Steady (26 page)

***

Later on that night, Katrina called Colburn, as he managed most of the plant pricing at Abernathy and Co.

“Hey, Kit Kat, what can I do for you?” he said, using another one of his nicknames for her.

“Nothing. I was just calling to let you know that I am coming over in the morning.”

“You wasted a phone call just to tell me that?” he asked in his usual gruff manner.

“No, Will is coming with me.”

“Will? Who’s Will?” he asked.

“You know, the guy who is leading the competition for my neighborhood this year.”

“I remember him, the Japanese kid with the gardens you don’t like.”

Katrina sighed. “I like them now; remember, we’re working together now. I called to tell you that we’re stopping by tomorrow and that he’ll need some help with pricing,” she said.

“Why would you waste your time calling to tell me that? I’ll help him; you didn’t need to waste a dime calling to tell me that.”

Katrina sighed again, loudly. “Colburn. Enough. Just work with him, okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I work with him?” he asked, fighting to not allow the smile on his face to show through the phone. He loved teasing his goddaughter.

“Okay, I’ll see you and Uncle C tomorrow.”

“We’ll be here, same as always,” he said by way of goodbye, hanging up.

Colburn laughed.

“Who was that?” Charles asked.

“Katrina, calling to inform us that she will be bringing Will by tomorrow.”

“Oh,” Charles said, smiling. “Well, our little girl is finally bringing someone home to meet the parents. I didn’t think this day would come.”

Colburn looked over at him and started to laugh, and Charles joined in.

“Well, I am going to give him the once-over, see if he passes muster. If not, I can run him off if need be,” Coburn said, laughing, but serious, too.

***

Ten minutes before eight the next morning, Will stood outside Katrina’s door waiting for her to answer. Katrina had hemmed and hawed all morning, dithering, having recently purchased a few shorts and shirts that fit her better. She had a pair of them on now. She had given up her glasses, too, and wore her contacts practically all the time now. She refused to consider what that meant. So should she change or not? Out with the old, in with the new. She had dressed in the new, only to change back into the old, then back in with the new, which was where she was now. The doorbell rang, bringing a halt to all that changing. What happened to not being interested?

She opened the door and stood before Will. She was dressed in jeans shorts, the skinny kind that followed the curve of her body before stopping just above her knee. And, wonders of wonders, she wore a T-shirt that clung tightly to her upper body. Maybe wearing clothes that fit wasn’t such a good idea after all. Not being able to see her body had its benefits; lately it had been all he’d thought about. If she kept this up, he would spend all his time just staring at her.

“Hey, you’re early. Come in. I need to grab my keys and backpack and we’ll be ready to go,” she said, pretending not to notice the flash of desire in his eyes. She stood back to let him in, and then leading him through her home, bending over to pick up her keys and backpack from the ottoman along the way.

Her home was spotless, same as the time he’d delivered her home. He followed her, noting the way her bottom moved in those shorts. He had locked in on that part of her anatomy and ran smack into her back when she stopped at her garage door, bringing him in direct contact with the part he’d admired so much. It worked for him, too, an unobtrusive way to cop a feel.

“Sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going,” he said. She looked back at him, her eyes squinting in their appraisal of his comment, seeking the truth. She opened the door.

If he had any question before, he knew it now—he was in love. He appreciated the neatness of Katrina’s garage, which almost but not quite rivaled his. The walls here held every imaginable gardening tool, organized by type; saws were side by side on the wall from large to small in size, followed by shovels, hoes, forks, and rakes. You name it, he’d bet it was somewhere in this garage. She was a regular home-and-garden store. She probably had something to do with the sheds at the gardens being so well organized. A girl after his own heart.

“I like the way you organize,” he said, smiling as she did the same. She backed her little electric car out of the garage and pulled onto the street.

“Abernathy and Co. is not that far from here,” she said, looking over at him. “I saw you there once,” she added, watching him search his brain for when.

“Me? When?” he asked, surprised and bothered that he hadn’t remembered.

“During the holidays; actually, a couple of days after Christmas. You were looking for some tool, I don’t remember what,” she said.

“I don’t remember,” he said, looking at her intently.

“It’s okay. Sometimes I’m not very noticeable,” she said, smiling.

He was quiet, not sure how to respond to that. “You are noticeable when you want to be,” he said, pausing. “I remember the night of the party, I noticed. I remember you in your workout attire. Noticed you that day, too, and I remember your expression as you stood in my backyard. Those things I noticed and remember quite vividly.”

“Oh.” She was now the one speechless. “Anyway,” she said, wanting to change the subject, searching her brain for something interesting to talk about and coming up empty.

“So you never met your birth parents or their families?” he asked, watching her drive. She was a careful driver, going the speed limit, stopping at the yellow lights.

She shook her head.

“How about you?” she asked.

“There are four of us; three girls, one boy,” he said.

“Where are you from originally?”

“San Francisco. Two of my sisters, my grandfather, and my mother live there now.”

“That’s only two sisters accounted for,” she said.

“My oldest sister lives here in town.”

“Where is here?” Katrina asked, pulling into a large parking area and parking near the main gate.

“Willow Mountain,” he said, getting out of her car, looking around. He had been impressed with the place on his first visit here and still was. It had a local feel to it.

“It is busy; they do a lot of business,” Katrina said, moving around him, following his eyes. They walked through a huge gate painted barnyard red. The gates had been moved and tied back to the fence. Flowers of all sizes, from small planting flats to larger gallon-size pots, sat on tables surrounding them. Directly in front of them was a big building, its color matching the fence.

