by Devney Perry
Finn had always looked out for his younger sister, even before Jamie had died. But she was right. If Finn thought Jamie’s death had impacted our marriage in any way, he’d never tell Poppy. “He loves you.”
“I love him too.” She stood up and took her salad jar to the industrial dishwasher, spraying it out and putting it in the rack.
I followed, doing the same with mine while she plucked her special apron off its hook and tied it around her waist.
“I’m going to work the counter for a while,” I said, “roll some silverware for the dinner rush. Do you need anything?”
“No. I’m going to make a batch of banana bread. We went through a lot of those this morning.”
Banana bread in a jar, sprinkled with chocolate chips. Behind her daily quiche, it was our number-one breakfast seller. It never ceased to amaze me the things Poppy came up with to make in a jar.
“Okay. Holler if you need me.”
“Molly?” She stopped me before I pushed through the swinging door. “Love you.”
I smiled. “Love you too.”
I didn’t care what she said. I didn’t need new friends.
Not when I had her.
“What’s Dad’s truck doing here?” Max asked as we pulled into the cul-de-sac.
“Uh, I’m not sure.”
I’d left the restaurant at four thirty to pick up the kids from their after-school program. Then we’d stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few items to make BLTs for dinner—it was Kali’s choice tonight.
In all the hours since he’d left the restaurant this morning, I hadn’t heard from him. So why was he back at my house?
I parked the Jeep in the garage, and the kids barreled out before I even shut it off. I hurried to catch up and was just stepping into the front yard when Finn rounded the far side of the house pushing a wheelbarrow and wearing different clothes than he’d had on at the restaurant this morning.
The front of his white T-shirt was streaked with dirt and his biceps strained against the hem of the short sleeves. His skin glistened with a light sheen of sweat.
He was wearing an old baseball cap, one I recognized from a decade ago. Its bright blue brim was frayed because whenever Finn took it off, he rolled it up and shoved it into the back pocket of work pants like the ones he was wearing now. They were tan except for the permanent smudges of dirt and grass on the knees and thighs.
I’d probably washed those pants a hundred times, but they seemed to fit Finn better with each wash. The curve of his perfect butt had imprinted on those pants. The canvas had been molded around his thick thighs.
A flush crept up my cheeks as I remembered all the times I’d stripped those pants from his body before joining him in the shower. A dull throb settled between my legs. I fought the urge to fan my face, taking a few deep breaths and chastising my traitorous body for such a reaction.
I mentally chastised Finn too. The sexy jerk. I’d gotten along quite well these last six years satisfying myself. At least I’d thought so. But then he’d reminded my body how it felt to have a decent orgasm.
How long was it going to take me to forget about that too?
“Dad.” Kali reached him first.
“Hey, beautiful.” He grinned, setting the wheelbarrow down to push up the black sunglasses from his face. Then he shucked off his leather gloves and bent to kiss her cheek before giving Max a high five.
“What are you doing?” Max asked, inspecting the empty wheelbarrow. “Can I help?”
Finn chuckled. “Sure. But you have to change out of your school clothes.”
Without another word, both kids sprinted for the house. Max tore off his T-shirt as he ran.
“Hi.” I waved and crossed the yard. “Did I miss a mention of you coming over again?”
“No. We said Monday. But then I got stuck on an idea.” He spun his baseball hat backward, probably because he knew it would make me go weak in the knees and instantly forgive him for the massive hole in the front of my yard.
My brain caught up to my eyes. There is a massive hole in the front of my yard.
I’d been so distracted by Finn, I hadn’t noticed the ruin that had once been the landscaped border that separated my yard from Gavin’s.
I took a step closer to the wreckage. The hole was in the same place where a large bunch of Indian grass had been when I’d driven away this morning. Not only was the ornamental grass gone, but a long section of the curbing had been ripped out too. The landscaping bark that I’d spent hours replenishing this spring had been carted away.
“What. Is. Happening?”
Finn planted his hands on his hips. “This lawn is a fucking pain in the ass to mow.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
“I’m fixing it.”
“Say that again?”
He picked up the wheelbarrow’s handles and wheeled it over to where he was working. “I know I should have asked you first. I’m sorry. I came over to look around a bit, one thing led to another, and I got carried away.”
“You think?”
“Here’s what I’m planning. I’m going to rip all of this out, grade it flat and seed it with grass. Then you won’t have to use the edger over here at all.” He turned and pointed to the opposite corner of the yard next to the driveway. “I’m going to leave that bed as it is, but I’m going to redo the edging into a wider curve so the mower can hit all of the grass. Same with the beds along the porch. What do you think?”
“What do I think? I, uh . . . okay?” It came out as a question. On the one hand, I hated mowing this yard. The prospect of not having to use my edger gave me nearly as much joy as one of the orgasms I’d had last night. But on the other hand, this was my yard. “You should have asked.”
