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 nails 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.”
“You mean Stella’s father, right?” she asked, already knowing the answer based on what happened only months earlier.
“Yes.” He rolled to a stop at the four-way and then proceeded to the edge of the town square. “I’m afraid that the only way I could get them apart was to put my mother into a home and take him out of town. He’d agreed to stay away from my mother if I drove him to Sugar Maple. I promise I had no idea what he was planning when I brought him here. I’ve been wanting to apologize to Stella, but Knox won’t let me near her. Not that I’m surprised. I wouldn’t let me near her either if I were him.”
They reached the town square, and Felicia’s breath quickened at the sight of the production crew already setting up. “Why would you say that?”
“Because I wouldn’t want you near me if I were lucky enough to be your boyfriend.”
She smiled at him, but his gaze was laser focused on the parking spot he pulled into. “I’ll get this unloaded.”
“Not unless you take the job.” She unclipped her seat belt and opened the door to a crowd of people staring at her and Declan in his camper.
“I’ll think about it, but I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
She didn’t even have time to open the side door to get the plants before three of her friends—Carissa, Jackie, and Mary-Beth—whisked her away.
“What’re you doing in a car with him?” Jackie scolded.
Mary-Beth held tight to her arm. “I hate to admit it, but Jackie’s right. You can be nice all you want, but you shouldn’t endanger yourself.”
“He’s not like that. I promise. You all have it wrong about Declan. He’s a nice guy and a total gentleman. Besides, he wasn’t put in jail for some deviant crime that would endanger my life. It was a white-collar crime dealing with money in a corporation.”
Carissa moved in front of them, halting them near the camera area. “See, girls, we can relax.”
Based on Mary-Beth’s fingers allowing circulation back into Felicia’s arm and Jackie no longer scowling at her, Felicia assumed that the nonviolent nature of his crime eased their worry.
“I’ll relax when that criminal is run out of town,” Davey shouted from the bench at their side, where he had apparently remained since she’d left the square to get the plants.
Jackie obviously found the camera crew more interesting, so she bolted to where they were setting up.
“Mary-Beth!” Stella hollered from across the square, where she rubbed her hands with a cloth next to the senior bus.
It was nice having all five of them together, even if it was a crazy time that wouldn’t allow Felicia to hang out with them at all.
“Sorry, ladies. I promised to be Stella’s assistant since her new boyfriend is so busy with the show,” Mary-Beth said with an air of surprise, as if they all didn’t already know that Sassy Stella had started dating the internet sensation Knox Brevard. An unlikely match that not even Ms. Horton had seen coming. Or had she? The woman was more than a second mom. She was all-knowing about everything in Sugar Maple.
Mary-Beth bolted, leaving only Carissa to continue the inquisition. “Are you really going to hire Declan? I mean, aren’t you worried about him stealing from you?”
“No.” Felicia glanced over her shoulder to discover Declan had vanished. “Listen, I don’t know why he did it or if he even committed the crime at all.”
“If he went to jail…” Carissa said, insinuating that every person who served time was guilty as charged.
“Do you remember when Stella was accused of graffitiing something and it turned out she was innocent?” Felicia reminded her, as if an indiscretion by a fourteen-year-old girl measured the same as a grown man embezzling money. “And my father? How many times was he picked up for some erroneous reason until my parents finally up and left Sugar Maple?”
“You really think he’s innocent, don’t you? Did you ask him?”
“I did.” Felicia adjusted her apron.
“What did he say?” Carissa tilted her head with that you-better-tell-me-now look.
“He didn’t. Actually, he said he wouldn’t take the job and that he wouldn’t answer the question.”
Carissa’s expression softened. Her gaze traveled behind Felicia, telling her that Declan had reappeared and was approaching. “That’s suspicious, don’t you think?”
Felicia explained what Declan had said about why he wouldn’t work for her and his answer to the question about the reason for his incarceration.
“That actually makes sense, but do you really think he’s trustworthy?” Carissa shifted between feet. “You have a tendency to pick up a lot of pets and people in need. You can’t save everyone, you know.”
