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Everything was perfect She worked long hours, but e There was little Stella lovedShe had a vision of things, in her head, of how things could and should be
Soanize and project, to nudge those visions of things into place even when - et the picture
But she didn&039;t see it that way
Life ran s here it was meant to be
Her life had - she&039;d made certain of it - until Kevin&039;s death Her childhood had been a maze of contradictions, of confusions and irritations In a very real way she&039;d lost her father at the age of three when divorce had divided her fa she clearly re for her daddy
From that point on, it see, from the color of paint on the walls to finances to how to spend holidays and vacations Everything
Those saht say that&039;s what happened with two headstrong wo in the same house But Stella knew different While she was practical and organized, her mother was scattered and spontaneous Which accounted for the four ements
Her mother liked flash and noise and wild romance Stella preferred quiet and settled and committed
Not that she wasn&039;t romantic She was just sensible about it
It had been both sensible and romantic to fall in love with Kevin He&039;d been wars Home, family, future He&039;d made her happy, made her feel safe and cherished And God, she missed him
She wondered what he&039;d think about her co over this way He&039;d have trusted her He&039;d always believed in her They&039;d believed in each other
He&039;d been her rock, in a very real way The rock that had given her a solid base to build on after a childhood of upheaval and discontent
Then fate had kicked that rock out from under her She&039;d lost her base, her love, her most cherished friend, and the only person in the world who could treasure her children as much as she did
There had been ti the first months after Kevin&039;s death when she&039;d despaired of ever finding her balance again
Now she was the rock for her sons, and she would do whatever she had to do to give theood life
With her boys settled down for the night, and a low fire burning - she was definitely having a bedroom fireplace in her next house - she sat on the bed with her laptop
It wasn&039;t the ht asking Roz to let her convert one of the bedrooms into a home office
Yet
She could make do this way for now In fact, it was cozy and for her, relaxing, to go over the order of business for the next day while tucked into the gorgeous old bed
She had the list of phone calls she intended to arden accessories and the houseplants Her new color-coordinated pricing systeram to install
She had to speak with Roz about the seasonal eroup responsibilities
And she&039;d yet to corner the landscape designer You&039;d think the man could find tian Kitridge," holding and underlining the nalanced at the clock, reminded herself that she would put in a better day&039;s ith a good night&039;s sleep
She powered down the laptop, then carried it over to the dressing table to set it to charge She really was going to need that hoh her habitual bedti her naked face in the mirror to see if the Time Bitch had snuck any new lines on it that day She dabbed on her eye creahtti to point of use, on the counter After slatheringfor gray hairs The Time Bitch could be sneaky
She wished she was prettier Wished her features were ht and a reasonable color She&039;d dyed it brown once, and that had been a disaster So, she&039;d just have to live with
She caught herself hu was that? How strange to have it stuck in her head when she didn&039;t even knohat it was
Then she realized it wasn&039;t stuck in her head She heard it Soft, drea what in the world Roz would be doing singing to the boys at eleven at night, Stella reached for the connecting door
When she opened it, the singing stopped In the subtle glow of the Harry Potter night-light, she could see her sons in their beds
"Roz?" she whispered, stepping in
She shivered once Why was it so cold in there? She moved, quickly and quietly to the terrace doors, checked and found them securely closed, as were the s And the hall door, she thought with another frown
She could have sworn she&039;d heard so But the chill had already faded, and there was no sound in the roo
She tucked up their blankets as she did every night, brushed kisses on both their heads
And left the connecting doors open
Byshe&039;d brushed it off Luke couldn&039;t find his lucky shirt, and Gavin got into a wrestling e his As a result, she barely had ti coffee and the muffin David pressed on her
"Will you tell Roz I went in early? I want to have the lobby area done before we open at ten"
"She left an hour ago"
"An hour ago?" Stella looked at her watch Keeping up with Roz had beco "Does she sleep?"
"With her, the early bird doesn&039;t just catch the worm, but has time to saute it with a nice plum sauce for breakfast"
"Excuse me, but eeuw Gotta run" She dashed for the doorway, then stopped "David, everything&039;s going okay with the kids? You&039;d tell ht?"
