Blooming between Stones

Weddings and time

"We'll be having it before first frost!" Gina gushes as she reaches over and hands a stunned Ainsley a rolled cookie with some sweet fruit filling.

"I - oh, well that's -um - "Incredible, Kai was right, his plan worked . . . sort of - oh, she'd never hear the end of this. "Wonderful. I'm happy for you Madam." She smiles despite herself as Gina beams.

"Oh, I know it seems sudden but after all, he really does seem like a kind man and I doubt I'll have much to worry about later, and he doesn't see fit to settle my business for me so that's always a grand reason, don't you agree Bushka? Look!" Gina flourishes her bedazzled fingers in front of Ainsley's face and points at the least stunning ring in the center, its smooth opal sheen nearly lost amidst all her glittering stones and colors. "He said it was his mothers. How sweet that is."

"That is - "She's not sure why, of all people, Gina had come to the Apothecary to gush about her new fiancé to her - she wasn't one for gushing or gossiping and she most certainly didn't understand why woman became so enamored by it. Gina was glowing, her hair in a high tail with colored streaks running through it as she chattered on and took sips of ginger lemon tea and nibbled on her cookies between words.

"Oh, and the best part of all? I get to have that boy as a son!" Gina seems to be warming up to the idea and her eyes soften with a soft glow at the thought of Kai, she really did like him - Ainsley thinks, perhaps, more than any stranger ought. But then, Gina wasn't really form these mountains either, Kai being different might have something to do with the older woman's attachment.

Ainsley is happy for her, and Kai - and even Soto, who probably was manipulated until the very end to do this, but still. She can't see Gina making simple steady Soto unhappy, maybe a bit confused but . . .

"And you Mi Bella!" Gina turns on her, green eyes sparkling, "You'll be the most darling daughter in law I - "

Her cookie gets stuck somewhere between her throat and air way and she hacks, eyes bulging. "D-daughter in - What?"

Gina's face morphs into something that can only be described as predatory, as if she's caught something and Ainsley can't escape it no matter how she wriggles. "Oh, I think a summer wedding would be nice for you, and your children will be so - "

"Wait! Wait, what are you - Gina no!" She's certain her face looks like the tomatoes in Soto's garden at this moment, it feels as red as, at any rate. "We're not - it's not like that. Really." She can't be faulted for being breathless about this.

The very idea is - not likely in the first place.

Gina lets out a hearty laugh and claps her hands, her bangles jangling as she does. "Don't be silly Puma, I've seen the way the boy is around you - and there's been more than enough times when he speaks of you that he - "

"Speaks!" It comes out a strangles squawk as she raises her tea up with shaking hands, her stomach flipping and tangling uncomfortably.

"Oh yes." Gina tilts her head with her sly smile and bites a cookie airily. "Fair daydreams about you, he does - silly lad, doesn't have it in him to just ask. Makes me feel sorry for him."

This isn't - this isn't right. She's not supposed to feel this way about this, Kai was just - Kai, troublesome, exasperating and certainly did not see her as - as anything than the short, yellow haired girl, that sewed him up and Ainsley's convinced herself he's only still around her to repay her for that and no other reason. The thought that he could even remotely - think - about her like. . . that was. . . not possible.

Gina lets out a sigh, her eyes flickering over Ainsley's frozen, reddening face. "Oh, giovani idioti."She clucks and shakes her head, sipping tea. "Honestly, why don't you just take a page from me and go and mount that boy against a wall and put us all out of our misery's - !"