Hothouse Flower

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DAISY CALLOWAY

How I ended up in the back cabin with all the couches, alone with Lo and his father, I have no idea. We have two hours left of the flight, and my mom wanted to go talk to my dad, and everyone kind of shuffled around. I think Rose is announcing her pregnancy to our parents.

Jonathan pours a glass of whiskey and sits back next to Lo while I sprawl out on the other couch, a monogrammed burgundy blanket covering my legs. HALE in black lettering. I braid my hair for the twentieth time, bored and anxious.

I learned that my dad wants to “get to know” Ryke. Jonathan mentioned that, so my dad made him stay up front with everyone else.

I’d join them, but my mom is in there.

So here I remain.

Jonathan looks to his son. “You need to send me your sales report for Halway Comics by next weekend. I need to know if you’re driving the fucking thing into the ground.”

“It’s been slow,” Lo says. “I took a month off for the road trip.”

“That’s your goddamn fault,” he refutes. “You’re running a business now. You can’t afford to take month-long vacations.”

“Connor took the same time off,” Lo defends.

“And he’s running a multi-billion dollar company with a staff of thousands. You don’t even have an assistant. Christ, you don’t even have an annoying assistant, the kind that screws up coffee orders and likes to share personal life stories that you don’t give a fuck about.”

This is why Lo doesn’t come to Sunday family luncheons with Lily. He gets berated and my sister either gets ignored or scolded. I don’t blame them for skipping.

“It’s called initiative,” Jonathan says after he takes a pretty giant swig of whiskey, without grimacing. And then his eyes fix on me, realizing that I’ve been watching. He stands. “Daisy—I think you and I should have a talk.” He sits on the couch next to me. “Loren, can you give us a minute?”

Lo frowns deeply. “Why do you need to talk to her?”

I’ve never had a conversation alone with Jonathan Hale. I don’t think I ever needed to.

“She’s dating my son.”

Lo doesn’t move. He’s twenty-four and wears anger like a weapon. It almost makes me shrink back, but he’s on my side of things. If anything, I should be recoiling from Jonathan, right?

“I’d like to talk to her alone,” Jonathan repeats.

I’m confused. I don’t know what to do because my boyfriend doesn’t talk to his father, so even entertaining the idea of listening to Jonathan kind of feels like a betrayal. Should I cold-shoulder Jonathan too? In solidarity? I don’t know how this works.

These are deep waters that I actually need help swimming in.

“I’m not leaving her alone with you,” Lo snaps.

“Stop being a little—”

“If Ryke found out that you talked to her in private, he’d kill you. So think of it as me doing you a favor.” Lo crosses his arms.

Jonathan rolls his eyes and then focuses his attention back on me. I sit up and tuck my legs to my chest. His eyes fall to the saying on my shirt, and his lips rise in amusement. “How long have you and Ryke been dating?”

“A little over a month.”

I have to remind myself that I’ve known Jonathan since I was a little girl. He’s even Poppy’s godfather.

Jonathan tilts his head at me. “Your father is warming up to that timeframe, but your mother seems to think you’ve had a relationship long before that.”

I’m not surprised that she believes that. The tabloids have been throwing out those rumors for a while. “She’s wrong. Ryke wouldn’t ever be with someone underage.” Even me.

“I know,” Jonathan says, surprising me. “Ryke’s a lot of things: stubborn, hardheaded, foul-mouthed.” He stares at his glass. “But he’s made it clear that he’ll never follow in my footsteps.” He washes back the liquor.

Lo tenses on the couch, and his eyes briefly flicker to me. I know the truth, what Jonathan is talking about, like the rest of my family, but it’s different airing it out like this.

Twenty-four years ago, Jonathan had an affair with an underage girl.

Lo’s mom.

The press doesn’t even know the identity of Lo’s mother. It’s what’s kept Jonathan out of jail.

“Is that all you wanted to ask?” I wonder. “Whether or not Ryke was with me before I turned eighteen?”

“That and I wanted to know if you could talk to Ryke for me. I’d like to have dinner with him next weekend, catch up. You’re welcome to come too. The more the merrier.” He almost takes another sip of his drink, but he realizes his glass is empty. But he doesn’t stand to refill it again.

I glance at Lo. I don’t know what to say.

Lo suddenly rises from the other couch. “Dad, I’d like to talk to you alone.”

“Well we all can’t have what we want, can we? I said I’d like to talk to Daisy alone, and you mouthed off to me. So I will kindly do the same to you. Cheers.” He raises his empty glass.

My heart thuds. I’ve never, in my life, been in a room alone with the two of them. And from what I’ve heard, it can get nasty.

Lo turns his head, his eyes hitting mine. “Give us a minute, Daisy.”

I stand to leave, but Jonathan destroys my chance to escape. “Don’t be ridiculous, stay. My son doesn’t dictate when I speak to people.”