"Absolutely We&039;re having nothing but fun Today, after school, we&039;re going to practice running with scissors, then find how hhouse with that can poke our eyes out After that, we&039;veon to flammables"
"Thanks I feel very reassured" She bent down to give Parker a last pat "Keep an eye on this guy," she told hie was pressed for time Rain had delayed his personal project to the point where he was going to have to postpone soain - to meet professional commitments
He didn&039;ta perpetual work in progress It was never finished It should never be finished And when you worked with Nature, Nature was the boss She was fickle and tricky, and endlessly fascinating
A man had to be continually on his toes, be ready to flex, be willing to co in absolutes was an exercise in frustration, and to his s to be frustrated about
Since Nature had deigned to give hi it to deal with his personal project It meant he had to work alone - he liked that better in any case - and carve out ti by the job site and check on his two-et over to Roz&039;s place, pick up the trees he&039;d earet theround before noon
Or one Two at the latest
Well, he&039;d see hoent
The one thing he couldn&039;t afford to carve out tier Roz had taken on He couldn&039;t figure out why Roz had hired a er in the first place, and for God&039;s sake a Yankee It seemed to him that Rosalind Harper kne to run her business just fine and didn&039;t need so with the syste with Roz She was a wos done, and who didn&039;t poke her nose into his end of things any more than was reasonable She loved the work, just as he did, had an instinct for it So when she did h it in
She paid well and didn&039;t hassle a man over every detail
He could tell, just tell, that thisbut bumps and ruts in his road
Wasn&039;t she already leaving ement, invoice systeive a shit about that sort of thing, and he wasn&039;t going to start giving one now
He and Roz had a systeot the job done and made the client happy
Why mess with success?
He drove his full-size pickup through the parking area, wove through the piles of mulch and sand, the landscape ti area
He&039;d already eyeballed and tagged what he wanted - but before he loaded them up, he&039;d take one reens in the field and a couple of heht he could use
Harper had grafted hierow of peonies They&039;d be ready to dig in this spring, along with the various pots of cuttings and layered plants Roz had helped hih the rows of trees, then turned around and backtracked
This wasn&039;t right, he thought Everything was out of place, changed around Where were his dogwoods? Where the hell were the rhododendrons, the ing an a careful, step-by-step search through the section
It was all different Trees and shrubs were no longer in what he&039;d considered an interesting, eclectic mix of type and species, but lined up like army recruits, he decided Alphabetized, for Christ&039;s sweet sake In frigging Latin
Shrubs were segregated, and organized in the sa, carted the to hi up the trees he wanted there They&039;d be safer at his place Obviously
Bur first he was going to hunt up Roz and get this htened out
Standing on a stepladder, ar, Stella attacked the top of the shelf she&039;d cleared off A good cleaning, she decided, and it would be ready for her newly planned display She envisioned it filled with color-coordinated decorative pots, so them Add other accessories, like raffia twine, decorative watering spikes, florist stones and
At point of purchase, it would generate i the soil additives, fertilizers, and animal repellents to the side wall Those were basics, not impulse Customers would walk back there for ite to hang, the bench and concrete planter she intended to haul in With the other changes, it would all tie together, and with the flow, draw customers into the houseplant section, across to the patio pots, the garden furniture, all before theyplants
With an hour and a half until they opened, and if she could shanghai Harper into helping her with the heavy stuff, she&039;d have it done
She heard footsteps coh froress," she began "I know it doesn&039;t look like it yet, but"
She broke off when she saw hi on the ladder, she felt dwarfed He had to be six-five All tough and rangy and fit in faded jeans with bleach stains splattered over one thigh He wore a flannel shirt jacket-style over a white T-shirt and a pair of boots so dinged and scored she wondered he didn&039;t take pity and give the, wavy, unke for the one time she&039;d dyed her own
She wouldn&039;t have called hied The hard mouth, the hollowed cheeks, the sharp nose, the expression in his eyes They were green, but not like Kevin&039;s had been These wereline of brows
No, she wouldn&039;t have said handsoh sort of way The sort of tough that looked like a bunched fist would bounce right off hie to the puncher than the punchee
She sh she wondered where Roz was, or Harper Or somebody
"I&039; Is there so I can do for you?"
Oh, he knew that voice That crisp, cool voice that had left hianizational plans and production goals
He&039;d expected her to look like she&039;d sounded - a usual mistake, he supposed There wasn&039;tto control with that stupid-looking kerchief, or the wariness in those big blue eyes
"You moved my damn trees"
"I&039;ht to be Don&039;t do it again"
"I don&039;t knohat you&039;re talking about" She kept a grip on the bucket - just in case - and stepped down the ladder "Did you order some trees? If I could have your name, I&039;ll see if I can find your order We&039;re i a new syste, and I don&039;t like your new syste in here? Where is everything?"
His voice sounded local to her, with a definite edge of nasty impatience "I think it would be best if you came back e&039;re open Winter hours start at ten aed toward the counter and the phone
"It&039;s Kitridge, and you ought to know since you&039;ve been nagging me brainless for damn near a week"
"I don&039;t knowoh Kitridge" She relaxed, fractionally "The landscape designer And I haven&039;t been nagging," she said withto contact you so we could schedule aYou haven&039;t had the courtesy to return my calls I certainly hope you&039;re not as rude with clients as you are with coworkers"
"Rude? Sister, you haven&039;t seen rude"
"I have two sons," she snapped back "I&039;ve seen plenty of rude Roz hired me to put some order into her business, to take some of the systemic load off her shoulders, to - "