In the Garden Trilogy (16 page)

“Yeah.”

Tap, tap, tap, he thought, with wonder, and there you go. Woman had pretty fingers, he noted. Long and tapered, with that glossy polish on them, the delicate pink of the inside of a rose petal.

She wore no rings.

“Anything else?”

He patted his pockets, eventually came up with a scrap of paper. “That’s what I told him I could put them in for.”

She added the labor, totaled, then printed out three copies while he drank her coffee. “Sign or initial,” she told him. “One copy for my files, one for yours, one for the client.”

“Gotcha.”

When he picked up the pen, Stella waved a hand. “Oh, wait, let me get that knife. Which vein did you plan to open?”

“Cute.” He lifted his chin toward the door. “So’s she.”

“Hayley? Yeah, she is. And entirely too young for you.”

“I wouldn’t say entirely. Though I do prefer women with a little more ...” He stopped, smiled again. “We’ll just say more, and stay alive.”

“Wise.”

“Your boys getting a hard time in school?”

“Excuse me?”

“Just considering what you said before. Yankee.”

“Oh. A little, maybe, but for the most part the other kids find it interesting that they’re from up north, lived near one of the Great Lakes. Both their teachers pulled up a map to show where they came from.”

Her face softened as she spoke of it. “Thanks for asking.”

“I like your kids.”

He signed the forms and found himself amused when she groaned—actually groaned—watching him carelessly fold his and stuff them in his pocket.

“Next time could you wait until you’re out of the office to do that? It hurts me.”

“No problem.” Maybe it was the different tone they were ending on, or maybe it was the way she’d softened up and smiled when she spoke of her children. Later, he might wonder what possessed him, but for now, he went with impulse. “Ever been to Graceland?”

“No. I’m not a big Elvis fan.”

“Ssh!” Widening his eyes, he looked toward the door. “Legally, you can’t say that around here. You could face fine and imprisonment, or depending on the jury, public flogging.”

“I didn’t read that in the Memphian handbook.”

“Fine print. So, I’ll take you. When’s your day off?”

“I ... It depends. You’ll take me to Graceland?”

“You can’t settle in down here until you’ve experienced Graceland. Pick a day, I’ll work around it.”

“I’m trying to understand here. Are you asking me for a date?”

“I wasn’t heading into the date arena. I’m thinking of it more as an outing, between associates.” He set the empty mug on her desk. “Think about it, let me know.”

 

SHE HAD TOO MUCH TO DO TO THINK ABOUT IT. SHE couldn’t just pop off to Graceland. And if she could, and had some strange desire to do so, she certainly wouldn’t pop off to Graceland with Logan.

The fact that she’d admired his work—and all right, his build—didn’t mean she liked him. It didn’t mean she wanted to spend her very valuable off-time in his company.

But she couldn’t help thinking about it, or more, wondering why he’d asked her. Maybe it was some sort of a trick, a strange initiation for the Yankee. You take her to Graceland, then abandon her in a forest of Elvis paraphernalia and see if she can find her way out.

Or maybe, in his weird Logan way, he’d decided that hitting on her was an easier away around her new system than arguing with her.

Except he hadn’t seemed to be hitting on her. Exactly. It had seemed more friendly, off the cuff, or impulsive. And he’d asked about her children. There was no quicker way to cut through her annoyance, any shield, any defense than a sincere interest in her boys.

And if he was just being friendly, it seemed only polite, and sensible, to be friendly back.

What did people wear to Graceland, anyway?

Not that she was going. She probably wasn’t. But it was smart to prepare. Just in case.

In Greenhouse Three, supervising while Hayley watered propagated annuals, Stella pondered on the situation.

“Ever been to Graceland?”

“Oh, sure. These are impatiens, right?”

Stella looked down at the flat. “Yeah. Those are Busy Lizzies. They’re doing really well.”

“And these are impatiens too. The New Guinea ones.”

“Right. You do learn fast.”

