salute [h.s]

pick a petal

Spring, 2021

The morning sun was shining bright in the sky as Piper stepped out of the kitchen and onto the back patio. She lifted a hand to shield her eyes and searched the large backyard for her husband and her daughter, wondering what they could possibly up to. She'd woken not long ago to an empty bed which wasn't too much of a surprise because it was nearly 10:30 and Sara never let them sleep in that long. Harry must have taken one for the team and kept her busy to give Piper a chance to sleep in.

Bless him.

She finally spotted her husband's head over in the far corner of the yard, his hair curling under the brim of a big brown hat. As she crossed the grass barefoot, headed in his direction, she finally spotted her two year old toddling around him, wearing a pair of jean shorts and a sleeveless flannel shirt, a little hipster hat stuck over her red curls. It was no surprise to Piper that when she finally caught sight of her husband's body, he was wearing an identical outfit. She wasn't sure why but Harry seemed to love matching Sara's outfits with his whenever he could. She liked to call it classic narcissism; Harry insisted it was a bonding technique.

"You'd both better be wearing three layers of sunscreen," Piper called out as a greeting as she sauntered over the grass toward them. Harry glanced up at her and while he was wearing aviators that blocked off any view of his eyes, his cheeks dimpled under the pressure of his smile.

"Morning, petal," he greeted warmly. "Have a nice sleep?"

"I did. Thanks for —"

"Mummy! Mummy!" A small little body crashed into Piper's legs, Sara's arms circling as best as they could around her knees. When Piper glanced down, Sara was staring up at her with a big smile to rival her dad's. Piper had to reach a hand out to snatch her hat before it went tumbling off her head. "Look, flowers!"

"They're beautiful," Piper said indulgently as she eyed the collection of flowers that were littered across the grass in front of the garden, which looked like it had just been turned over. Every colour and type imaginable seemed to be present in some form or another — brightly coloured perennials and lush green annuals to offset them, big blooming petals and thing reedy leaves. It looked like Harry had bought half the flower shop. "What's all this?"

"Just thought the garden was looking a little bland," Harry said with a shrug from where he was sprawled out on the ground, his legs stretched out in front of him so his bare heels were tickled by the grass. "I thought it would be a fun family project for the weekend."

"I have a shovel!" Sara interjected, waving her cute plastic trowel around in the air. Piper noticed for the first time that she was wearing her wellies and that she had little gardening gloves on her hands.

"That's a lovely trowel," Piper corrected gently, knowing that Sara probably wouldn't care what the proper name for her tool was as long as she had a chance to use it. "Did daddy get you that?"

Sara nodded vigorously, almost upsetting her hat once more. "At the store. I saw lots of flowers."

"Did you?" Piper asked as she crouched down and then plopped onto her bum beside Harry. He shuffled himself a little closer so they were sitting thigh to thigh and then leaned in to kiss her temple gently. Piper reached over to pat his thigh appreciatively but kept her attention on Sara who was standing in front of her now. Piper placed her hands on Sara's hips so she could drag her forward and press quick kisses to her cheeks that made her giggle. "Did you help daddy pick out all these lovely flowers?" Sara nodded enthusiastically, obviously quite proud of herself. "Which ones are your favourites?"

"Yellow!" She was off like a shot, rushing over to the coreopsis flowers that were already blooming in their little plastic boxes. She struggled to pick up the moderately sized box with the weight of the soil and chose to drag it over instead. "Daddy, these ones?"