“You’re right. I should have. If you want it all put back to how it was, I’ll do it right now.”
Did I really want that Indian grass? Not even a little bit. “No, it’s fine.”
“We can walk through the plans for the backyard too, but I wanted to start with the front. I can guarantee it’ll get done in short order. The back might have to wait a bit. All my crews are slotted into my schedule for the summer and it’s slammed.”
“It’s fine. If the front is easier to mow, that’s good enough. Keep your crews where they’re scheduled.”
He shook his head. “That’s not what I meant. I can’t send a crew out, but I’ll make time to do it myself. I’ll probably have the front done in a couple weeks. I need to draw up a couple of ideas for the back, and I can get you a timeline on that.”
Timeline. That word was always paired with another: budget.
“I can’t afford a huge landscaping bill right now.”
He frowned. “I’m not charging you. This yard is a pain in the ass because I was too busy experimenting to make it functional.”
My jaw dropped. Who was this man and where had the real Finn Alcott gone? “Are you being serious? You’re really fixing my yard?”
“I’d like the chance to try.”
Before I could agree, the front door to the house burst open and the kids came rushing down the porch steps.
Max was wearing the garden gloves Finn had bought him last summer. He clapped his hands together twice as he smiled. “Okay. Where do I start?”
Finn chuckled. “How about we start by taking a walk through the backyard? I’d like to ask your mom how she wants it to look.”
That statement sent my chin to the dirt. When Finn had done the landscaping here, he hadn’t asked me what I wanted. Not once. I recovered from the shock quickly, knowing exactly what I wanted for my yard. “I’d like a lilac bush.”
“What color?”
“Deep purple.” I’d always wanted one so I could cut blooms in the spring and put them in the house to enjoy their smell. But with the other bushes and shrubs, there wasn’t room. Lilacs expanded rapidly and there was enough trimming to do each year as it was.
“You got it.” Finn led the way to the backyard,
the kids skipping along at his side.
I trailed behind them.
Finn was fixing my yard. Personally. What the hell is happening?
He wasn’t just tossing a side project to one of his foremen to manage. He wasn’t delegating this down the line to a crew of college kids who’d come over to my house and track dirt inside whenever they needed to use the bathroom.
He was putting in the effort to do this on his own.
The three of us walked around the perimeter of the backyard as Finn asked me questions about what I wanted to keep or ditch.
“What about the fountain?”
“I don’t want it,” I admitted. “It takes forever to clean and is always full of leaves.”
He nodded. “Then it’s gone.”
If not for my heart swelling to three times its normal size, I wouldn’t have believed this was real.
“We’re having BLTs for dinner tonight,” Kali said when we’d made the full loop of the yard. “Want to eat with us?”
He looked to me for permission. His blue eyes were bright in the sun. He smelled like the spring air and fresh grass. His square jaw was dusted in light scruff from the day. He looked so handsome, a small smile pulling at one side of his mouth, that I forgot all about my plans to ignore last night and keep my distance from Finn.
“Stay. Please.”
His eyes flared at my words. I’d said the same thing last night when he’d had me pressed against the hallway wall outside my bedroom. His lips had been trailing down my neck. His hands had been cupping my breasts.
Dinner wouldn’t just be dinner.
- LETTER -
Darling Molly,
* * *
I’m proposing to you tomorrow.
* * *
I’m so damn nervous I can’t sleep. I’m not good at telling you how I feel. I get the words jumbled and nothing comes out right. I’m terrified I’m going to mess it all up and you’ll say no. Maybe I’ll keep this letter as my backup. If I start to say something stupid, I’ll just hand this over. Not that you can even read it. My hands are shaking so bad I can barely write.
* * *
I love you, Molly.
* * *
I love that you, above all else, are honest. I love that you have an old soul and still bug me to write you letters. I love that you said no when I asked you to move in with me because you wanted to save that experience for married life.
* * *
I love that we have the same birthday. There isn’t a person in the world that I’d want to share my cake with besides you. And tomorrow, when we blow out the candles, I’m wishing for you.
* * *
Please say yes.
* * *
Yours,
Finn
Five
Finn
“Finn, are you here?” Bridget called from her office.
“No.”
She laughed as the wheels of her desk chair rolled over the wood floors. Gliding backward, she appeared in my doorway. “You snuck in while I was on the phone.”
“There was no sneaking about it. You were shouting so loud you didn’t hear me.”
Bridget’s lip curled up. “I was talking to that asshole, chauvinistic salesman from the nursery.”
“You mean you were yelling at that asshole, chauvinistic salesman from the nursery. What did Chad do this time?”
“He screwed up my order. Again. He sent Colorado blue instead of Norway spruce and he knows how much I hate the blue with those sharp-ass needles. He didn’t include our bulk discount, he sent two extra chokecherry bushes, and to correct his own mistakes, he said it will be another two weeks. My crew is ready to plant tomorrow on the Nelson project.”
