The adventures of the Lemon Glade sisters

Sweet tea and sunshine

The sky was the color of a robin's egg, dotted here and there with cotton candy clouds. It was a perfect August day. Ladies in pretentious dresses and pearls around their necks looped pink ribbons around the pillars of the gazebo, and covered the surrounding area with roses, their dainty petals dotting the ground. The bells jingled on the bakery door. Summer and Clementine stepped inside the cozy shop, Aspen waved them over to where she was sitting with Ginger. After ordering four tall glasses of sweet iced tea and pieces of fresh out of the oven coffee cake, Lilly walked in with Laurel and pulled over a table. Laurel had her nose buried in a book and didn't take much notice of the papers and photographs on the table.
"So we're having a party." Aspen started. "This party will be held at the end of the month at Magnolia's house."
"Magnolia and I will deal with food." Summer supplied
"Hey!" Magnolia pulled over a chair and sat down in front of the pile of papers. "Sorry I was late. I had to deal with something. Now, we're gonna need paper lanterns." She glanced over a photo of her backyard. "And table cloths, light blue." Ginger rolled her eyes.
"What are we going to do with you?" Everyone giggled. Magnolia's likeness to a 1950's housewife was a long standing joke among the girls. There was something off about her today though, though she sported her ever present, lipgloss covered, smile, something in her voice shook. There was a beeping sound coming from her bag and she pulled out her phone. After one look at the screen she hurriedly got up.
"I'm sorry, I have to go."
"Is everything okay?" Ginger looked up into her fear stricken eyes.
"Yeah, um, everything is fine, I just forgot I have to go do something." Magnolia rushed out the door, followed by Clementine. Clementine put her hand on Magnolia's shoulder and turned her around to see the tears. Without a single spoken word, she lead her friend down the street to her home.

Back in Clementine's room Magnolia sat on the bed, hugging a pillow. Clementine sat on the covers next to her, holding her as she sobbed.
"I just can't escape, it's like he has some kind of hold on me. We're in a giant storm that doesn't want to pass. I hate him, I hate him so much because he just won't let me go, but he won't move forward either." She wrapped her arms tighter around the pillow.
"You have to tell him." Clementine shook her head. She hated to see her friend this way, Linden was bad news, she'd known that from the start, from his crooked smile to the abdominal muscles that a colonial woman could've done her laundry on, he was a pretty picture. Underneath he was manipulating and enchanting, she was so sorry her friend had been sucked into his mind games.
"I can't do that, I can't ruin this, I screw up everything, I can't screw this up too."
"You have to, you won't screw it up." She hugged Magnolia, and patted her arm. "Come on, let's get you cleaned up, tell him to meet you at the glade, I know you guys go there a lot."

Magnolia sat, legs crossed on the river bank, looking out at the crystal clear water running over pebbles and stones that had been there since before she was born, her golden hair falling around her face. The scent of lemons hung in the air.
"Hey, you ok?" Linden appeared behind her, placing a hand on her shoulder, his voice showing genuine concern.
"Of course, I'm fine, I'm always fine." Her tone implying she was anything but, she didn't turn around to face him.
"You want me to ask you to the dance, that's it isn't it?" He brushed the hair aside from her neck.
"Well I wouldn't have minded that, but no I don't, I want you to stop acting like this is nothing! Why can't you just let me go? Why are you so...ugh! I don't even know!" She whipped around to look him in the eye, her voice rising.
"It's ok, it's ok...I know."
"I know you do." A tear rolled down her cheek. He wrapped his arms protectively around her.
"And it's ok, it's going to be ok." She pulled back and an unspoken phrase passed between their eyes. Four words, eleven letters.
"I love you too."