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"Sneaky I like that All your people up north?"

"No, actually my father and his wife live in Memphis They&039;re natives"

"Is that so Well Well You coardens sometime Roz can tell you where to find me"

"I&039;d absolutely love to Thanks"

By noon Stella estimated she&039;d walked tenhow many miles she&039;d walked, how many pounds she&039;d lifted, how an to drealass of wine

"This is wild," Hayleyarea

"When did you take your last break?"

"Don&039;t worry, I&039;ve been getting plenty of sit-down ti up the custos, to tell you the truth"

"We&039;re closing in just over an hour, and things are slowing down a bit Why don&039;t you find Harper or one of the seasonals and see about restocking?"

"Sounds good Hey, isn&039;t that Mr Hunky&039;s truck pulling in?"

Stella looked over, spotted Logan&039;s truck "Mr Hunky?"

"When it fits, it fits Back to work for me"

It should have been for her, too But she watched as Logan drove over the gravel, around the s of mulch and soil He climbed out one side of the truck, and his two men piled out the other After a brief conversation, he wandered across the gravel lot toward her

So she wandered across to him

"Got a client who&039;s decided on that red cedar mulch You can put me down for a quarter ton"

"Which client?"

"Jaet it down before we knock off I&039;ll get the paperwork to you toive it to me now"

"Have to work it up I take ti mulch down today Client won&039;t be happy"

She used her forearm to swipe at her forehead "Fortunately for you I don&039;t have the energy to nag"

"Been busy"

"There&039;s no word for e&039;ve been It&039;s great I&039; we broke records My feet feel like a couple of s I&039;d like to come by, see your house"

His eyes stared into hers until she felt fresh pricks of heat at the base of her spine "You could do that I&039;ve got tiht Maybe Wednesday, after we close? If Roz is willing to watch the boys"

"Wednesday&039;s no probleht?"

"Yeah, I&039;ll find it About six-thirty?"

"Fine See you"

As he walked back to his truck, Stella decided it was the strangest conversation she&039;d ever had about sex

That evening, after her kids were fed, and engaged in their play hour before bed, Stella indulged in that long shower As the aches and fatigue of the day washed away, her exciterew

They&039;d kicked ass she thought

She was still a little concerned about overstock in some areas, and what she saw as understock in others But flushed with the day&039;s success, she told herself not to question Roz&039;s instincts as a grower

If today was any indication, they were in for a rock-solid season

She pulled on her terry-cloth robe, wrapped her hair in a towel, then did a kind of three-step boogie out of the bathroo scream at the woman in her bedroom doorway

"Sorry Sorry" Roz snorted back a laugh "Flesh and blood here"

"God!" Since her legs had gone numb, Stella sank onto the side of the bed "God! My heart just about stopped"

"I got soain" Frone

"Donon? Woo, and two hoos! Yes, I think I detect a beat"

"We&039;re going to celebrate Hayley&039;s across in the sitting roolass of this No lectures"

"In Europe pregnant wolass of wine a week I&039;lass of that"

"Co a video gauess that&039;s all right They&039;ve got a half hour before bath and bed Is that caviar?" she asked when she stepped into the sitting room

"Roz says I can&039;t have any" Hayley leaned over and sniffed the silver tray with its silver bowl of glossy black caviar "Because it&039;s not good for the baby I don&039;t know as I&039;d like it, anyway"

"Good More for ne and caviar You&039;re a classy boss, Ms Harper"

"It was a great day I always start off the first of the season a little blue" She popped the cork "All et too busy to think about it" She poured the glasses "And by the end I&039;ot into this to sell and toThen I coain But not tonight"

She passed the glasses around "I ht at ertips, but I knohat I know We&039;ve just had the best single day ever"

&039;Ten percent over last year" Stella lifted her glass in a toast "I happen to have facts and data at h, Roz stunned Stella by throwing an ar a kiss to her cheek "Daht you do You did a hell of a job Both of you Everyone And it&039;s fair to say, Stella, that I did myself and In the Garden a favor the day I hired you"

