If so, it wasn’t a fair trade. She didn’t want flowers in place of faithfulness.

Maybe things would be different, easier, once he got home. She certainly hoped so. Her children were so excited that their father was suddenly paying more attention to them. She didn’t want to do anything that would take that away from them. “The arrangement’s gorgeous. I just… I already have a lot of them, you know?”

“Can a girl get too many flowers?” her sister joked.

“Have you seen my room?” Harper asked dryly.

“I have. It’s a bit much. But it’s kind of impressive that he’s trying so hard to win you back.” Karoline bent closer, to see around the fall of hair obscuring her face. “Right?”

“It’s not like you to beat around the bush,” Harper said, turning on the water so she could use the sprayer to rinse the frying pan she’d washed. “So…what are you really digging for?”

“I’d like to know how you’re feeling about him, I guess. Are you happier now that the two of you have basically decided to try again?”

She’d be happier if the problems that had driven them apart in the first place weren’t still part of the equation. “I’m…cautiously optimistic.”

“Axel called me last night, by the way.”

At this, Harper turned off the water and lowered the frying pan back into the soapy water.

“He wanted to know where you were,” Karoline continued. “Said he hadn’t been able to reach you for most of the day and all of the evening.”

“I was trying to finish my shopping,” she explained, but that wasn’t the case, not exactly. She hadn’t accepted Axel’s calls because she didn’t want to talk to him. She had no idea why. She had no proof he’d slept with the girl who’d been worshipping him in the mosh pit. For all she knew, she was reading far more into it than was warranted.

So what was going on with her? Was she beginning to look for excuses not to take the risk of getting back with her ex? People sometimes sabotaged themselves.

That was all she could figure; she had no other reason to explain why she’d been compelled to buy such an expensive gift for another man.

Karoline nodded slowly. “Gotcha.”

Harper finished rinsing the pan and set it on the rack. “Did Axel have anything else to say?”

“Not much. Why? You didn’t talk to him? Didn’t you call him when you got home?”

“No, I was too tired.”

“Shopping can be exhausting,” Karoline said, but Harper didn’t like the tone of her voice or the skeptical expression on her face. She knew Karoline could tell something wasn’t right.