“Well, I recognize these easier because I’ve planted them before. Anyway, I went to Graceland with some pals when I was in college. It’s pretty cool. I bought this Elvis bookmark. Wonder what ever happened to that? Elvis is a form of Elvin. It means ‘elf-wise friend.’ Isn’t that strange?”

“Stranger to me that you’d know that.”

“Just one of those things you pick up somewhere.”

“Okay. So, what’s the dress code?”

“Hmm?” She was trying to identify another flat by the leaves on the seedlings. And struggling not to peek at the name on the spike. “I don’t guess there is one. People just wear whatever. Jeans and stuff.”

“Casual, then.”

“Right. I like the way it smells in here. All earthy and damp.”

“Then you made the right career choice.”

“It could be a career, couldn’t it?” Those clear blue eyes shifted to Stella. “Something I could learn to be good at. I always thought I’d run my own place one day. Always figured on a bookstore, but this is sort of the same.”

“How’s that?”

“Well, like you’ve got your new stuff, and your classics. You’ve got genres, when it comes down to it. Annuals, biennials, perennials, shrubs and trees and grasses. Water plants and shade plants. That sort of thing.”

“You know, you’re right. I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

Encouraged, Hayley walked down the rows. “And you’re learning and exploring, the way you do with books. And we—you know, the staff—we’re trying to help people find what suits them, makes them happy or at least satisfied. Planting a flower’s like opening a book, because either way you’re starting something. And your garden’s your library. I could get good at this.”

“I don’t doubt it.”

She turned to see Stella smiling at her. “When I am good at it, it won’t just be a job anymore. A job’s okay. It’s cool for now, but I want more than a paycheck at the end of the week. I don’t just mean money—though, okay, I want the money too.”

“No, I know what you mean. You want what Roz has here. A place, and the satisfaction of being part of that place. Roots,” Stella said, touching the leaves of a seedling. “And bloom. I know, because I want it too.”

“But you have it. You’re so totally smart, and you know where you’re going. You’ve got two great kids, and a ... a position here. You worked toward this, this place, this position. I feel like I’m just starting.”

“And you’re impatient to get on with it. So was I at your age.”

Hayley’s face beamed good humor. “And, yeah, you’re so old and creaky now.”

Laughing, Stella pushed back her hair. “I’ve got about ten years on you. A lot can happen, a lot can change—yourself included—in a decade. In some ways I’m just starting, too—a decade after you. Transplanting myself, and my two precious shoots here.”

“Do you get scared?”

“Every day.” She laid a hand on Hayley’s belly. “It comes with the territory.”

“It helps, having you to talk to. I mean, you were married when you went through this, but you—well, both you and Roz had to deal with being a single parent. It helps that you know stuff. Helps having other women around who know stuff I need to know.”

With the job complete, Hayley walked over to turn off the water. “So,” she asked, “are you going to Graceland?”

“I don’t know. I might.”

 

WITH HIS CREW SPLIT BETWEEN THE WHITE PINES AND the landscape prep on the Guppy job, Logan set to work on the walkway for his old teacher. It wouldn’t take him long, and he could hit both the other work sites that afternoon. He liked juggling jobs. He always had.

Going directly start to finish on one too quickly cut out the room for brainstorms or sudden inspiration. There was little he liked better than that
pop
, when he just saw something in his head that he knew he could make with his hands.

He could take what was and make it better, maybe blend some of what was with the new and create a different whole.

He’d grown up respecting the land, and the whims of Nature, but more from a farmer’s point of view. When you grew up on a small farm, worked it, fought with it, he thought, you understood what the land meant. Or could mean.

His father had loved the land, too, but in a different way, Logan supposed. It had provided for his family, cost them, and in the end had gifted them with a nice bonanza when his father had opted to sell out.

He couldn’t say he missed the farm. He’d wanted more than row crops and worries about market prices. But he’d wanted, needed, to work the land.

Maybe he’d lost some of the magic of it when he’d moved north. Too many buildings, too much concrete, too many limitations for him. He hadn’t been able to acclimate to the climate or culture any more than Rae had been able to acclimate here.

It hadn’t worked. No matter how much both of them had tried to nurture things along, the marriage had just withered on them.

