“Are you ready to work your ass off? Be proud of yourself? Learn a daisy from a daylily?”

Gloria nodded. “Yes. Yes, I am.”

Della cracked a smile that lit up her whole face. “Good. I’ll see you at seven tomorrow morning.”

“Really? Are you sure? I mean I don’t know half of the things you want me to know.”

“You can learn them, can’t you? And I can be patient until you get your feet wet.”

Gloria was out of her chair and hugging Della in a show of spontaneous affection. “Thank you! Thank you! I’m going to try really hard to make sure you never regret this,” she promised.

Della chuckled. “Don’t be late. Oh, and wear comfortable shoes.”

Harper was sunning herself on a stack of mulch bags in the parking lot when Gloria skipped over to her.

Gloria nudged her friend’s foot, and Harper peered lazily over her sunglasses. “Well?”

“Let’s get lunch. My treat!”

She’d worry about how the hell she was going to learn it all and make sure Della never regretted her decision later. For now, she was going to drink a milkshake and figure out what to wear to work tomorrow.

14

Gloria: Who’s got two thumbs and a job at Blooms? This girl!

Aldo re-read the text for the 700th time and clicked on the picture she sent with it. She was grinning and pointing at herself with both thumbs. He doubted Gloria saw anything special in the picture, but it was there. That joy radiating out of her, reached out and grabbed him by the throat every time he looked at it.

He’d wanted to get her a job, wanted to help her on her path, but the confidence she built by doing things on her own was even more gratifying.

“Get off your phone! You’re surrounded by loved ones, dumbass!” His mother’s shout, fortified by the better part of a bottle of wine, dragged Aldo back to the present. He was at his and Luke’s going-away dinner, a two-family tradition since their first deployment.

Aldo tucked his phone back into his pocket. “Sorry, Ma.”

“You’re a Candy Crush addict,” Ina complained, shifting into pot-and-kettle mode. His mother spent more time playing games on her phone than she did gardening, drinking, and sleeping combined.

He’d beaten her once at Words with Friends, and she’d thrown her phone out of the car window in a bad loser rage, earning a $200 fine for littering from Deputy Ty.

Claire, Luke’s mother, joined them at the table. Her eyes were red-rimmed.