Hothouse Flower (Calloway Sisters 2)

“I know this is going to seem like such a foreign concept to you,” Connor says, raising his phone in the air again, “but if you actually show that you’re invested in a girl beyond sex in front of people that matter, you’ll gain more respect from them.”

But he forgets that I don’t speak with an even-tempered voice. I’m rough. I’m abrasive as hell, and the moment I try to talk, everything comes out coarse. Nothing comes out how I really intend. I gave Daisy sex advice when she was fifteen because I was trying to steer her towards the kind of guys that would treat her right. And I got shit on for that conversation for the next two fucking years.

“Hey,” Lo calls. He holds up a package of hamburgers and then points at the tent that Daisy tries to set up alone. “You two helping or is doing five things at once part of my rehabilitation?”

I’m about to walk over to him, but Connor inhales and puts the phone to his ear. “Rose?” He frowns. “What? Wait, darling…you’re breaking up.” He looks at the cell, actually glaring at the technology. He turns to Lo. “You better set out two more chairs.”

“No.” I groan. “Lily promised me she wouldn’t arrive early.” All three Calloway girls for twenty long days in a confined space—shit.

“She broke it then,” Connor says, trying to sigh in relief, but he still looks worried. “Rose said they’re ten minutes out before the line dropped.”

Fuck me.

DAISY CALLOWAY

Rose and Lily are here.

At the beginning, I was too stunned to do anything but smile, a full-blown one filled with genuine happiness. I didn’t realize how much I wanted them here until they arrived. Lily hugs me tight, and I try to convince them to sneak away with me. Girl time, no boys.

But they have to reunite with their respective partners.

I back away from my sisters while Lo wraps his arms around Lily. She’s wearing her Wampa cap, a white furry hat that has flaps for her ears. Lo whispers to her, and she blushes bright red. As I keep backing up, I bump into something hard and two pairs of hands rest on my shoulders.

I crane my neck. “Hey you,” I say to Ryke. He stares at me with those brooding eyes. I wish he could kiss me the way Lo bathes Lily in his love. Out in the open, passionate beautiful kisses that seem to make them float off the earthen floor. But even in the darkened night, the campfire flickers close by, illuminating our features.

We can’t hide with everyone around.

Rose and Connor talk in French. He kisses her forehead, rubbing the back of her neck with tender affection, and her nose crinkles. “What animal died beside our tents?” She puts her hand to her mouth.

“Are you burning the burgers?” Lo asks Ryke, and I feel his hands drop off me, cold air replacing the spot.

“No, I just started cooking them.” Ryke checks the burgers just to make sure, leaving my side.

I sniff the air. “I don’t smell anything except wood smoke.” I hike over to where Rose stands, her five-inch heels sinking in the dirt. Connor has his arm around her waist, and he tries to kindly take her purse from her, but Rose swats him with it.

“I’m not lying,” she says. “It smells foul.”

“It’s probably the fucking pit toilet,” Ryke tells her. “You passed it in your car on the way here.”

Rose shakes her head. “It’s closer.” She pinches her nose and gags dramatically.

“Maybe it’s your own stench,” Lo says, holding Lily to his chest like she’s a part of him, a piece that had been missing this whole time. He seems happier. “Bitch No. 5.”

Rose points a threatening finger at him, manicured and blood red. “You insult Chanel and my heel will find your asshole in a millisecond, Loren.”

“Oooh,” Loren mock cringes. “I didn’t know you could move that fast with your she-devil hooves.”

Rose shrieks, and I flinch at the violent noise, coming out of nowhere. She tries to catapult herself at Lo, but Connor is really fast. He grabs her around the waist, holding Rose tightly. And I jump again when pine needles and dried leaves crunch beside me. Ryke stands there and gives me a look like you okay?

It’s nighttime.

I hate nighttime unless I’m wrapped in his arms.

I nod, trying to play it cool and not act like a scared teenager.

Rose kicks her legs out, while wearing a pleated black dress, even as her husband restrains her. She looks more unladylike than I’ve seen her in a while. I know she has meltdowns. Lo has mentioned them before in their spats, but she almost always keeps these moments hidden from me.

My vision of Rose is this solid iron fortress that won’t let anyone in, not even Lo’s snide comments. She just bulldozes right over him with ones of her own.