I freeze.

Lo glowers. “I know what you’re doing. And it’s not going to work, so just stop.”

Jonathan raises his brows and leans back against the couch, his arms outstretching over the top. He waves him on. “Please, Loren, tell me what I’m doing. Enlighten me, since you think I’m so dimwitted.”

Lo grinds his teeth.

Jonathan just smiles and says, “I’m waiting.”

“You can’t use her to get to him,” Lo retorts. “Just leave her alone.”

“Is that it?” Jonathan asks.

Lo stays quiet.

His dad straightens up on the seat. “Let me educate you, Loren,” he says, “when there are paths to be taken to achieve a goal, real men don’t stare at them with their cock in their hands. They take the goddamn path whether it fucking works or not.” He points at him with his finger. “And I will do everything I possibly can to get my son back, just as I would do for you.”

The first half of that speech makes me cringe, and the second makes me reevaluate the first half. Now I can see why it’s confusing having him as a father. I don’t know whether to run away or stay and hear him out.

Lo looks at me again. “Go, Daisy.”

“Stay,” Jonathan snaps, his voice harsher after all the booze. His gaze heats on Lo. “You’re a goddamn terrible listener.”

“You know what, so are you,” Lo sneers. “Because if you’d listen to anything I’ve been telling you or what Ryke has said, you’d know that he’ll hate you if you bring her into this shit. You can’t be forgiven for that. So I’m helping you. Open your goddamn ears.” He turns around and grabs my wrist, tugging me into one of the plane’s bedrooms.

“Loren!” Jonathan yells, but Lo just shuts the door and locks it—truly closing his father out.

It makes me nervous that he’d switch the lock—that somewhere, he’d fear his dad rushing in and doing what? Cold blows through me, and I shiver.

Lo stares down at me and says, “This is about the hundredth reason why I don’t want you dating my older brother.”

“I’ll be able to handle it,” I say. “It’s not like my parents make Ryke feel warm and welcome.”

Lo shakes his head. “Greg’s third-degree and my father’s are not even comparable, so don’t try.”

I realize this is the first moment I’ve been alone with Lo since he learned about my relationship with Ryke. “I love him, you know? I’ve been with a lot of awful guys, and he’s the only one that’s ever made me happy.”

Lo stares at me for a long moment and then a knock on the door makes me flinch back. The knob jiggles. We both stiffen, and then a rough voice calls through the wood, “Fucking let me in, Lo.”

I relax as Lo unlocks the door, and Ryke scans his brother’s features quickly before turning to me. I hear the door shut, and Ryke hugs me to his chest immediately, his hand on the top of my head.

“Was she left alone with him?” Ryke asks Lo.

“No, I was there.”

“Just you two?”

“Yeah, it was fine,” Lo says. “Nothing happened.”

“Then why the fuck did I hear Dad scream your name at the top of his lungs?”

I look up and Ryke’s dark gaze focuses on his brother, but he keeps holding me like if he lets go something bad may happen.

“We had a disagreement,” Lo says, sitting on the edge of the bed. He rubs his eyes like he’s just tired from everything.

“About Daisy?” Ryke frowns. “Or about me?”

“Both.”

Ryke’s eyes flash murderously. “He needs to leave her out of our family shit.”

“You need to talk to him or else he’s going to bring her in it.”

“Fuck,” Ryke curses. He lets out a deep breath and then he looks down at me. “You okay?”

I nod. “Yeah.” I give him a smile. “I get all of you, right? This is just another part.”

“This isn’t a fucking part I wanted to give you, ever.”

“Something we agree on,” Lo chimes in with a half-smile. And then all of a sudden, a body stirs underneath a mass of pillows and blankets. Lo turns his head and pats what I guess are feet.

Lily sits up like she rose from the dead, rubbing her eyes and stretching. The way Lo is watching her—it’s like he’s witnessing daylight for the first time. It makes me smile because their love is so transparent, and it immediately slices through any awkward tension that clung to the air.

She sees us and smiles shyly. “Oh hey. What’d I miss?”

“I talked to Ryke’s dad,” I tell her.

Her eyes bug out. “Whaaa…”

“It was interesting,” I say with a small shrug.

“What a weird day,” Lily says. I think that defines the whole situation very nicely. She whispers in Lo’s ear, and he nods, whispering back, and then they both turn to look at me, their expressions morphing into something serious and real. Lo nods and says, “Welcome to the family.”

The words hit me straight in the heart. For so long I considered Lo a part of my family; even though he had his dad, even though he’s a Hale, he always felt like an extension of Lily. A Calloway.

Now I’m starting to think that maybe all this time it’s been the other way around, and I’ve just been too narrow-sighted to see it. Lily’s always been a part of his family.

The Hales.

They’re kind of fucked up.