by Ciara Knight
He took a moment to inhale the sweet smells of the town—baked goods, coffee, and freedom. Each second was precious when there was sun over his head, and anything was better than the smell of Clorox or body odor he’d lived with for so long.
Guessing the event was for residents only, he figured he should make himself scarce before Davey shook his fists at him. He turned right and headed for the four-way stop.
“Wait, I need you.” Felicia’s sweet voice carried in the spring-perfumed breeze, halting him before he reached the corner. “I need you to do me a huge favor if you would. I’ll pay you, of course.”
He turned for a close-up view of Felicia with her hair pulled back, accentuating her long neck and pronounced cheekbones. The way she spoke in a rush made his pulse go from disappointed slow bass drum to a tympanic symphony. “It wouldn’t be a favor if you paid me. How can I help?”
“It’s more of a job than a favor, then. I’ll pay you. I need you to take me to the nursery and help transport the rest of the plants here as quick as possible. Knox has a crew headed here now. I’d ask the senior bus driver, but the bus broke down again, and Jackie’s car is a little thing. Besides, she’d never allow dirt in her Porsche.”
He held up one hand to slow her speech. “I’d be happy to help.”
She let out the longest breath and dropped her hands to her sides, slumping a little with extra drama. “Thanks so much. You’re a lifesaver.”
“It’s no big deal. I didn’t have anything else going on right now anyway. Come on.” He’d been called many things since arriving in Sugar Maple. None of them were so kind. It didn’t escape him that she’d said that a little louder than necessary and she’d shot a glance at everyone nearby, as if to make sure they’d heard her. This woman had been so nice, considering she had to know his history. Why would she ever trust a man with a record like his? She had no idea he’d served time for a crime he didn’t commit. If his own mother didn’t believe the truth, this woman shouldn’t.
To his disappointment, she took off at Davey-on-free-cookie-day speed instead of a romantic afternoon stroll. She stood as high as his shoulder, so he was surprised at how fast her small legs moved. Not that she was short, since he was over six-three himself. “What happened with your delivery?”
She blinked up at him over the rim of her sunglasses.
“Sorry. Not my place to ask.”
“No, it’s not that. It’s just that I’m not too happy with my cousin right now. It’s nothing to be worried about, though. I’m sure she has a good explanation. It’s just poor timing to have her flake on me. I’ve got so much going on. Not that I can’t handle it.”
He opened the camper door and hoped she didn’t mind the old look of it. Good thing he’d tidied up his suitcase and made his bed this morning before going out to look for a job. “If she’s working for you, you shouldn’t have to handle it on your own.”
“I can’t argue with that. And to be honest, I’m going to have to have an uncomfortable conversation with her as soon as she returns from Riverbend.” Felicia climbed into the passenger seat, and he jerked the seat belt twice to get it to release.
“Sorry. It’s an old but reliable motorhome.” He handed it to her and stepped back. “You need to push, then pull, and then shove it in until it clicks.”
He shut the door and rounded the camper to settle into the driver’s seat, where he found her fumbling with the buckle. “Here, let me.”
He covered her hand gently with his, causing his breath to catch. It had been a long time since he’d been this close to a woman, so he had to force his darn fingers to not lace between hers like some sixteen-year-old boy trying to put the moves on his first date.
Click.
He sat away from the light floral smell he assumed came from all the plants she worked with, because no one smelled that good naturally. Forcing his thoughts on the task in front of him instead of the distraction at his side, he revved the engine, which sputtered, clunked, and then rolled into a purr. “Let’s go.”
“Seriously, you’re such a blessing. I don’t know what I would’ve done.” She looked over her shoulder. “I hate to put plants in your home… I promise to spread blankets out, and if any soil spills, I’ll vacuum it.”
“Don’t think twice about it. I’ve been living with a ton of men in a small space for almost two years. I can handle a little soil in my home.”
She sat back and stared forward as if his words were a shock to her.
He didn’t like the uneasiness left between them. “You knew that I’d served time.” He quirked an eyebrow at her, knowing he had to make sure she understood this point so she didn’t get any weird ideas about being attracted to him or wanting to go out with him. He didn’t trust himself to say no to her, so it was up to her to keep the necessary distance between them.
“I know. It’s just, you don’t have to remind me every time we run into each other.” Felicia pulled her hair clip out, allowing long dark strands to cascade over her shoulders before she twisted her hair into a bun and secured it again. “It’s as if…I don’t know…you want to keep me at a safe distance from you. Did I do something to offend you?”
“No.” He slowed and took the turn toward her nursery carefully so he didn’t cause anything to fall free from his camper. “It’s me, not you.”
“Oh, great. We haven’t even been on a date, and I got the it’s-me-not-you speech. I’ve never been rejected before I even made a pass at someone.” She winked at him, and he ran off the road.
Dishes clinked, and a bar of soap he’d used this morning at the truck stop slid out of the container and flung against the wall. He corrected his path onto the asphalt and drove straight and true down the two-lane road. “I don’t think you have to ever worry about being rejected.”
