At two minutes after four, he decided it was a good time to call Nicole. He knew she was probably home from work and forty-two was his lucky number, so it seemed like a great time to call. He punched in her number and hit send. His stomach was filled with butterflies and his palms were sweaty. The phone rang, and rang, then his heart leapt in his chest. “Hello.”
“Hey, Nicole.”
“Reached Nicole Garrett, I’m unable to take your call right now.”
The sweat stopped and he shivered. Damn, he was really hoping she’d answer.Beep.
“Hey, darling, it’s Sean. Just hoping to get a hold of you. I’d like to finish our talk and hear about Devin’s emergency. I hope everything is okay. Well, ah, can’t wait to talk to you, bye.”
Sean hung up the phone. “Hermie, yes, I know that was pretty pathetic. I should have deleted that one and started over! No sense stressing out about it. I’m sure she’ll call back soon or send a text. For now, I’ll head over to Jesse’s and tend my garden.”
A short time later, Sean was putting on his gardening gloves and weeding. Even though it was October, there was still work to do in the garden. He only had another week or two before the temps would dip below freezing. He’d been planning to put up temporary enclosures using PVC pipe and Visqueen to make little semi-permanent greenhouses over his three raised beds.
He took out his tape measure to confirm how long the pipe would need to be to form half circles over the beds. One roll of Visqueen would be plenty. Now he needed to make sure he had a hacksaw to cut the pipes, or maybe he could take them over to Ace Hardware and get them cut to size. That would work.
He hummed a tune as he worked and felt himself slip into his gardening zone. Sean had learned to garden as a kid with his grandfather. He’d found that being in nature, watching plants grow and being responsible for them nurtured his sunny nature. He couldn’t live expecting the worst when he had seen a seed grow into a vine that produced dozens of zucchini as well as tomato plants that provided enough tomatoes to can a gross of salsa. This was the miracle of life that moved him. Seam wondered if Nicole would share his love of gardening. He should have taken a better look at her backyard when he’d been over at her house, but he’d been distracted by her hair, her eyes, and that spectacular ass of hers. He shifted a little, thinking back to the night of the council meeting. He craved more of her. The memory of her taste was on his lips and he had to restrain himself from driving over to her house and knocking on her door.
Once his garden work was complete, he left Jesse’s Pub and headed home. He made a simple chicken stir-fry for dinner and then turned on his TV to check out the latest offerings from the streaming channels he subscribed to. He was mindlessly watching TV show previews when his phone rang.
Energy flooded his body, and he rushed into the kitchen to get his phone off the charger. He looked at the display and saw it was his dad. His shoulders dropped, and he decided that as soon as he was done talking to his father he would set a special ringtone for Nicole so he wouldn’t get his hopes up anytime someone called him.
“Hey, Dad.”
“Hi number one son.”
“Is everything okay?”
“What? Do I need a reason to call my son?”
“No but…”
“Everything is fine. Jenny is great. Hold on a sec. I’ll put you on speaker.”
Sean groaned internally. He hated being on speakerphone with anyone, but especially with his dad who always had the TV on in the background.
“Hi Seannie!”
“Hi Jenny.” Sean didn’t have anything to say to Jenny, his father’s latest wife. Jenny had been around for three years now, but Sean kept his distance. She was his dad's third wife since Sean’s mom and Sean was tired of getting to know the parade of younger wives.
“How’s that restaurant of yours?” Jenny asked.
“Going good, going good, thanks for asking.”
“Well, you take care, Sean. I’ll let you talk to your dad now.”
The phone clicked off speakerphone.
“Hey Seannie, I was hoping you could help me with someone.”
Ah, Sean thought wryly. His lips turned down.There’s the Dad I know, only calling when he wants something from me. I don’t know why I even get my hopes up anymore. The man is like Lucy with the football and I’m Charlie Brown always winding up on my back trying to kick a football that isn’t there.
Sean let out a gigantic sigh and answered his father, “What’s going on?”
“Do you remember Ethan?”
“Cindy, wife number two’s kid?”
“You don’t have to refer to her as wife number two. Don’t be crass Sean.”
