live because behind a screen everything always felt so unreal and fake.

So, that’s what we did. We made his dream come true.

Our first trip was to a concert of a new popular band who Kayden got the chance to support as a warm-up act.

Even though it was almost two years ago, I remembered the feeling of standing in that crowd and hearing my boyfriend playing on a stage for the first time in his life.

He playedPoetry of Flowers, his most popular song at the time.

Kayden got invited to open numerous shows, but soon he wasn’t a support act anymore, he was the show.

People bought tickets just to hear him sing.

I remembered the first time he told me about the agent who had offered him a recording contract. We celebrated it with our friends, which was difficult because that meant that my cousin and Theo had to be in one room. A lot has happened over the last three years.

Getting the crew back together felt like home. Even when nothing was the same as it was three years ago.

Kisses traveled up my spine and I let out a soft moan.

“Slept well, my love?” Kayden asked, his voice raspy from sleep. He still didn’t know it, but I found that voice oddly attractive.

“I slept like a baby until the consequences of the open curtains woke me up.” I groaned and rolled around to face my boyfriend looking down at me while he rested his cheek on his hand.

Tattoo sleeves covered his arms and a few more were scattered across his chest. I loved his body and the art on it.There was even a tiny sparrow on his left biceps, I wore the same tattoo.

All of his tattoos were memories from our childhood. There is something special about having your childhood best friend as your lover, something romantic. We were building the life we never had, but had always wanted.

“Think of it as the sun telling us to wake up, so we’re not late for brunch.” Kayden chuckled and stood up.

“No, I don’t want to get up. I need another half an hour of sleep and you beside me,” I whined just to make him laugh, but I was dead serious.

We had to wake up every morning around six and when we had the opportunity, I wanted to spend a few more hours in bed.

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