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Not that she was going She probably wasn&039;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 iht?"
Stella looked down at the flat "Yeah Those are Busy Lizzies They&039;re doing really well"
"And these are iht You do learn fast"
"Well, I recognize these easier because I&039;ve planted them before Anyway, I went to Graceland with soht this Elvis bookmark Wonder what ever happened to that? Elvis is a form of Elvin It e?"
"Stranger to me that you&039;d know that"
"Just one of those things you pick up somewhere"
"Okay So, what&039;s the dress code?"
"H to identify another flat by the leaves on the seedlings And struggling not to peek at the nauess there is one People just hatever Jeans and stuff"
"Casual, then"
"Right I like the way it smells in here All earthy and daht career choice"
"It could be a career, couldn&039;t it?" Those clear blue eyes shifted to Stella "Soht I&039;d run ured on a bookstore, but this is sort of the same"
"How&039;s that?"
"Well, like you&039;ve got your new stuff, and your classics You&039;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&039;re right I hadn&039;t thought of it that way"
Encouraged, Hayley walked down the rows "And you&039;re learning and exploring, the way you do with books And we - you know, the staff - we&039;re trying to help people find what suits the a flower&039;s like opening a book, because either way you&039;re starting soood at this"
"I don&039;t doubt it"
She turned to see Stella sood at it, it won&039;t just be a job anymore A job&039;s okay It&039;s cool for now, but I want more than a paycheck at the end of the week I don&039;t just h, okay, I want the money too"
"No, I knohat you mean You hat 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&039;re so totally sot two great kids, and a a position here You worked toward this, this place, this position I feel like I&039;et on with it So was I at your age"
Hayley&039;s face beaood humor "And, yeah, you&039;re so old and creaky now"
Laughing, Stella pushed back her hair "I&039;ve got about ten years on you A lot can happen, a lot can change - yourself included - in a decade In so, too - a decade after you Transplanting myself, and et scared?"
"Every day" She laid a hand on Hayley&039;s belly "It co you to talk to I h this, but you - well, both you and Roz hado 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&039;t know I ht"
With his crew split between the white pines and the landscape prep on the Guppy job, Logan set to work on the ay for his old teacher It wouldn&039;t take hi, 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 so in his head that he knew he could make with his hands
He could take as and make it better, maybe blend some of ith the new and create a different whole
He&039;d grown up respecting the land, and the whims of Nature, but rew up on a sht, 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 faifted them with a nice bonanza when his father had opted to sell out
He couldn&039;t say he missed the farm He&039;d wanted more than row crops and worries about market prices But he&039;d wanted, needed, to work the land
Maybe he&039;d lost soic of it when he&039;d s, too much concrete, too many limitations for him He hadn&039;t been able to acclimate to the climate or culture any more than Rae had been able to acclimate here
It hadn&039;t worked No , the e had just withered on them
So he&039;d come home, and ultimately, with Roz&039;s offer, he&039;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&039;d asked the wouy asked a wo date
He had no intention of dating toe-the-line Stella Rothchild She wasn&039;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&039;d never met a woman, really, asn&039;t his type
He just liked the breed, that&039;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&039;d ended up h that had been athe way
Maybe he&039;d never been particularly drawn to the structured, hway 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&039;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&039;this hands on that hair, just to see if it felt as sexy as it looked
But it didn&039;t h to deal with her professionally The wo
Probably had them in bed, too Probably had a typed list of bullet points, dos and don&039;ts, all with a mission statement overview
What the woman needed was sos Not that he was interested in being the one to provide it
It was just that she&039;d looked so pretty that ood Plus she&039;d had that sexy little s about taking her to Graceland
Nothing to worry about, he assured hi a woman like her did, just for the hell of it As far as he could tell, she didn&039;t do anything for the hell of it
They&039;d both forget he&039;d even brought it up
Because she felt it was ie with Roz
She&039;d have preferred a specific tis, and a specific location But Roz was hard to pin down
She&039;d already held theation house and in the field This ti room, where she&039;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 fra by Ground&039;s war up"
"I know Daffodils are ready to pop Soa lot of bulbs Back north, we&039;d sell most of those late summer or fall"
"Homesick?"
