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"Which did he choose? His wife or Elvis?"
"Well" He stretched out his legs, but couldn&039;t really shift his body away froh thebeside her, striking all that curling red hair "He settled on re-creating it in his base him put a scale model of the Meditation Garden in their backyard"
She laughed, a delightful roll of sound When she dropped her head back on the seat, her hair tickled his shoulder again "If he ever does, I hope we get the job"
"Count on it He&039;s ain, until she was breathless "Boy, I can&039;t wait to led around so she could face hi to confess the only reason I caesture by saying no I didn&039;t expect to have fun"
"It wasn&039;t a nice gesture so ood, and that clouded ment"
Humor danced over her face as she pushed her hair back "And? You&039;re supposed to say you had fun, too"
"Actually, I did"
When the shuttle stopped, he got up, stepped back so she could slide out and walk in front of hiood, so that could be it"
She shot hirin over her shoulder, and damn it, he felt that clutch in the belly Usually the clutch ht it meant trouble
But he&039;d been raised to follow through, and his mama would be horrified and shocked if he didn&039;t feed a wory?" he asked when he stepped down after her
"Oh Well, it&039;s too early for dinner, too late for lunch I really should - "
"Walk on the wild side Eat between rabbed her hand, and that was such a surprise she didn&039;t think to protest until he&039;d pulled her toward one of the on-site eateries
"I really shouldn&039;t take the time I told Roz I&039;d be back around four"
"You know, you stay wrapped that tight for any length of ti to cut your circulation off"
"I&039;ht," she objected "I&039;m responsible"
"Roz doesn&039;t have a ti to eat a hot dog"
"No, but" Liking hi her skin at the feel of that big, hard hand gripping hers It had been a long while since she&039;d enjoyed a man&039;s coh, she realized, her assent was superfluous, as he&039;d already pulled her inside and up to the counter "Anyway Since I&039; in the shops for a s, two Cokes and just suy" She opened her purse, dug out her wallet And took out a five-dollar bill "I&039; the CD And , drank the Coke She bought the CD But unlike every other feation to look at and paw over everything in the store She did her business and was done - neat, tidy, and precise
And as they walked back to his truck, he noticed she glanced at the readout display of her cell phone Again
"Proble "Just checking to see if I had any ed without her for an afternoon
Unless so with the phones Or they&039;d lost her number Or -
&039;The nursery could&039;ve been attacked by psychopaths with a petunia fetish" Logan opened the passenger-side door "The entire staff could be bound and gagged in the propagation house even as we speak"
Deliberately, Stella zipped her bag closed "You won&039;t think that&039;s so funny if we get there and that&039;s just what happened"
"Yes, I will"
He walked around the truck, got behind the wheel
"I have an obsessive, linear, goal-oriented personality with strong organizational tendencies"
He sat for a lad you told me I was under the ih aboutthat?"
She paused, her hands up in her hair "Doing what?"
"Why do you keep ja those pins in your hair?"
"Because they keep co out"
To her speechless shock, he reached over, tugged the loosened bobby pins free, then tossed them on the floor of his truck "So why put them in there in the first place?"
"Well, for God&039;s sake" She scowled down at the pins "How many times a week does so?"
"I don&039;t count" He drove out of the lot and into traffic "You&039;ve got sexy hair You ought to leave it alone"
"Thanks very much for the style advice"
"Women don&039;t usually sulk when a man tells the, and you didn&039;t say I was sexy You saidenough to give her an up-and-down glance "Rest of you works, too"
Okay, so when that sort of half-assed co in her belly Best to return to safe topics "To return to o into landscape design?"
"Summer job that stuck"
She waited a beat, two Three "Really, Logan,me with details?"
"Sorry I never knohen to shut up I grew up on a farm"
"Really? Did you love it or hate it?"
"Was used to it,outside, and don&039;t mind heavy, sweaty work"
"Blabberain
"Not that much more to it I didn&039;t want to farm, and my daddy sold the far the land It&039;s what I like, it&039;s what I&039; you don&039;t like or you&039;re not good at"
"Let&039;s try this How did you know you were good at it?"
"Not getting fired was an indication" He didn&039;t see how she could possibly be interested, but since she was pressing, he&039;d pass the time "You kno you&039;re in school, say in history, and they&039;re all Battle of Hastings or crossing the Rubicon or Christ knows? In and out," he said, tapping one side of his head, then the other "I&039;d jah the test, then poof But on the job, the boss would say we&039;re going to put cotoneasters in here, line these barberries over there, and I&039;d re the the soil, changing the look of things Making it reed "Believe it or not, that&039;s the same sort of deal I have with my files"
He slanted her a look that et this idea that, you know, those cotoneasters would look better over there, and instead of barberries, golden n"
"I thought about design for a while Not that good at it," she said "I realized I had a hard ti my vision to blend with the tea up in the ed dohen it came time to roll over into the art"
"Who did your landscaping up north?"
"I did If I had so in mind that took e, I had a list" She sn done on graph paper Then I hovered I&039;m a champion hoverer"
"And nobody shoved you into a hole and buried you?"
"No But then, I&039;m very personable and pleasant Maybe, when the time comes and I find n"
"I&039;m not personable and pleasant"
"Already noted"
"And isn&039;t it a leap for an obsessive, linear, detail freak to trust me to consult when you&039;ve only seen one of es?"
"I object to the term &039;freak&039; I prefer &039;devotee&039; And it happens I&039;ve seen several of your jobs, coot some of the addresses out of the files and drove around It&039;s what I do," she said when he braked at a Stop sign and stared at her "I&039;ve spent so Harper work, and Roz, as well as the employees I made it a point to take a look at some of your completed jobs I like your work"
"And if you hadn&039;t?"
