"I wanna go home," she sobbed in response. I shook my head in disdain as I pulled my arms off the door and glanced over at Scout.
It wasn't his fault that he looked so goddamn rough. Everything that happened to him had been Posy's fault, but he deserved to have someone sit with him while I was working, and while Daisy was still useless when it came to chores, I figured it was the least she could do.
But he held up as best as he could, and only part of his skull was just now starting through show through his rotted flesh. I think time in the shade is what kept him from decomposing faster than he should have. That and the nights I would spend fixing him up with my own homemade solution.
I didn’t see him any differently than the day I did when I brought him home the first time or the day Posy did what she did to him.
She tried to lay the blame on me, but I had never hurt Scout before and I sure as fuck wasn’t going to start over her.
Scout had always been my best friend and keeping him looking as good as new was chore, but one full of rewards because it meant that he could stay with me.
"Here," I began as I dropped a bottle of water into the stall, "fill his water bowl and maybe put some more kibble in his food bowl. He looks like he's still hungry."
"Troy, please!" she screeched. "I want to go home!"
“Tend to Scout, don’t make me tell you again,” I warned her tiredly.
I shook my head as I walked away from the stall and made my way over toward the next irrigation system. Pulling my cap off and placing it backward on my head, I took a deep breath as I gripped the side of it and began to push.
These things had always been a bitch to move, but they also were the reason that my body looks the way it does, and why my crops were so well fed.
Ignoring the screeching of the girl inside of the stall, I managed to move this one out much faster than the one before.
It still took a lot of strength, but once I got it into the field where I needed it to be, I took a moment to look at the property around me.
Sometimes, there were moments I liked to steal for myself to see if maybe any of my other little flowers were still roaming around, even though I knew where I kept most of them tucked nicely.
Except for Posy.
I hate to think of her as the one that got away because, to be honest, I was never quite certain about what happened after I pulled the trigger.
I thought I saw her go down like the animal she had been pretending to be, but I never did make a move to recover her, so the mystery remained with me.
Daisy Rowe would have been a great way to forget about the ghost that haunts my land—all of them, really, but the longer our day went on, the more I was sure that I should have just left her at the fucking corral.
Sucking my teeth, I turned around and went back into the barn. There was one more irrigation system that needed to be brought out into the sunlight, but I wasn't entirely sure that I wanted to do that today.
It was where my flowers lived, each of them in their own space and in the most beautiful dresses that I was able to provide for them.
Anyone that saw them would probably wonder if they were ever going to grow again, and while I knew it wasn’t likely, it sure as fuck never seemed like an impossibility to me.
Even though I was still weighing the option of leaving the last system in, it didn't stop me from going over to look at them.
Rose, Violet, Daisy, Lily, and Ivy—the first flowers I ever tried to plant and the ones that couldn't survive long enough to show me they were worth the hassle, even though they were still beautiful in their own ways.
I treated them with the same solution as I did Scout. I felt that even if their bones would break soon due to the brittle nature of time most of them had spent here, I wanted to keep them. I wanted to look at them and know that for a time, I had done something great.
Which is why I still hadn't had the heart to get rid of them yet.
Chapter Twelve
Once I had put in as much work as my body would allow for the day, I went back to Scout's stall to get Daisy. She was still wide-eyed in fear, shaking like a leaf, and in her corner.
When she heard the latch to the stall door open, she darted a terrified look in my direction, but I smiled.
I had enough of being feared of today, and I wanted to make a nice dinner for the both of us to show her that I wasn't all bad.
"Thanks for taking care of him," I said to her as I stepped in and picked her up into my arms. "Scout's a good boy, and he loves making new friends. If he likes you enough, maybe you can stay a little while longer?"
The soft fabric of her dress brushed against my arms, and it made me smile a little wider. All of my flowers eventually wore a dress like the one she did because I wanted them to look as beautiful as I knew they were.
One of the small kindnesses I could afford them, and I took great pride in matching them with a dress that I knew would show off their individual beauty.
"I was thinking of making dinner tonight," I informed her as I carried her out of the barn. Once we stepped out into the cool night air, I took in a deep breath and felt happy for the first time in a long while. "And after dinner, we can lay in my bed and talk about things if you want."
Daisy whimpered but said nothing in the way of conversation, so I continued.
"For instance," I said as I shifted her in my arms, "you can tell me who you were looking for at the corral. I can give you some pointers about being careful who you talk to and trust so easily, and then who knows!"
A nervous chuckle escaped me at the thought of being inside of her tonight. It also bothered me because I've never been shy when it came to fucking a woman.
Perhaps it was knowing that I had damaged her pistil earlier and being the first cock to ever slide into her. That always seemed like such a big responsibility and burden to carry, but I liked Daisy. She may not have been the hardest worker or able to shake away the memory of Posy, but she seemed to be trying, and was finally starting to come into focus.
I figured that had to count for something.
"We can go hunting after dinner if you prefer," I suggested in a sterner tone than I meant to.
She shook her head vehemently, and I laughed, "Okay, well; in you go," I instructed as I set her down on the porch.
Daisy pulled the front door open and ran into the house. When I stepped in and closed the door behind me, I reasoned that she must have been running toward a back door that didn't exist in a home that she didn't know.
I had boarded up that particular exit after Posy tried to run away with Scout to prevent that from ever happening again.
Not that my good boy would ever try to leave me on his own free will, but if she had tried to escape with him, who knew who else would try it?
Although Daisy was unreasonably afraid of my best friend, so it was doubtful that she’d take him with her.
She’d leave him behind like she would me, and then we’d be alone on the farm again.
"Daisy?" I called out only to be greeted with the return of another sob. I knew that I had to be patient with her though, since she seemed to be in way over her head and didn't realize it until it was too late.
"Why don't you head into the main bathroom and clean up a little bit?" I suggested in a loud tone. "I'll get dinner started while you're doing that."