wasn’t the woman he thought she was, and there was no changing that fact. She smiled, turned and headed for her car, sure he was watching this time, because when she climbed into the driver’s seat, he’d come around the corner of the house, just to see her leave. And his smile...
Bright. Wide. Engaging. His easy gleam drew her in. Now what on earth was she going to do about that?
* * *
Alex pulled into the garden store parking lot at 4:05 p.m. Monday afternoon. The traffic off I-86 had slogged with slow-moving tourists visiting the historic villages of Allegany County. Tourists who should be mandated by law to drive faster.
He swallowed a sigh.
Was he nervous?
Of course not.
Then why—
“Hey, guys.”
Not nervous, he decided as he climbed out of the car and answered Lisa’s smile with one of his own. Anxious. Anxious to see her once more. To smile at her.
The thought surprised him because he thought no one would ever appeal to him again. Not after losing Jenny.
But something in his stressed heart felt better whenever Lisa Fitzgerald came around with her saucy grin. He wouldn’t have thought it possible, but now?
He grinned as Emma raced around the car in a desperate attempt to beat Cory and Becky to Lisa’s side. “They insisted on coming,” Emma explained, as if the younger girls were there against her better judgment.
“I do believe I invited them,” Alex corrected her. “And if they’re in the way, I’ll take them on a garden tour so you and Lisa can get your work done. And be nice.” He added the reminder with a lifted brow that said he expected more of her because of her age.
She made a face, impatient.
At him, a New York State police lieutenant. Did the child not realize he carried a gun twenty-four/seven?
He met Lisa’s look over Emma’s head and the sparkle in her eyes that laughed at him, the kids and the situation.
Said she was pretty confident he wouldn’t go to extremes without just cause.
“You got the measurements you needed yesterday?” he asked as the girls went ahead, oohing and aahing over the sea of unrelenting pink. Only today he barely noticed the calamine-lotion wash of shades, because Lisa’s nature compelled him to look at her. And that felt too nice to be denied.
“I did, yes.” She bent and picked up a stray piece of paper from the brick walk, stuffed it in the pocket of some well-fit jeans, and waved the girls to the right. “Head to the bushes first, ladies. I need your opinion on something.”
The girls led the way, Cory and Becky skip-running along, heads bent, giggling and laughing. Emma followed with just enough disdain in her bearing that it was obvious she’d outgrown such childish antics months if not years before.
“Emma was bummed that her time with you was cut short yesterday because of Becky’s tantrum. She made her pay the price for half the day.”
“Poor Becky.”
The direct look he sent her scoffed at her sympathies. “Poor Becky, nothing. Shouldn’t she have outgrown this by now?”
“Ah, she’s eight.” Lisa shrugged it off. “All kids are know-it-all brats at that age. It’s in the rule book.”
“Boys, too?” He looked her way, and she jumped at the chance to best him, and that only made him smile more.
“Boys are brats from day one. At least girls grow out of it.” She turned as they stepped onto the paved lot. “Although Josh has got to be about the cutest kid I’ve ever seen. With that shirt and tie he had on yesterday? Priceless.”
He decided not to tell her that taking Josh anywhere in a shirt and tie made them a total babe magnet. It wasn’t like he intended to use the cute kid to gain female attention, but he would have to be blind not to realize the effect. With Josh in a shirt and tie, women constantly stopped to exclaim how adorable he was.
Josh, not him.
But some of their looks said he wasn’t all that bad himself. Seeing Lisa’s sassy grin, he realized she’d appreciate the boy’s magnetism for the joke it was. Alex was pretty sure not all women would get that.
Jenny would have. She’d loved to laugh with him. She took his serious job and serious side and made their lives humor-filled and easy care. Right up until the day of her death she’d tried her best to fill him with warmth and laughter.
Much of the joy had died with her, but it didn’t feel that way today. Today he felt...better. Much better.
“Dad, can we go see the fountains? Please?” Becky grabbed Alex’s hand and tugged him left. “Do you mind, Lisa?”
“Not at all. Emma and I need to make some choices. Then I’ll input them into the computer program and see what it recommends.”
“The computer plans the garden?” Emma looked deliriously happy at the idea of a machine doing the work for her.
Lisa laughed. “It gives us a launching point. And the hard work is yet to come. Soil preparation, weed killing and planting, then mulching. Then watering and more weeding.”
“Good thing we didn’t plan a vacation this year,” Alex told Emma.
She nodded, serious. “It really is, Dad. The book from the library said new plantings require constant attention.”
Alex didn’t mention that he had no energy to plan a vacation after accepting this job with a new troop. Moving three kids. Buying a new house. Sorting. Arranging. He’d even gotten a few rooms painted on his days off.
Lisa put an arm around Emma’s shoulders and hugged her, laughing. “I love this kid. You go on and do whatever you’d like, because Emma and I can talk gardens all day and not miss you one little bit.”
He couldn’t resist the gold-plated opening. “Not in the least?” He held two fingers up with virtually no space between them. “The tiniest bit?”
Something changed in her eyes. A hint of warmth and understanding read his not-so-silent message that maybe he wanted to be missed. Just a little. And despite her shadowed reluctance, he thought she longed to play along. She sighed, glanced away, then drew her gaze back slowly. Very slowly, as if fighting reluctance and losing. “A smidge. Perhaps.”
“I’ll take a smidge. For now.” He let his gaze linger a few beats longer than necessary, letting her read between the lines, then smiled, grabbed the girls’ hands and moved toward the fountain display, whistling. He hadn’t felt like whistling in a long time.
But he felt like it today.
* * *
“Okay, we’ve got the basics.” Lisa hit the print button on her laptop. “Now let’s see what the computer gives us.”
The printer clicked, whirred and whizzed as it delivered multiple copies of the basic plan.
“Oh, Lisa, I love this.” Emma took the front view into her hands and her wide smile said they’d hit pay dirt. “I’ve never seen a prettier garden. Can we really do this?”
“If your Dad approves,” Lisa told her. She had gone with a medium level budget by downsizing the bushes and adding more annuals. Landscaping four sides of a house could be cost-prohibitive, and she didn’t want Alex to feel shackled to expensive ideas. With a young family, things had plenty of time to grow before he’d have to worry about graduation pics or prom nights in the garden, snapping pictures of Emma in a fancy ball gown.
“How’re we doing, ladies?” Alex’s voice pulled Lisa back into the present. She laughed and waved him in, then made a face at his empty hands. “Did you drown them in my fountains, Alex? Please say no.”
“Naw.