Right now, his few words are crawling underneath her skin faster than usual.

Connor whispers in her ear, and she screams something in French.

I turn to Ryke. “What’d she say?” I whisper.

He stares down at me. “I’m not overreacting,” he translates under his breath.

She shrieks again. I don’t flinch this time.

“Is that your she-devil cry?” Lo continues to antagonize. Lily slaps his arm, seriously telling him to quit.

Connor actually glares at him. “Lo,” he warns. “Stop.”

Rose is tearing at Connor’s hands, manically trying to free herself from his strong hold. His lips return to her ear, and I think she’s on the verge of a panic attack, inhaling sharply. How did this happen over a couple comments?

Guilt washes over Lo’s features, and I catch Ryke watching his brother closely. “Lo,” Ryke says, nodding to him. “Help me with the burgers?”

Lo nods and they break away from us, nearing the fire.

I trudge over to Lily, who’s biting her nails as she watches Rose’s outburst. “Is she okay?” I ask Lily. Clearly she’s not, but I don’t know what else to ask. “Is she PMSing or something?”

“I guess,” Lily says.

I reach out and hold her hand so she stops biting her nails, a bad habit of hers. She gives me a weak smile and I return it.

When I look back at Rose, she’s no longer thrashing in place.

Connor points to me while his lips move fiercely against her ear, and then Rose’s gaze peels off Loren and fixes on me, as though just now noticing my presence. I think she’s about to cry.

I’ve never seen Rose cry before.

She wipes her teary eyes quickly and nods while Connor keeps talking. His flexed muscles start to relax and then he kisses her forehead. She hands him her purse, straightens her dress, raises her chin and walks calmly over to me, as though nothing just happened. As though she did not have an epic meltdown.

“Let’s go somewhere,” Rose says, “just the three of us. I need air that’s not polluted by Loren Hale.” She waits for my answer, and then her eyes linger on my scar. Both of my sisters have been avoiding my cheek since they saw me, looking anywhere but there. She catches herself and tries to force a smile.

“I know a perfect place,” I say with a sly grin. I scoped out the area and woods before they arrived.

Five minutes later, I’ve navigated Lily and Rose through the mountainous terrain, filled with fallen logs and wet moss the closer we near the small waterfall. The moon and flashlights guide our way there. The trees break into a clearing, and stone surrounds what looks like a deep swimming hole, the waterfall collecting in the pool and then running into a tinier stream.

I sit on the stone and shed my long-sleeve shirt, the air nippy in mid-October.

“No way,” Lily says. “It has to be freezing.”

Rose shines her flashlight at the murky water. “It’s brown.”

“It only looks that way because it’s dark,” I insist.

She inspects the area a little more, her beam of light whipping from tree to tree, checking for visibility. It’s private for the most part.

Lily hesitates, crouching and dipping her finger in to test the temperature.

“Come on,” I smile at them. “You’re not going to make me beg, are you?” I stick out my bottom lip and bat my eyelashes. I will totally play the I-was-just-in-the-hospital card if I have to. I have to use it to my advantage while I can.

“Are we going in like naked, naked?” Lily asks.

Rose points the light at her face. “What other kind of naked is there?”

Lily blocks the beam with her hand and squints. “Partial nudity and full nudity.”

“I’m going full,” I declare, standing while I unbutton my jeans. I snap off my bra, and I’m out of my panties in seconds.

Rose shuts off her light. “Daisy,” she says my name with severity while Lily takes off her Wampa cap and starts shedding her shirt. “We should talk about what happened in Paris, the runway and the riot.”

I do the immature thing and take the opportunity to escape that discussion. I jump straight into the swimming hole, the ice cold water shrinking my lungs and plunging me into pure darkness. But I don’t want to kick to the surface just yet.

I know what awaits me.

Feelings that I’ve dug through since… never. I’ve tried to take one thing at a time. The hospital. The scar. My mom. The runway rejection. Quitting my career. Everything just piled up on each other. I didn’t have time to really process. It just happened like a domino hitting the next one in line. I had no chance to go backwards and recount all the pieces that knocked over.

Ryke says I need to let it out.

To scream.

But I just saw Rose’s meltdown, and all it really did was worry her husband, guilt Lo and cause Lily’s eyes to bug out of her head.