Looking for Wildflowers

Chapter 2

As soon as Riley woke up, he carefully folded the blanket and laid it on the couch, placing the pillow on top. He wanted to find a way to properly thank Taylor for her hospitality, but he had no money and nothing to offer.

So he did the only thing he could think of. He stepped outside and walked through the old muddy yard and out into the field, picking wildflowers as he went. Once he had a good handful, he returned inside and placed them in a mason jar of water, placing it on her desk.

Now came the second part of his plan. Making her a nice breakfast to wake up to. He quickly scrambled a few eggs and fried up some bacon, even finding some pancake mix and making a few of those. He found some index cards and wrote a nice thank you note, leaving it all on the table for when she woke up.

He found his clothes still in the drier, so he quietly got them out, changed, and was about to head out and start the long walk home when Taylor’s bedroom door creaked open.

“What- What is all this?” she asked confused, looking at the table and the flowers sitting brightly next to her pen holder.

“Oh, I-I just wanted to thank you for the help last night. I don’t have any money or anything so I made you breakfast and picked you some flowers. I was just heading out, don’t worry.” he started heading toward the door.

“Wait,” Taylor called out. “Stay and eat with me. You’ll need the energy.” Riley slowly closed the front door and turned to face her. Taylor wasn’t ready for him to leave yet.

“Are you sure? Last night you said-”

“I don’t care what I said last night. You can stay for breakfast if you want or leave, I don’t care.” it was clear in her voice that she did, indeed, care, as she sat down at the table. She split the breakfast onto another plate as Riley sat across from her, getting them both a glass of water. “I’d offer something fancier, but that’s all I got.” she avoided eye contact as she sat back down.

“This is more than enough, thank you.” the two sat in silence for a while, both staring at their plate and picking around. The heavy awkwardness in the air made it hard to eat.

“Where are you from, exactly?” Taylor asked, looking up. As far as she knew, there was no one around and the nearest town was at least forty-five minutes away.

“Granton. It’s about two or three hours away.” he explained as he chewed on some bacon.

Taylor picked at her eggs, debating. She thought this Riley character was cute and he seemed nice, so should she just ask him to stay? He could help out with yard work and stuff and she could repay him with fresh meals. But then again, he probably has a family of his own that he needs to return to, and they did just meet.

“That’s a far walk, isn’t it? Your leg most likely won’t hold up too well.” Taylor brought up. Maybe she could convince him to stay a few more days until she gathered the courage to go either way.

“I mean, it’ll be hurting real bad by the end, but you did a real good job fixing it up.”

“I think it’s best if you stay off of it for a few days, let it heal some. At least before you do something big like walk all day. I’ll cook you food and everything, just clean up after yourself.” thunder rumbled in the distance, signaling another storm. “Plus it’s about to storm.”

Riley thought about it for a moment as he cut his pancakes and finished off his eggs.

“I suppose I could. But I’d have to repay you somehow.” he insisted. Taylor mentally sighed as she thought of the smallest thing he could do for her.

“My garden needs to be weeded. Once these storms are over and your leg is doing better, just do a bit of weeding.”

“Your shutters need to be fixed too, and your roof. I could fix that front door so it doesn’t squeak.” Riley went on to list off a few other things that needed to be done that Taylor knew she was incapable of doing herself. “Let me help you with those.”

“Riley, if you do all that, you’ll be here forever.” she joked. But deep inside, she almost wanted him to. And this would be the perfect excuse... “But if you really want to, be my guest. You’re welcome here as long as you like.” she finished off her plate and took both of them to the sink.

“If you want, I can stay for a few weeks, and help you fix this place up. It’s storm season, you need good shutters and a good roof.” he offered, liking the idea of staying with a pretty girl. Riley had to admit when he knocked on the door the night prior, a small woman with light brown hair and bright green eyes is not what he was expecting.

“Alright then, it’s settled.” Taylor avoided looking at Riley who had a goofy grin on his face. She didn’t want him to see the blush that covered her face as she realized what she just agreed to.

The next few days were busy as Taylor kept herself busy inside, trying to keep it as clean as possible and making sure Riley was well-fed. He repaid her by doing whatever he could outside like weeding when it wasn’t storming, and cutting back bushes and trees, bringing out the potential of her front yard.

“Your steps and porch need to be redone. I can do that for you.” he notified her one evening as she sat on the couch wrapped in a blanket and working on her story and he sat on the other side with his feet propped up on an old chair.

“I don’t have money for the supplies. It’ll have to wait.” Taylor sighed. She had been trying to save up to have that done, but she was barely halfway to her goal. Being an online author didn't pay too well.

“I’ll pay for it.” he insisted.

“I can’t ask you to do that. Where would you get the money, anyway?” Taylor lost control of her tongue.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll fix this place up real good for you if you let me.” he leaned forward, propping up on his knees and looking at her.

Taylor cut her eyes over at him. “I guess I can let you, but I don’t see why you would want to, it’s not like this is your place.”

“A pretty girl like you needs a nice place to live. I can even get some cattle for you so you wouldn’t have to pay for meat.”

“I can’t run a whole farm like that. The garden is plenty.” she insisted, although the sound of free meat did sound rather nice. But she knew she could never kill an animal herself, so unless Riley stayed, cattle wouldn’t be a good idea. Or, was it actually a good idea?

“I can. I can fix up that shed out back and stay there while helping you take care of the place.”

“Riley, I’m not shoving you off into a shed. Don’t you have a place of your own?” she sighed, her heart sinking. Silence suddenly fell over them.

“Technically, yeah. But it’s worse than that old shed out there.” his voice was low like he didn’t want to talk about it. “But I’m not asking for your pity or sympathy.” his voice was firm now.

“Riley, I have an idea.” Taylor shut her laptop and leaned forward. “I clearly need help around here, and you apparently need a place to stay. You help me out around here, doing yard work and such, and you can stay here. We can work on building an extra room for you so you don’t have to sleep on this couch anymore.”

Riley looked up at her with his mouth slightly open, like he didn’t know how to respond.

“Yeah, we can do that. I’d love to help you out around here, you deserve to have help. Plus, a woman living alone is asking for trouble.” he leaned back, relaxing into the lumpy cushions.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Taylor asked, now offended.

“Men like to take advantage of women, especially ones like you.” his tone was serious. “You’re lucky it was me at your door last night and not someone else. I could help protect you.” As much as Taylor hated to admit it, he was right.

“Fine, whatever.” she looked down at the floor. “You can stay.”

“Thank you, Taylor. I really appreciate you helping me out as well.” he smiled at her, a nice warm smile, causing blood to rush to her cheeks as she turned away.

“You still can’t use my body scrub.” she made clear as she got up and went to start chores. Riley quietly laughed to himself as she quickly walked off, leaving her laptop on the couch.

“Don’t worry, I won’t touch it!” he called out.