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"Stella, while they&039;re finishing up here, why don&039;t we get soht We&039;ll just be a &039;s fine," David said

"Well Be right back, then"

Roz waited until they were at the front door "David&039;s wonderful with kids"

"Anyone could see" She caught herself twisting the band of her watch, made herself stop "It just feels like an imposition I&039;d pay him, of course, but - "

"You&039;ll work that out between you I just wanted to say - from one mother to another - that you can trust him to look after them, to entertain them, and to keep them - well, no, you can&039;t trust him to keep them out of trouble I&039;ll say serious trouble, yes, but not the ordinary sort"

"He&039;d have to have superpowers for that"

"He practically grew up in this house He&039;s like my fourth son"

"It would be tremendously easy this way I wouldn&039;t have to haul theht

"And you&039;re not used to things being easy"

"No, I&039; out frouess that&039;s the deciding vote right there"

"Wonderful sound, isn&039;t it? I&039;ve s"

"You have to give me the boundaries," Stella said as they went outside "Where the boys can go, where they can&039;t They need chores and rules They&039;re used to having theive that soh David - despite the fact that I&039;m the boss of all of you - probably has ideas on all that already Cute dog, too, by the way" She hauled two suitcases out of the back of the SUV "My dog died last year, and I haven&039;t had the heart to get another It&039;s nice having a dog around Clever name"

"Parker - for Peter Parker That&039;s - "

"Spider-Man I did raise three boys of rabbed another suitcase and a cardboard carton She felt her muscles strain even as Roz carried her load with apparent ease

"I meant to ask who else lives here, or what other staff you have"

"It&039;s just David"

"Oh? He said soot here"

"That&039;s right It would be David, and e inside and started up the steps with it "She&039;s our ghost"

"Your"

"A house this old isn&039;t haunted, it would be a dauess that&039;s one way to look at it"

She decided Roz was a herself with a little local color for the new kid on the block Ghosts would add to the family lore So she dismissed it

"You can have your run of the ing I think the rooms we&039;ve ear, and David&039;s rooms are off the kitchen Everyone has plenty of privacy, which I&039;ve always felt is vital to good relations"

"This is the most beautiful house I&039;ve ever seen"

"It is, isn&039;t it?" Roz stopped a ardens "It can be da the plumber, the electrician, soht think it&039;s a waste for a woman on her own"

"It&039;s yours Your family home"

"Exactly And it&039;ll stay that hatever it takes You&039;re just down here Each rooe if you need to lock the one in the boys&039; rooe, especially in a new place"

"Bull&039;s-eye" Stella walked into the room behind Roz "Oh, they&039;ll love this Lots of rooht" She laid the carton and the suitcase on one of the twin beds But antiques" She ran her fingers over the child-size chest of drawers "I&039;m terrified"

"Furniture&039;s ood pieces respected"

"Believe et the word" Please, God, don&039;t let the

"You&039;re next door The bath connects" Roz gestured, angled her head "I thought, at least initially, you&039;d want to be close"

"Perfect" She walked into the bath The generous claw-foot tub stood on a marble platform in front of the terrace doors Roman shades could be pulled down for privacy The toilet sat in a tall cabinet built froet a kick out of that!

Beside the pedestal sink was a brass toarreen towels

Through the connecting door, her rooht Rhizo area faced the sarden in full suauzy white and shell pink, the canopy bed was accented with a generous mountain of silk pillows in dreatable and the carved ar to feel like Cinderella at the ball"

"If the shoe fits" Roz set down the suitcases "I want you to be co to work you very hard It&039;s a big house, and David will show you through at some point We won&039;t bump into each other, unless ant to"

She shoved up the sleeves of her shirt as she looked around "I&039;h I do enjoy the co to like you I already like your children"

She glanced at her watch "I&039;rab that hot chocolate - I can&039;t ever resist it - then get to work"

"I&039;d like to come in, show you some of my ideas, later today"

"Fine Hunt me up"

She did just that Though she&039;d intended to bring the kids with her after the school , she hadn&039;t had the heart to take them away from David

Soin a new house with strangers It appeared thatto be on her end

She dressedshoes that had already seen their share of mud, jeans with considerable wear, and a black sweater With her briefcase in hand, she headed into the arden center

The sa on a customer Stella noted a small dieffenbachia in a cherry-red pot and a quartet of lucky bamboo, tied with decorative he of stones and a square glass vase aiting to be rung up

Good

"Is Roz around?" Stella asked

"Oh" Ruby gestured vaguely "Somewhere or the other"

She nodded to the tays behind the counter "Would she have one of those with her?"