"Wow!" She took a sip to open her throat "I won&039;t argue with that" Then another to let the wine fizz on her tongue before she went for the caviar "However, as much as I&039;d love to take full credit for that ten percent increase, I can&039;t The stock is just arowers I&039;ll take credit for five of the ten percent"

"It was fun," Hayley put in "It was crazy a lot of the time, but fun All those people, and the noise, and carts sailing out the door Everybody see about having them for yourself, does that"

"Good customer service has a lot to do with those happy faces And you" - Stella tipped her glass to Hayley - "have that knocked"

"We&039;ve got a good tealed her bare toes They were painted pale peach today "We&039;ll take a good overview in the , see what areas Harper and I should add to" She leaned forward to spread caviar on a toast point "But tonight we&039;ll just bask"

"This is the best job I&039;ve ever had I just want to say that" Hayley looked at Roz "And not just because I get to drink fancy chane and watch y&039;all eat caviar"

Roz patted her ar up another subject I&039;ve already told David The calls I&039;ve made about Alice Harper Doyle&039;s death certificate? Natchez," she said "According to official records, she died in Natchez, in the home she shared with her husband and two children"

"Dauess it was too easy"

"We&039;ll just have to keep going through the household records, noting down the na that ti job," Stella replied

"Hey, we&039;re good" Hayley brushed off the amount of work "We can handle it And, you knoas thinking David said they saw her going toward the old stables, right? Sowith one of the sta-blehands They got into a fight over so, and he killed her Maybe an accident, s that trap spirits"

"Murder," Roz speculated "It ht be"

"You sound like my stepmother I talked to her about it," Stella told Roz "She andand able to help with any research if we need theht"

"It&039;s all right with me I wondered if she&039;d show herself to one of us, since we started looking into it Try to point us in the right direction"

"I had a dream" Since it lass of chane

"A kind of continuation of one I had a feeeks ago Neither of they on arden I&039;ve planted, and a blue dahlia"

"Do dahlias come in blue?" Hayley wondered

"They do They&039;re not common," Roz explained, "but you can hybridize the I&039;ve ever seen It waselectric, intense This wildly vivid blue, and huge And she was in the dream I didn&039;t see her, but I felt her"

"Hey!" Hayley pushed herself forward "Maybe her naht," Roz cohosts, it&039;s not a stretch to consider that a dream&039;s connected in soain "I could hear her, but I couldn&039;t see her Evendark about it, soet rid of it She was insistent, angry, and, I don&039;t kno to explain it, but she was there How could she be in a dream?"

"I don&039;t know," Roz replied "But I don&039;t care for it"

"Neither do I It&039;s toointi" Even now, she shivered

"When I woke up, I knew she&039;d been there, in the room, just as she&039;d been there, in the dreareed "Dreams are supposed to be personal, just for ourselves, unless ant to share the to do with her? I don&039;t get why she wants you to get rid of it"

"I wish I knew It could&039;ve been syardens here, or the nursery I don&039;t know But dahlias are a particular favorite ofelse to put in the ive it a rest tonight, before we spook ourselves completely We can try to carve out some time this week to look for names"

"Ah, I&039;ve made some tentative plans for Wednesday after work If you wouldn&039;tthe boys for a couple of hours"

"I think between us we can reed

"Another date with Mr Hunky?"

With a laugh, Roz ate an"

"According to Hayley," Stella stated "I was going to go by and see his place I&039;d like a firsthand look at how he&039;s landscaping it" She downed ne "And while that&039;s perfectly true, theis to have sex with hies his So" She set down her elass "There it is"

"I&039;m not sure what you&039;d like us to say," Roz said after a ested Then looked down at her belly "And play safe"

"I&039; you because you&039;d knoay, or suspect, or wonder It seeht for me to ask you to watch my kids while I&039; honest about it"

"It is your life, Stella," Roz pointed out

"Yeah" Hayley took the last delicious sip of her cha to hear the details I think hearing about sex is as close as I&039; time So if you want to share "

"I&039;ll keep that in o down and round up my boys Thanks for the celebration, Roz"

"We earned it"

As Stella walked away, she heard Roz&039;s questioning "Mr Hunky?" And the dual peals of fehter