"Now and then, but less and less already I can&039;t say I&039;h February They got six inches of snow yesterday, and I&039; 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 facade No, no probleo I&039;"
"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 bri, she chose to unload
"I spent the almost fifteento her talk about her current boyfriend She actually calls these ht years old, and she just had her fourth divorce twothat Rocky - and he&039;s actually nah and won&039;t take her to the Baha about her next che about how her last Botox injection hurt She never asked about the boys, and the only reference shedown 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&039;d run out of steam, Stella rubbed her hands over her face "Godda, and venom to pack into a quarter of an hour She sounds like a very talented woman"
It took Stella a minute - a minute where she let her hands slide into her lap so she could stare into Roz&039;s face Then she let her own head fall back with a peal of laughter
"Oh, yeah Oh, yeah, she&039;s loaded with talent Thanks"
"No problem My mama spent ether - sighing wistfully over her health Not that she meant to complain, so she said I very nearly put that on her tombstone &039;Not That I Mean to Complain&039;"
"I could put &039;I Don&039;t Ask for Much&039; on o Mine made such an impression on me that I went hell-bent in the opposite direction I could probably cut off a limb, and you wouldn&039;t hear a whiuess I&039;ve done the same with mine I&039;ll have to think about that later Okay, on to business We&039;re sold out of the mixed-bulb planters we forced I don&039;t know if you want to do others this late in the season"
"Maybe a few Some people like to pick them up, already done, for Easter presents and so on"
"All right How about if I show Hayley how it&039;s done? I know you usually do theood job for her I&039;ve been watching her" At Stella&039;s expression, she inclined her head
"I don&039;t like to look like I&039; on ina T"
"And I&039;ht"
"Exactly Still, I&039;ve left her pri out for you?"
"More than You don&039;t have to tell her so twice, and when she clai She&039;s thirsty"
"We&039;ve got plenty to drink around here"
"She&039;s personable with customers - friendly, never rushed And she&039;s not afraid to say she doesn&039;t know, but she&039;ll find out She&039;s outside right now, poking around your beds and shrubs She wants to knohat she&039;s selling"
She moved to theas she spoke, to look out It was nearly twilight, but there was Hayley walking the dog and studying the perennials "At her age, I was planning o"
"At her age, I was raising two toddlers and was pregnant with Mason Now that was a o"
"It&039;s off topic, again, of the update, but I wanted to ask if you&039;d thought about what you&039;ll do e get to May"
"That&039;s still high season for us, and people like to freshen up the suarden We sell - "
"No, I meant about Hayley About the baby"
"Oh Well, she&039;ll have to decide that, but I expect if she decides to stay on at the nursery, we&039;ll find her sit-doork"
"She&039;ll need to find child care, when she&039;s ready to go back to work And speaking of nurseries "
"H ahead"
"Tiure it out"
Because she was curious, Roz rose to go to theherself Standing beside Stella she looked out
It was a lovely thing, she decided, watching a young woarden
She&039;d once been that young wo life
Tiht It damn near evaporated on you
"She see to do But could be after she has the baby, she&039;ll change herthe father involved" Roz watched Hayley lay a hand on her belly and look west, to where the sun was sinking behind the trees and into the river beyond the for it single-handed&039;s one hell of a reality check We&039;ll see when the tiht And I don&039;t suppose either of us knows her well enough to knohat&039;s best Speaking of babies, it&039;s nearly ti to leave the weekly report with you"
"All right I&039;ll get to it I should tell you, Stella, I like what you&039;ve done What shows, like in the custoe, and for the first time in years, I&039; overworked, but I can&039;t say Iyou with details?"
"Even when I haven&039;t heard any coan in the past few days Or fro in a fool&039;s paradise, or have you two found your rhythm?"
"There are still a few hitches in it, and I suspect there&039;ll be others, but nothing for you to worry about In fact, he esture and offered to take me to Graceland"
"He did?" Roz&039;s eyebrows drew together "Logan?"
"Would that be out of the ordinary for him?"
"I couldn&039;t say, except I don&039;t know that he&039;s dated anyone from work before"
"It&039;s not a date, it&039;s an outing"
Intrigued, Roz sat again You never knehat you&039;d learn froer woman, she decided
"What&039;s the difference?"
"Well, a date&039;s dinner and a movie with potential, even probable, ro"
Roz leaned back, stretched out her legs "Things do change, don&039;t they? Still, in , it&039;s a date"
"See, that&039;s my quandary" Since conversation seeain, sat on the arht But it see&039; term was his Like a kind of olive branch And if I take it, round, or that rhythh spots in our working relationship"
"So, if I&039;an for the good of In the Garden"
"Sort of"
"And not because he&039;s a very attractive, dynale man"
"No, those would be bonus points" She waited until Roz stopped laughing "And I&039;&039;s a ot more years in that war zone than you"
"I likeher hair a little higher "I like the co&039;s so complicated and stressful"
"Better co, which too many of my experiences in the field have been"
"Co, I like the sound of &039;outing&039; an&039;s a friend of yours But I&039;d just like to ask if you think, if I ith hi i that line between coworkers Or - "
"That&039;s an awful lot of co"
"It is I irritateher head, she pushed off the chair "I&039;d better get bath ti on those bulbs tooing on this outing?"
She paused at the doorway "Maybe I&039;ll sleep on it"