The idea seemed to amuse Ruby "I don&039;t think so"

"Okay, I&039;ll find her That&039;s so esture toward the bareat in that bowl"

"I was thinking about putting it onfun and pretty"

"Perfect Terrific hostess gifts, too More iinative than the usual flowers"

"I hadn&039;t thought of that You know, et another set"

"You couldn&039;t go wrong" She bearatulating herself as she went She wasn&039;t in any hurry to find Roz This gave her a chance to poke around on her own, to check supplies, stock, displays, traffic patterns And to ation area, studying the progress of seedlings and cuttings, the type of stock plants, and their health

It was nearly an hour before shearea She could hearout the door

She peeked in There were long tables lining both sides of the greenhouse, and two ether to run down the center It smelled of heat, vermiculite, and peatplants that had been or were being grafted Clipboards hung froes of tables, much like hospital charts A computer was shoved into a corner, its screen a pulse of colors that seemed to beat to thetape and wax, and other tools of this part of the trade lay in trays

She spotted Roz at the far end, standing behind a man on a stool His shoulders were hunched as he worked Roz&039;s hands were on her hips

"It can&039;t take more than an hour, Harper This place is as much yours as mine, and you need to meet her, hear what she has to say"

"I will, I will, but das here You&039;re the one ants her to e I don&039;t care"

"There&039;s such a thing as manners" Exasperation rolled into the overheated air "I&039; you to pretend, for an hour, to have a few"

The coht Stella&039;s oords to her sons back to her h, but did her best to conceal it with a cough as she walked down the narrow aisle

"Sorry to interrupt I was just" She stopped by a pot, studying the grafted stem and the new leaves

"I can&039;t quite make this one"

"Daphne" Roz&039;s son spared her the briefest glance

"Evergreen variety And you&039;ve used a splice side-veneer graft"

He stopped, swiveled on his stool Hisbones, rich eyes His dark hair was considerably longer than hers, long enough that he tied it back hat looked to be a hunk of raffia Like her, he was sli, and like her he dressed carelessly in jeans pocked with rips and a soil-stained Me about grafting?"

"Just the basics I cleft-grafted a cas I&039;m Stella It&039;s nice to meet you, Harper"

He rubbed his hand over his jeans before shaking hers "Moanize us"

"That&039;s the plan, and I hope it&039;s not going to be too painful for any of us What are you working on here?" She stepped over to a line of pots covered with clean plastic bags held clear of the grafted plant by four split stakes

"Gypsophilia - baby&039;s breath I&039; for blue, as well as pink and white"

"Blue My favorite color I don&039;t want to hold you up I was hoping," she said to Roz, "we could find soo over some of my ideas"

"Back in the annual house The office is hopeless Harper?"

"All right, okay Go ahead I&039;ll be there in five minutes"

"Harper"

"Okay, ten But that&039;s ht cuff on the back of the head "Don&039;t , nag," he rin

Outside, Roz let out a sigh "He plants hie him He&039;s the only one of my boys who has an interest in the place Austin&039;s a reporter, works in Atlanta Mason&039;s a doctor, or will be He&039;s doing his internship in Nashville"

"You must be proud"

"I ah of either of them And here&039;s Harper, practically underto have a conversation"

Roz boosted herself onto one of the tables "Well, what&039;ve you got?"

"He looks just like you"

"People say I just see Harper Your boys with David?"

"Couldn&039;t pry them aith a crowbar" Stella opened her briefcase "I typed up some notes"

Roz looked at the stack of papers and tried not to wince "I&039;ll say"

"And I&039;ve e the layout to iht non-plant purchases You have a prie, and a very appealing entrance"

"I hear a &039;but&039; co on"

"But" Stella moistened her lips "Your first-level retail area is soes it would flow better into the secondary area and on through to your anizational plan - "

"A functional organizational plan Oh, my God"

"Take it easy, this really won&039;t hurt What you need is a chain of responsibility for your functional area That&039;s sales, production, and propagation Obviously you&039;re a skilled propagator, but at this point you need me to head production and sales If we increase the volume of sales as I&039;ve proposed here - "

"You did charts" There was a touch of wonder in Roz&039;s voice "And graphs I&039;msuddenly afraid"

"You are not," Stella said with a laugh, then looked at Roz&039;s face "Okay, maybe a little But if you look at this chart, you see the nursery e of everything Forked out froator - you and, I assuer - still ate and/or hire soe of container and/or field production This section here deals with staff, job descriptions and responsibilities"

"All right" On a little breath, Roz rubbed the back of her neck "Before I giveall that, let an, ood handle on the field production at this point I can continue to head up the container production I didn&039;t start this place to sit back and have others do all the work"

"Great Then at soan so we can coordinate our visions"

Roz&039;s sht to be interesting"

"Meanwhile, since we&039;re both here, why don&039;t we take o through it on the spot? You can see better what I have in mind, and it&039;ll be siht as she hopped down She didn&039;t think anything was going to be sioing to be boring