She pointed to a driveway with a sign out front that read The Tranquil Maple, so he turned onto the gravel drive and pulled to the fence. Barking dogs, a mule, a pig, and some chickens ran wild on the other side.
“You’re far too beautiful and nice to worry about that.”
“Then why?” she said in a plain tone, as if she’d asked about the weather.
He turned off the engine and gripped the steering wheel. “Because, Felicia Hughes, I find you way too attractive to trust myself not to ask you out. And you deserve far better than me.”
“Why do you say that?” She looked at him with the most honest, eyes-open expression.
“I don’t want to say it again. You told me you didn’t like me reminding you all the time.” He smiled with as much charisma as he could manage, but he was sure he looked more like a mad botanist than achieving a friendly flirt.
Felicia offered a reciprocating smile. A small but heart-pumping kind of grin. “Okay, so you went to prison.” She opened her door. “Come on, I need you.” She flushed, her cheeks turning a slight shade of pink that was alluring and innocent at the same time. “I mean, I need you to assist me with loading, if you don’t mind.”
He didn’t have to be asked twice to spend more time with her. Before she could open the fence, he was by her side, helping to push the chain link gate on wheels out of the way while she shooed the dogs.
“I’m not saying I want to marry you. I just want to be your friend. If I’m being honest, you aren’t too bad-looking yourself.”
She spoke with a confidence and honesty that took him a moment to comprehend. Even in his former life as a businessman with many dating choices, he couldn’t recall another woman like her. Women who were bold and flirtatious, yes, but it was always a game with them. Felicia had a sincerity about her.
Was she flirting? With him? Knowing the truth? “Thanks,” he said in a too-surprised tone. Man, he was out of practice with all this flirtation stuff. For a second, he could imagine that he’d never served time and that the world didn’t see him as some sort of monster that would steal their money and lives from them.
He moved the camper to the other side of the fence, and Felicia closed t
he gate and then hopped back inside, directing him to an area near a small, muted-yellow home with white molding, porch, and trellis half covered by ivy up one side.
“So, friends okay with you?” She held out her dainty hand.
“Sure. Friends.” He shook it, trying to ignore the hot flash up his arm.
She pointed to several plants, indicating what needed to be loaded. He joined her near a door on the side of the house, where one of the plants had the most unique color. A dark and mysterious flower that was so deep purple it was almost black but with depth of various shades. “Can you grab those, please? I’ll get the ferns.”
He lifted four of them in his arms and headed for the side door of the camper. “What are these?”
“Petunia Deep Midnight. I like to add a splash of dark colors with the bright spring flowers so that they pop even more on camera.”
She was good at what she did. Of course, he’d been good at his job once, too. He had loved numbers, but now he needed a new career—or at least a job.
Two dogs wanted to help and kept leaping and barking at him.
“Sorry about all the animals,” Felicia offered.
“No worries. I love animals.” Declan rounded the camper, opened the side door, placed his plants in the far corner, and then took the ones Felicia held out to him.
“Since we’re friends now and you have such a desire to remind me about your time behind bars, is it okay if I ask what you went to jail for?”
The smell of freshly watered soil soothed him, despite his fear of the truth. “Embezzlement.”
“That all?” She shrugged.
“That all?” It was his turn to blink at her. “I was sentenced to two years for felony embezzlement. You do know what embezzlement is, right?”
She popped her hip out and rested a pot on it. “Seriously? I might grow plants, but that doesn’t make me stupid.”
“I didn’t mean… I—”
“Calm down. I’m joking.” Felicia handed him the last plant she held, and he tucked it into the corner between the seat and the kitchen cabinet. “Did you do it?”
He froze. The four words no one had ever asked before today. Maybe that was because he’d confessed before they could ever ask. How did he answer her? If he told her the truth, would she believe him? He couldn’t face her and see the doubt in her eyes if he told her no, but if he said yes, he couldn’t face her look of disappointment. “I’m not sure I want to answer that right now.”
Felecia ran over to retrieve more plants and then handed them to him and he placed them inside. “Why?”
“Because you’re the first friend I’ve had in the outside world. I learned before I went in that it was less about innocence and guilt and more about judgment. I don’t want to be judged anymore.”
She pressed her lips together in a way that made him fear what she’d say next. “My father used to be accused of stealing from the local grocer. One time the sheriff picked him up for loitering to quiet the man down. I still remember riding in the police car with my father as he looked down with tears in his eyes, but I never understood why he was upset. I knew he didn’t do it. He never would’ve stolen from anyone. I didn’t know why until years later, but it turned out that the grocer thought my father looked like someone who had broken into his store years earlier, since they both had dark skin.”
“That’s terrible.” Declan didn’t like the thought of this sweet girl seeing her father harassed, let alone ever stepping inside a precinct as a child.
“It was, but it taught me never to judge a man and to always form my own opinion.”
“Okay, then, what’s your opinion?” He allowed himself a moment to believe her words, that if he told her the truth, she’d accept him at his word.
“I believe you’re trustworthy enough to work for me. If I wanted to believe the worst, you committed a white-collar crime and I don’t believe you’re a physical danger to me or my family, or you were falsely convicted and you’re innocent. Either way, I need the help and you’re a good worker. I want you to come work for me.”