So he’d come home, and ultimately, with Roz’s offer, he’d found his place—personally, professionally, creatively. And was content.

He ran his lines, then picked up his shovel.

And jabbed the blade into the earth again.

What
had he been thinking? He’d asked the woman out. He could call it whatever he liked, but when a guy asked a woman out, it was a frigging date.

He had no intention of dating toe-the-line Stella Rothchild. She wasn’t his type.

Okay, sure she was. He set to work turning the soil between his lines to prep for leveling and laying the black plastic. He’d never met a woman, really, who wasn’t his type.

He just liked the breed, that’s all. Young ones and old ones, country girls and city-slicked. Whip smart or bulb dim, women just appealed to him on most every level.

He’d ended up married to one, hadn’t he? And though that had been a mistake, you had to make them along the way.

Maybe he’d never been particularly drawn to the structured, my-way-or-the-highway type before. But there was always a first time. And he liked first times. It was the second times and the third times that could wear on a man.

But he wasn’t attracted to Stella.

Okay, shit. Yes, he was. Mildly. She was a good-looking woman, nicely shaped, too. And there was the hair. He was really gone on the hair. Wouldn’t mind getting his hands on that hair, just to see if it felt as sexy as it looked.

But it didn’t mean he wanted to date her. It was hard enough to deal with her professionally. The woman had a rule or a form or a damn system for everything.

Probably had them in bed, too. Probably had a typed list of bullet points, dos and don’ts, all with a mission statement overview.

What the woman needed was some spontaneity, a little shake of the order of things. Not that he was interested in being the one to provide it.

It was just that she’d looked so pretty that morning, and her hair had smelled good. Plus she’d had that sexy little smile going for her. Before he knew it, he’d been talking about taking her to Graceland.

Nothing to worry about, he assured himself. She wouldn’t go. It wasn’t the sort of thing a woman like her did, just for the hell of it. As far as he could tell, she didn’t do
anything
for the hell of it.

They’d both forget he’d even brought it up.

 

BECAUSE SHE FELT IT WAS IMPERATIVE, AT LEAST FOR the first six months of her management, Stella insisted on a weekly progress meeting with Roz.

She’d have preferred a specific time for these meetings, and a specific location. But Roz was hard to pin down.

She’d already held them in the propagation house and in the field. This time she cornered Roz in her own sitting room, where she’d be unlikely to escape.

“I wanted to give you your weekly update.”

“Oh. Well, all right.” Roz set aside a book on hybridizing that was thick as a railroad tie, and took off her frameless reading glasses. “Time’s zipping by. Ground’s warming up.”

“I know. Daffodils are ready to pop. So much earlier than I’m used to. We’ve been selling a lot of bulbs. Back north, we’d sell most of those late summer or fall.”

“Homesick?”

“Now and then, but less and less already. I can’t say I’m sorry to be out of Michigan as we slog through February. They got six inches of snow yesterday, and I’m watching daffodils spearing up.”

Roz leaned back in the chair, crossed her sock-covered feet at the ankles. “Is there a problem?”

“So much for the illusion that I conceal my emotions under a composed façade. No, no problem. I did the duty call home to my mother a little while ago. I’m still recovering.”

“Ah.”

It was a noncommittal sound, and Stella decided she could interpret it as complete non-interest or a tacit invitation to unload. Because she was brimming, she chose to unload.

“I spent the almost fifteen minutes she spared me out of her busy schedule listening to her talk about her current boyfriend. She actually calls these men she sees boyfriends. She’s fifty-eight years old, and she just had her fourth divorce two months ago. When she wasn’t complaining that Rocky—and he’s actually named Rocky—isn’t attentive enough and won’t take her to the Bahamas for a midwinter getaway, she was talking about her next chemical peel and whining about how her last Botox injection hurt. She never asked about the boys, and the only reference she made to the fact that I was living and working down here was to ask if I was tired of being around the jerk and his bimbo—her usual terms for my father and Jolene.”

When she’d run out of steam, Stella rubbed her hands over her face. “Goddamn it.”