Secret Hearts

by Radclyffe

  “I bet it doesn’t.”

  “Think about the satellite images of the city or the park—everyone is familiar with them, right?”

  “Sure.”

  “Well, with some of the new laser satellite techniques, even in dense forest you can penetrate the canopy to trace deer paths and other animal trails at ground level. The patterns are very similar to the most efficient traffic flow patterns in a city—what we spend millions designing, animals do naturally. Same right here in this building. People gravitate to natural pathways.”

  Jordan gave her a long look. “And you can…see them.”

  “Yeah, pretty much.”

  “Wait right here, I’ll get a diagram of the stall layout.”

  “I won’t move.” As Jordan spun around, Kip couldn’t decide what was better—the rush of pleasure at being understood or the view of Jordan from the rear. Jordan had a really nice rear. And since no one was watching her watching, Kip allowed herself the pleasure. Jordan had almost melted into the crowd when she paused and looked back. She caught Kip looking and narrowed her eyes with just a trace of a smile. Kip lifted a shoulder as if to say guilty. Jordan laughed and was swallowed up by the milling crowd.

  Chapter Ten

  “Next stop, New Jersey.” Jordan climbed back into the truck, checked her watch, and pulled out her phone. “Let me just text Tya with an update. It’ll be almost noon by the time we get back.”

  “What’s in Jersey?” Kip shivered as Jordan pulled out onto the highway. Between heartbeats, the cab of the truck, stuffy from the heat that had built up in the shadeless lot, was suddenly way too small, squeezing in around her.

  “The nursery,” Jordan said, sounding far away. “I’ve got a half dozen pallets of tomato seedlings and some other plantings to pick up.”

  “Right…I remember now.” Fog dimmed Kip’s vision. Dank walls, prison walls, closed her in. Icy sweat pooled in the middle of her back. Fighting for air, she fumbled for the window control. As soon as the acrid scent of hot concrete and spilled fuel assaulted her nose, the image of the cramped cell fractured and slid away. Breathing deeply, she instantly missed the lush fragrances of fresh produce and ripe fruit, but at least now she was back in the present.

  “Sorry there’s no AC,” Jordan said, eyes on the road.

  “No problem.” Grateful Jordan had missed her mini-panic attack, Kip searched the limited information in her memory banks about gardening, which, having grown up in the city, was nil to less than that. Her mother had kept a garden at the summer house with vegetables and a few herbs, but Kip had always been more interested in games and swimming and hadn’t paid much attention. Her father had sold their summer house after everything, so then, even her summer forays into the countryside had stopped. “I thought you never planted tomato plants until after Mother’s Day.”

  “Ordinarily, that’s true, if you’re a backyard kitchen gardener, but we need to bring our harvests in as quickly as we can for as long as we can. So we’ll cover the seedlings with protective mesh against drops in temperature. We should be past frost by now, which is the only real concern.” Jordan sighed. “Of course, if we had the greenhouse, we wouldn’t even have to worry about that, but that’s something a bit down the road.”

  “I noticed a lot of construction materials in the back part of the lot. Is that for the greenhouse?”

  “Yes, but we still need plans and…” Jordan laughed. “Well, money and a construction crew and that kind of thing.”

  “If you tell me what you need, I can design it for you. I can probably get a lot of the framing done too, if I had maybe one more pair of hands.”

  “That’s a big job. You really think you could?”

  “Sure.” Kip busily assembled plans in her head, the buzz of a new undertaking bubbling through her. After what had just happened, the chance to work outside was exactly what she wanted. More than that, she really wanted to do something, anything really, to lend Jordan a hand. Jordan’s gratitude that morning when she’d fixed the air filter, something she’d done a thousand times and never given it a thought, made her feel as if she’d conquered an army. Jordan’s pleasure gave her a high that was so addicting she could probably live off the heat in her eyes. “I can have the plans ready for you to look at in a day or so.”

  “Excellent.” Jordan shot Kip a piercing glance that heated her skin. “You’re proving to be awfully handy.”