“Did you ever think maybe I need him to save me? I’m desperate for help, and let’s face it, Lacey has been anything but a model employee. Declan loaded his camper with all the plants in a fraction of the time it would’ve taken me. This is my busiest time of year. Add to it this event, the show, and my grandmother… I can’t do it all on my own. All the teenagers are still in school, and anyone else worth hiring doesn’t want to work outside getting dirty or already has a job.”
“Okay. I get it.” Carissa took Felicia’s hand. “Listen, girl, if you need help, I’m sure we can have a town day or an intervention to help.”
“No way. This isn’t a case of need like when we refurbished Jake’s yard to help him grieve and go back to life after the death of his mother. It’s my company, and I need to hire a good employee. One who actually shows up and works.”
“You mean like that?” Carissa pointed toward where they’d left the camper.
Declan approached, carrying a lumberjack load of plants. The man was breathtakingly strong. Felicia had always had a soft spot for strong, hard-working men. “Yes.”
Declan set the load down and clapped his hands together to rid them of dirt. “You can start organizing while I unload, and then I’ll help with whatever you need. As long as I’m not the one decorating. I have no creative abilities.”
“You ain’t got no abilities.” Davey pushed from the bench. After a little wobble, he found his footing and glowered at Declan. “You best get out of my town. No place here for a bum.”
“Hush up now, Davey. You need to be polite. Besides, Declan’s not a bum.” Carissa flashed a brilliant smile at them all. “He’s working for Felicia now.”
Felicia blinked at her but then cleared her throat and stood tall. “That’s right, he is.”
Declan approached with a concerned, shy, chin-lowered kind of look. “I thought we discussed this. You need the right man for the job.”
“I think she found him. Look.” Carissa pointed at all the plants he’d unloaded. “Besides, she’s desperate.”
Felicia snapped a narrow-eyed gaze at her.
“I mean, she has a bad employee who isn’t helping but getting paid while Felicia is drowning in work. If we don’t get her some help soon, she’s going to collapse from exhaustion. You wouldn’t want that, would you?”
“No, of course not.” Declan shoved his hands into his worn jeans pocket and rocked back on his heels. “I’ll help you out until you find someone.”
“Nope, that’s not a job. You need real employment,” Davey chimed in with the authority of a supreme court judge. “You work, or you leave. No respect for bums ‘round here.”
“Okay, I surrender.” Declan removed his hands from his pockets and held them up. “I better get moving if I want to prove myself worthy of this job offer. But you still can’t pay me for today. I’m only helping a friend out. Deal?” He offered his hand.
She shook it, noticing how his fingers wrapped around her tiny hand, strong yet with a gentleness. “Deal.”
“It would be, but a man can’t work if he don’t have a home. And he can’t park that camper at the store no more. Sheriff’ll tow it.” Davey shuffled away. “Thought you’d outsmarted me. Ha.”
Declan’s bright eyes fogged with worry. “I can’t afford a place right now.”
“I can advance you the money.”
“No. Not going to happen.” Declan backed away, retreating from her and the job opportunity. “Best finish unloading if I’m going to make it to somewhere I can park the camper before tonight.”
Carissa patted Felicia’s shoulder. “Maybe it’s for the best. I mean, I know he’s hot and all, but I’d hate to see you get hurt. I trust your judgment, but I’m not the only one you have to convince. The town wouldn’t be too happy knowing you had him working out there alone with you all day.”
The town had gossiped for weeks when her last boyfriend’s car was at her house for two days. They never bothered to find out it was left there so she could take him to the airport for some business meeting up north. The so-called perfect boyfriend material didn’t bother to tell her the business meeting was actually a hotel visit with a married woman and the only reason he needed a ride was so that the husband didn’t follow him to their rendezvous. Her words filtered in and settled around the only option that could solve both Declan’s and her problems, but the town would be in an uproar. “Wait. You can park your camper at the nursery. There’s plenty of room. There’s even a hookup from when we had a camper ourselves.”
Carissa squeezed her shoulder, as if warning her to retract her offer, but she wouldn’t. She’d spent too many years making sure everyone else was happy and got along. For once, she was going to choose what was best for herself, and she needed the help. Even if the entire town thought she’d gone pick-up-stray crazy.