"If I hadn&039;t, I&039;d have said nothing It&039;s Roz&039;s business, and she obviously likes your work But I&039;d have done soether and presented it to her That&039;s ht your job was to e the nursery and annoy ement is to make sure that all employees and subcontractors, suppliers and equipment are not only suitable for In the Garden but the best Roz can afford You&039;re pricey," she added, "but your work justifies it"
When he only continued to frown, she poked a finger into his arm "And men don&039;t usually sulk when a woman compliments their work"
"Huh Men never sulk, they brood"
But she had a point Still, it occurred to hireat deal about him - personal matters How much he made, for instance When he asked himself how he felt about that, the ansas, Not entirely comfortable
"My work, my salary, my prices are between me and Roz"
"Not anymore," she said cheerfully "She has the last word, no question, but I&039; that, in ht and solid business sense in bringing you into her business She pays you very well because you&039;re worth it Any reason you can&039;t take that as a co phase?"
"I don&039;t know What&039;s she paying you?"
"That is between her and me, but you&039;re certainly free to ask her" The Star Wars theme erupted in her purse "Gavin&039;s pick," she said as she dug it out The readout told her the call cah he was still a little irked, he watched everything about her light up "You did? You&039;re a Uh-huh I absolutely will See you soon"
She closed the phone, put it back in her purse "Gavin aced his spelling test"
"Yay"
She laughed "You have no idea I have to pick up pepperoni pizza on the way home In our family, it&039;s not a carrot at the end of the stick used as motivation - or simple bribery - it&039;s pepperoni pizza"
"You bribe your kids?"
"Often, and without a qual in school?"
"They are All that worry and guilt wasted I&039;ll have to set it aside for future use It was a big move for them - new place, new school, new people Luke makes friends easily, but Gavin can be a little shy"
"Didn&039;t seeot a spark Both of them do"
"Comic book connection Any friend of Spidey&039;s, and so on, so they were easy with you But they&039;re both sliding right along So I can scratch trau thes to Worry About list"
"I bet you actually have one"
"Every h as he pulled into the lot at the nursery "This has been a really good day Isn&039;t this a great place? Just look at it Industrious, attractive, efficient, welcouts"
"You don&039;t seeuts department"
"Is that a coed "An observation"
She liked being seen as gutsy, so she didn&039;t tell hireat deal of the time Order and routine were solid, defensive walls that kept the fear at bay
"Well, thanks For the observation, and the afternoon I really appreciated both" She opened the door, hopped out "And I&039;ve got a trip into the city for ribs on my list of ot out, walked around to her side He wasn&039;t sure why Habit, he supposed Ingrained manners his mother had carved into him as a boy But it wasn&039;t the sort of situation where you walked the girl to her door and copped a kiss good night
She thought about offering her hand to shake, but it seemed stiff and ridiculous So she just smiled
"I&039;ll play the CD for the boys" She shook her bag "See what they think"
"Okay See you around"
He started to walk back to his door Then he cursed under his breath, tossed his sunglasses on the hood, and turned back "Might as well finish it out"
She wasn&039;t slow, and she wasn&039;t naive She knehat he intended when he was still a full stride away But she couldn&039;t seem to move
She heard herself make soh her hair, his fingers cupping her head with enough pressure to bring her up on her toes She saw his eyes There were gold flecks dusted over the green
Then everything blurred, and hishesitant about it, nothing testing or particularly friendly It was all deht di what he intended to do, was deterh, but wasn&039;t particularly pleased about it
And still her heart ra there to block words, even breath The fingers of the hand that had lifted to his shoulder in a kind of dazed defense dug in They slid limply down to his elbohen his head lifted
With his hand still caught in her hair, he said, "Hell"
He dragged her straight up to her toes again, banded an arm around her so that her body was plastered to his When his mouth swooped down a second time, any brains that hadn&039;t already been fried drained out of her ears
He shouldn&039;t have thought of kissing her But once he had, it didn&039;t seem reasonable to walk away and leave it undone And noas in trouble, all wound up in that wild hair, that sexy scent, those soft lips
And when he deepened the kiss, she let out this sound, this catchy little moan What the hell was a man supposed to do but want?
Her hair was like a maze of madly coiled silk, and that pretty, curvy body of hers vibrated against hier he held her, thebells sounded to reled up with her On any level
When healong her cheeks It er It made him want to toss her over his shoulder and cart her off somewhere, anywhere at all where they could finish what the kiss had started Because the urge to do so was an ache in the belly, he took another step back
"Okay" He thought he spoke cal in his ears "See you around"
He walked back to the truck, got in Managed to turn over the engine and shove into reverse Then he hit the brakes again when the sun speared into his eyes
He sat, watching Stella walk forward, retrieve the sunglasses that had bounced off the hood and onto the gravel He lowered theas she stepped to it
His eyes stayed on hers when he reached out to take them from her "Thanks"
"Sure"
He slipped them on, backed out, turned the wheel and drove out of the lot
Alone, she let out a long, wheezing breath, sucked in another one; and let that out as she ordered her lis to carry her to the porch
She made it as far as the steps before she simply lowered herself down to sit "Holy Mother of God," she ed
She sat, even as a custo inside her juh she&039;d fallen off a cliff and was even now, barely - just barely - clinging to a skinny, cruertips
What was she supposed to do about this? And how could she figure it out when she couldn&039;t think?
So she wouldn&039;t try to figure it out until she could think Getting to her feet, she rubbed her dao back to work, she&039;d order pizza, then go home to her boys Go home to normal
She did better with normal