  Kip grinned. “A woman of many talents.”

  “Ha. I think that’s a line from some old TV show or something.”

  “It’s only a line if it isn’t true, right?” Kip couldn’t stop herself from teasing. Maybe she’d inspire another one of those hot stares.

  Jordan rolled her eyes. “Nothing wrong with your ego, I see.”

  “Maybe you just make me want to brag a little.”

  Jordan stilled, the tightening in her midsection signaling the conversation had just taken an unexpected and disconcertingly tantalizing turn. “Do I.”

  “Apparently,” Kip said, her voice low and husky. “Before you know it, I’m going to ask if you want to see my frog.”

  “Really? Your frog. Is that a euphemism?”

  “No, I’m serious. Really. I love frogs. Don’t you?”

  Jordan forced her attention to stay on the road, despite the urge to see if Kip was feeling the pull too. She didn’t really want to know. Then what would she do? Best to ignore it, whatever it was. “Neutral on that score. Actually, I love toads.”

  “You’re not just saying that to make me feel better? Because you know, you already make me feel pretty terrific.”

  “Stop. I’m driving, and you’re killing me.” Jordan tried sounding casual, bored even, anything but enchanted. She didn’t need to be sending mixed signals, not when she didn’t even understand them.

  “Need a time-out?” Kip’s voice had dropped even lower.

  “I wish,” Jordan said, purposefully not understanding. She pulled onto the interstate and groaned. “Look out there. This is going to take forever.”

  Kip stretched an arm out along the seat back. Her fingers were inches from Jordan’s shoulder. If she leaned just a little closer, she’d touch her. She wondered if she did what Jordan would do. The urge to find out almost cut the chains on her good sense. Almost. Jordan hadn’t invited that, hadn’t even signaled she was interested. She usually didn’t mind going slow, but right now slow felt a lot like starving. “Take the next exit, and I’ll get you there in twenty minutes.”

  “Now you’re really trying to impress me.”

  “Maybe, but it’s true. I know this area. I work over here.”

  “Where’s that?”

  “So why do you like toads?”

  “They’re great for controlling garden pests. Is there some reason you don’t want me to know where you work, because I get wanting privacy, I really do. I’m just not sure where the lines are with you.”

  Kip hesitated. Jordan was the first woman she’d been interested in who didn’t know all about her, or think she did, in forever. She liked shedding the family mystique, even though she was tarnished by the community service sentence. That was real, at least. And she didn’t want to get into why she couldn’t actually talk about her work. “I work in a plant right outside Hoboken.”

  “A factory you mean, not a garage?”

  “That’s right. We make things.”

  Jordan laughed. “Aha. Well, that’s clear.”

  “Engines. That kind of thing.”

  “Okay. I get that. That’s what you work on, putting engines together?”

  “Pretty much. I like working with my hands as much as I can. Sometimes I do a little design.” All true, but she squirmed a little inside anyhow. She’d gotten good at half-truths without even thinking about it, and that wasn’t where she wanted to go with Jordan.

  “That must be pretty exciting, seeing something you’ve created actually take shape.”

  “Isn’t that a lot like what you do? You plant someth
ing and you watch it grow?”

  “Well, it’s the first time I’ve ever thought of an engine quite like a tomato plant, but you’re right. Do you love what you make—not love making it, but when it’s done?”

  “Yeah,” Kip said softly. “I do. I love the parts and the way they work together, the way it shines, I even love it when it gets dirty.”

  “And you’re sad if it’s ailing.”

  “I don’t like things not to work. I have a need to fix things, so they do what they’re supposed to do.” Kip shifted to keep Jordan in sight. Looking at her took the edge off wanting to touch her. “It must be hard for you, to watch them die.”

  Jordan shrugged, her expression pensive. “You’d think so, but you know, nature provides. We save the seeds of our best plants to use the next year. I don’t so much anymore, but I used to.”