“As you know, that’s where you can purchase gardening tools, fertilizers, and pesticides, although they strongly discourage the use of pesticides,” she said, walking in the direction of the store.

“I should have known you’d know your way around this store,” he said to her, following her up the steps and into the building, bumping into her back again as she stopped. He followed her eyes downward to where a chicken and her small chicks crossed before them.

“That’s Annie and those are her chicks,” she said before continuing inside. An older white-haired guy stood next to the counter talking to a customer. Will watched Katrina walk over and stand behind the counter and wait until they were finished with their conversation. The older man turned to Katrina, gave her a huge smile, and said, “If it isn’t my favorite goddaughter.” Katrina had placed one of her arms around him and gave him a side hug.

“I’m your only goddaughter,” she said, reaching up to kiss his cheek. “I have someone I would like you to meet,” she said, beckoning Will over. He walked up and shook the man’s hand.

“Uncle C, a.k.a. Charles Abernathy, I would like you to meet Will Nakane. He’s the one who came up with the design that our neighborhood will be using this year in the competition. We’ve made the final five, which is why we are here today; we need to nail down the pricing for the plants. I thought Colburn could help with that,” she said.

Charles shook Will’s hand.

“Glad to meet you, Will. Colburn is around here somewhere,” Charles said, and on cue, Colburn entered the store and walked over to give Katrina a hug.

“Hey, Colburn,” she said. Will had watched the man’s facial expression move from glacial when he’d entered to warm and open when he smiled at Katrina.

“Hello, Katrina.”

“Colburn, this is Will, the one who was selected to head the neighborhood competition.” Will extended his hand to Colburn, who stood there, interrogating Will with his eyes.

Uggg!
Sometimes her godfathers drove her to drink, Katrina thought, giving a huge sigh meant for all the world to hear. Deliver her from men and their rituals. Will stood his ground, and, a minute later, Colburn extended his hand. He had somehow taken Will’s measure and was satisfied now.

“We stopped by this morning to nail down the final pricing. I thought you could help,” she said.

“Where is your budget?” Colburn asked, continuing to look over Will from head to toe.

“I have it,” said Katrina, looking through her backpack and pulling it out. She handed it over to him.

“Katrina, how about you stay here and help your Uncle C with the store and I’ll take Will around. You okay with that, Will?” Colburn asked.

“Sure,” Will said.

Colburn continued, “We’ll meet you back in here when we’re done.”

“Okay,” Katrina said, looking into Will’s face for assurance.

Will smiled back at her, laughter in his eyes.

Will and Colburn walked through the door and out into the sunshine. Katrina tracked them with her eyes until they got lost in the center. She turned around to find her Uncle C watching her, a smile on his face.

“This is against my better judgment, but I’ll do it anyway. What?” she asked.

“You like him, and more than you let on. I can see it. I know women well enough to know an interested one when I see one,” he said, still smiling at her.

“Okay, I am, so what? He only sees me now that he’s working with me. He didn’t even notice me before.”

“Katrina, you’ve got a chip on your shoulder about some things still. I’m sure you made it easy for him to see you.”

“I did,” she said, but she’d hadn’t, not really, or at least not before the party.

“Hey, Uncle C, people see what they want to see, and you and I both know that they’re only interested if it sparkles and shines.”

“You could sparkle and shine if you put your mind to it. You are sparkling and shining a little bit today, as a matter of fact. That’s not your usual attire.”

“So good of you to notice. You know what I mean,” she said, although she wasn’t going to tell him of her recent shopping trip.

“You have to at some point let go of your grudges and hurts, otherwise, you miss more than you know.”

“Maybe,” she said, turning back to look in Colburn and Will’s direction.

***

Will and Colburn walked though the garden reviewing the list of plants they would need from Katrina’s itemized list, with Colburn verifying the cost of each. He knew Katrina had been thorough, but Colburn offered some of the items to them at a discount.

“What’s the point of having a godchild if you can’t spoil or help her?” he said to Will.

“I hadn’t known she was your goddaughter until now. She hadn’t mentioned it to me,” Will responded.

“She can be independent that way,” Colburn said. He and Will stood next to a strand of Japanese maples, the ones on his list that turned a beautiful magenta color in the winter. Colburn pulled a tag over, making sure the price was what he’d marked it to be.

“How long have you been her godfathers?” Will asked.

“We knew her adoptive dad first; served with him. He and Marlene were her adoptive parents, and were two of the most loving parents you could ask for. Katrina had been in a group home and came to live with Wes and Marlene when she was ten. Charles did a couple of tours of duty with Wes, and, after the war ended, we all settled down here.

“When they adopted Katrina, we became her godfathers and love her like she is our own. Wes and Marlene were gardening people. Has Katrina told you anything about herself?” Colburn asked, stopping and watching Will. He knew Katrina liked this young man and she probably wouldn’t believe that interest was returned. It was hard for her to believe that people wanted her, one of the legacies of her fractured childhood. She hadn’t escaped from that past yet; maybe she never would.

“A little, not much. I think it’s safe to say that she was extremely disappointed when I took the offer to lead the competition.”

Colburn laughed. “She considers herself supreme in her knowledge of gardening, and Charles and I have continued to encourage her love for plants.” Colburn paused, then said, “She doesn’t remember her birth parents. Marlene and Wes were older when they decided to adopt. Said they saw her on TV and knew she belonged with them.”

“What happened to them?” Will asked.