“Shit.” I rubbed my forehead. “I’ll call the owner.”
“This is the third time. Chad always gets your orders right. Always. He’s batting zero on mine, and we both know it’s because I’m a woman.”
I wanted to argue and tell Bridget that Chad was just an idiot, but she was right. I’d been at the nursery the first time the two had met and when she’d gone to shake his hand, he’d blown her off.
“I’ll call the owner. Either he puts a new salesman on our account, or we’ll just use Cashman’s.”
And pay an extra five percent on every order. I’d been using this smaller nursery for the past year because their products were top-of-the-line and their prices were unbeatable. But I wasn’t going to make Bridget deal with a prick.
“Thank you.” She pushed her chair farther into my office, rolling right up to the edge of my desk. She smiled at the picture of Max and Kali on the corner. “Today is the last day of school, right?”
“Yep. It’s hard to believe my Kali is going to be a middle schooler.”
“It feels like yesterday that she came in here and played in the corner after preschool.”
“The years are going by quicker and quicker.” Not just the years. The days and weeks too. It felt like only hours ago I’d started on Molly’s yard project, but it had already been a week.
“The summers are racing by,” Bridget said. “We can’t keep up.”
I pushed my calendar over to her so she could scope out the lineup. “No, we can’t.”
I’d had to turn away three customers over the past week because we didn’t have the capacity to bid their projects. Our mowing crew was maxed out and the waiting list was twenty-deep. Adding more staff wasn’t possible until maybe next season—there simply wasn’t enough trained labor in town.
The season was just starting and I was already behind on office work. Normally, I’d work late on the nights when Molly had the kids and catch up. But this week, I’d been leaving the office at five on the nose to go to her place and work on the yard. We’d have dinner and hang out with the kids. Then I’d spend the night, getting up early to leave before dawn.
I was sneaking around with my wife.
Ex-wife.
But damn the sex was good. Maybe better than it had ever been. The two of us were having a full-on affair in the house we’d once bought together. And I had no plans to stop, even if it was fucking stupid.
I had more energy now than I’d had in years. I caught myself smiling more throughout the day whenever I thought of her lips on my skin or my hands in her hair. Damn, but I loved her hair. When was the last time I’d gotten so caught up in a woman?
Fifteen years ago.
None of the girlfriends I’d had since Molly had ever given me such a thrill. I’d dated Brenna for a year, and for the last half of it, I’d spent more time avoiding dates than rushing toward them.
The three nights this past week when the kids had been at my place, I’d gone to bed grumpy, wishing it were Molly at my side, not my unopened laptop.
If there had been a way to sneak her over, I would have. Except my kids weren’t stupid and they’d know something was up. I might have the excuse of landscaping to take me to Molly’s. But she hadn’t set foot in my home. Not once. Whenever she dropped off the kids, she said good-bye on the sidewalk, staying back at least ten feet from the front door.
Why was that? I’d invited her in on more than one occasion, but in six years, she hadn’t crossed the threshold. Not even when Max had invited her in to see his room. She’d made an excuse about being late and promised to see it another time—which had never happened.
These were all things we should have talked about instead of stripping one another naked like we had all weekend and last night too.
Sex was easier than talking. It always had been.
Molly and I had spent years communicating physically, learning and perfecting the way we silently came together. As soon as words were involved, things got dicey.
We’d agreed that first night was a mistake. I’d venture a guess she felt the same about the other three. But to hell with it, I was excited to go over there after work tonight.
The front yard was coming along, and it was a blast to have the kids help me out. Molly too. She’d joined us outside
last night, wearing her own leather gloves and working for an hour before dinner.
For the first time, the four of us had worked on a project together. Like a family.
Max thought dirt was fascinating. Kali was going to have her own green thumb. And Molly had an eye for design I hadn’t respected enough. The feeling of being next to them, hearing their ideas, had filled me with so much pride, I was tempted to stretch this project out for months because I didn’t want it to end.
Except I couldn’t afford to stretch the project out. I couldn’t afford to spend all those nights at Molly’s. I had to work. The only other option was to make some changes around Alcott.
Bridget was staring with wide eyes at my calendar. I had a separate schedule I used to track the mowing crews, the same system Molly had designed years ago. But this calendar was full of the major projects, the ones where either Bridget or I was assigned to oversee design and execution.
She had two crews who reported to her, each led by a foreman who was on-site and working each day. I had three reporting to me.
We used a color-coded system in the calendar to assign jobs. Her projects were yellow, mine blue.
The month of June was so full, if you squinted at the page, it all swirled green. Maybe it was time to admit we needed some help.
“It’s only been the two of us designing and managing crews for a long time,” I told her.
“It has.” Her spine straightened. “Wait. Are you thinking of hiring someone else?”
“Maybe.” I paused. “Actually, yes. I want to keep growing, but I need more staff.”
Bridget’s jaw tensed. “I can probably take on three more projects a month.”