He needed a job more than anything. This could keep him from having to return to jail by giving him the money to make restitution payments and filling his parole criteria. It was too good to be true. The thought of working side-by-side with this full-of-life person who made him smile inside as well as out… More than anything, he wanted to work for her, to spend time with her. And that was a problem. “I can’t work for you.”
Three
The front door squealed open, drawing Felicia to the front yard. Her nana stood in the doorway in her morning robe. Felicia silently chastised herself for not getting her grandmother dressed before her day had begun, but she’d run out of time since Lacey hadn’t shown to help get everything ready for transport. “What’s wrong, Nana?”
“I woke up and no one was here. Thought something happened to you, dear.”
Declan joined her, holding two large containers of ferns.
“You can take a break. I’ll be right back, and then we can finish loading the rest of those.” She trotted to the front steps, where she said to her grandmother, “You shouldn’t be out here in your dressing gown. Let’s get you inside. I’ll fix you something to eat. Ms. Horton said she’d stop by in a bit, but if you want to go into town, you can hang out with Melba and Davey.”
“No. Not feeling up to it today.” Nana shuffled inside, stumbling over the lip on the threshold of the front door before grabbing hold of her cane. “You go on though. I’m not hungry. I just wanted to make sure my baby girl was okay.”
“I’m fine, Nana.” Felicia raced for the kitchen, determined to at least make her some toast and coffee.
“No, you’re not. You work too hard. You can’t do everything for everyone. Now you scoot on out of here. I’ll be fine.” She picked up a dish towel and swatted at Felicia.
“Okay, but I’ll be back in a couple of hours, and then I’ll make us a big lunch.” Felicia poured her a cup of coffee and set it on the table before rushing to the door. Guilt plagued her, watching her grandmother left behind alone. The woman had been her closest parental figure and ally her entire life, and now she was abandoning her for work. Not that she had a choice. She had to keep money coming in for the medical bills after her grandmother’s stroke last year.
Felicia darted outside to the camper, where she discovered Declan closing the side door. She glanced at the spaces where she’d had the flowers. He’d already finished packing everything inside. “Wow, you’re a hard worker. And talk about taking initiative. I can’t get Lacey to even return a phone call to a client without asking me for permission. Of course, she’s young and lacks life experience.”
He opened the passenger door and waited for her to step inside. “Just helping out, being a good neighbor is all.”
Before she could argue his point, he shut the door, rounded the camper, and hopped into the driver’s seat. “Wow, my home’s never smelled so good.” He chuckled and eyed the plants behind them.
“I’ve always loved the scent of flowers, fresh-cut grass, and damp soil after a rain.” Felicia managed her seat belt this time while the engine roared to life and they headed down the drive with her sweet dogs jumping around them. The donkey lumbered across the drive, slowing Declan’s pace for a few moments.
“Is that why you got into your agricultural pursuits?”
Felicia watched the trees and shrubs budding with new life for the summer. It wouldn’t be long until she could ship the expensive decorative grass, ground coverings, landscaping shrubs and trees to Nashville for the big chunk of her annual revenue. With the extra rain and mild temperatures, they’d grown well this year, but this meant even more work she needed to manage over the next few weeks. “It’s part of the reason.”
“What’s the other part?”
She studied the soil staining her short nails and fisted her hands to hide them. Jackie would be mortified if she noticed Felicia’s chipped, unkempt look. It was tough to keep nai
ls looking good while working in dirt all day, though. “My nana always worked with me in the garden growing up. Somehow she could always tell when I had a rough day at school, and she’d simply hand me galoshes, a hat, and a hand shovel, and we’d head outside.”
“It’s her chocolate chip method, huh?”
“What?”
“You know, a child comes home to chocolate chip cookies and milk to make their day better. Your nana used plants instead. That’s why you love gardening so much. It’s your welcome-home place.”
She never thought about it that way, but he had a point. “I guess.” They reached the end of the drive, so she took care of the fence and made sure the animals were safely inside before returning to the camper.
He turned onto the main road headed to town. The rocking motion made her prepare for plants tumbling around, but not one of them moved.
“Does she still garden with you? Your nana? She’s the one we saw on the front porch, right?” He asked as if he were truly interested instead of just making small talk or acting like he cared.
On most of her previous dates, she’d found that men tended to ask about the girl for about five minutes, as if they’d been coached by a mother or sister, and then they’d start talking about their important jobs, how big a house they owned, or other life accomplishments. She understood planting flowers and trees wasn’t fascinating to most people. Not that this was a date. “Yes, that’s her. But no, we don’t garden together anymore. Not since her stroke a year ago. She lost a lot of function in one arm, and one foot tends to flop at times. I’m afraid I haven’t been able to get her to leave the house since she recovered.”
“That’s a shame. My mother was the opposite. I couldn’t keep her home. She’d get out and find trouble wherever she went. By the time I managed to get released, she’d gone from a little distracted and repeating herself, to wandering the streets and giving her money away to bad people.”