  “Before?” Kip heard the unspoken and couldn’t let it go. Jordan was even more cautious than her, and as much as she understood secrets, she wanted to know more. Wanted to know everything.

  “Yes,” Jordan said, a distant note in her voice. “Before I started working for the agricultural extension. I thought I was going to develop new hybrids, crosses between heirlooms and something more hardy. Plants we could grow organically that would give us the size and robustness of some of the more modern varieties.”

  “It didn’t work?”

  “I don’t know, I didn’t have time to finish it.” Her voice carried the wistfulness of an interrupted dream, one Kip wished she could somehow make come true.

  “Well, maybe you will, one day.”

  “Maybe.”

  Kip pointed to the left. “Take that fork over there.”

  “You mean that little tiny road that looks like it doesn’t go anywhere?”

  “That’s the one. Remember, patterns. Sometimes you want the path that doesn’t look like it goes anywhere.”

  “The road not taken?”

  “Yeah. Believe me, I’m in the know.”

  Jordan shook her head and made the left turn. Fifteen minutes later, she pulled into the lot of a rambling one-story weathered building surrounded by racks of flowers, rows of freestanding plants, and clumps of trees balanced on hemp-covered root balls. She shut off the engine and looked at her phone. “All right, you get a gold star for saving us an hour.”

  “Good, I might need one. Probably a lot of them when I start messing up with all the rest of the things you need me to do, especially if it has to do with gardening.”

  “Don’t worry. I won’t let you mess up.” Jordan opened the door and jumped out. When Kip didn’t follow, she leaned on the side of the open cab. “Okay?”

  “Yeah.” Kip swallowed around the tightness in her chest. “It’s just…I’m not exactly used to that, so you might have to be obvious about what you want.”

  “All right,” Jordan said softly, her voice as intense as a caress, “I’ll be sure to be very clear.”

  *

  Two hours later, Jordan pulled up in the alley next to the garden. “How do you feel about a little manual labor before lunch?”

  “I love it.” Kip pushed open her door. She did most of her design work at night so she could be on the plant floor or outside watching the prototypes in action as often as she could sneak away. Getting a workout while she worked sounded like heaven. “Point me to it.”

  “You don’t have to pretend enthusiasm, you know.”

  “I’m serious. I’d rather be outside doing this than almost anything.”

  Jordan laughed. “Then I’ll take shameless advantage. Let’s get these pallets unloaded. Oh, hey—hi, Tya.”

  A small pretty woman in sleeveless tan coveralls and a white tank top ambled out to join them. She looked at Kip, then to Jordan, a question on her face.

  “Tya,” Jordan said, “this is Kip, a volunteer.”

  Tya held out her hand. “Great. You live in the neighborhood?”

  “Not too far away,” Kip said.

  “Oh. Well, I’m glad you’re here. We can definitely use the help.”

  “Thanks,” Kip said. Tya was clearly confused but apparently wasn’t going to question Jordan in front of Kip, for which Kip was grateful. The last thing she wanted was to talk about the details of why she was there. She supposed it would all come out, and she’d probably have to go through it any number of times in the future. The idea was humiliating. “I’ll get started on those pallets. I don’t suppose you have a forklift, do you?”

  “Afraid not,” Jordan said as she came around the truck to help her. “We’ll have to carry the flats by hand.”

  “No problem.” Kip slid the first slatted wooden pallet onto the tailgate. “I’ll drag these back to the greenhouse once we’ve emptied them. They might come in handy.”

  “What greenhouse?” Tya lifted a flat of tomato seedlings and started toward the gate.

  “The one we’re going to build,” Kip said, following her in with another flat. “Where do you want these?”

  Tya propped hers on the edge of a raised garden bed. “Just put them down at about six-foot intervals along this row.”

  “Are they all going in today?” Kip asked, straightening as Jordan edged down the narrow aisle.

  “That’s the plan,” Jordan said.

  Jordan’s hip brushed Kip’s for an instant as she passed. Kip froze, savoring the contact. Damn if she didn’t get a kick like she hadn’t gotten in recent memory. She probably needed a date if the slightest inconsequential and unintended contact was enough to jack her up. Funny, she hadn’t thought of finding herself a date in months, content to let Savannah set her up and then never calling the women again. Easy to avoid connecting that way.

  Jordan paused beside her. “There’s water in the fridge in the trailer if you need it.”

  “What? Oh, right. I’m good.” Kip headed back to the truck. Just great, if she didn’t count the low burn driving her crazy.

  Between the three of them, they unloaded the truck in under twenty minutes.

  “I’ll get these stowed.” Kip hoisted the first pallet to drag it back to the far corner of the lot.

  Tya joined Jordan by the trailer. “Are you sure we shouldn’t be helping her?”

  “She said it was just as easy to do it herself,” Jordan murmured, studying the muscles in Kip’s shoulders and arms flexing as she maneuvered the square wooden platforms through the aisle between the raised beds.

  “Where did she come from?”

  “She was volunteered.” Jordan wished she didn’t have to explain, knowing she should.

  “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Apparently, the court sentenced her here for community service.”

  Tya gasped. “Are you kidding me? She’s some kind of criminal?”

  “God, that sounds terrible.”

  “But it’s true?”

  Jordan’s patience almost frayed, and she never lost her temper with Tya. She took a breath, waited while the urge to defend Kip cooled. “All I know is she’s working off a court-ordered community service sentence. So, yes, she must’ve done something illegal. Obviously, something minor or she wouldn’t have received such a light sentence.”

  “But you don’t know what?”

  “No. I didn’t ask.”

  “Why not? Don’t you think it’s important to know? What if it’s something—I don’t know, threatening.” Tya made an exasperated sound. “You know the sentence doesn’t always fit the crime.”

  “Does she look threatening to you?” Ty was making sense, but Jordan still wanted to protect Kip. There wasn’t a single thing about Kip that seemed threatening or dangerous, unless it was the way Kip made her feel. And wasn’t that a thought. Losing perspective, maybe? The last of the heat evaporated, leaving Jordan tired. “Whatever happened, I can tell she’s bothered by it. I didn’t want to make her feel worse by probing.”

  Ty squinted at her. “Okay, I’m missing something here. She just showed up out of the blue, right? You don’t know her or
anything about her other than the fact she’s broken the law. And that’s it? That’s all you need to know?”

  “Are you worried about the kids?”

  “No. I’m worried about you. The kids are street-smart, and we’ll be here to keep an eye on things. It just seems to me if you’re going to be riding around with her in the truck, off alone with her, you’d want to know something more about her.”

  “I know a lot about her. We talked a lot over dinner and—”

  Tya took a step back, crossed her arms, and set her hip that way she did when she was about to scold one of her kids. “You had dinner with her already?”

  “Yes, she was here late last night, and we were working on the truck until it got dark and—”

  “Okay, why do I think I’ve missed an entire month. I’m pretty sure I was here yesterday and none of this was happening.”

  Jordan laughed. “All right, I know. But I’m telling you, she’s a lot more complicated than you might imagine, and there’s nothing about her that gives me danger vibes.”

  She didn’t mention the personal danger vibes she got every time she looked in Kip’s direction. At that moment, Kip tossed a pallet onto a pile and lifted the bottom of her T-shirt to wipe the sweat from her face. Jordan’s heart stopped in her chest. Kip was seriously built, her waist muscled, and even from a distance, etched in a tight column down the middle.

  “I don’t suppose your opinion has anything to do with the fact she is righteously hot,” Tya muttered.

  “Since when do you find women hot?”

  “I can be objective, you know. And she’s built.”

  “Yeah, she is. And that has nothing to do with anything.”

  “Sure, uh-huh. Just promise me you’ll be careful.”

  “Of course I will be.”

  “And you’re going to call somebody in authority and find out what’s going on, right? Because this seems all kinds of unusual.”

  Jordan blew out a breath. “I did plan on checking this morning, I just haven’t gotten around to it.”