“Alright,” he said with a sigh, stepping away from the table. “I’ll abandon the world of high fashion for that of the lowly earth this afternoon.”
“Good,” Janice said, patting Ryan’s back as they started out of the studio. “I’ve always said that the best way to capture the spark of imagination is to get out of your mind and into your body.”
Ryan sent his mum a sideways look. “You are out of your mind.”
She wasn’t lying, though. Unfortunately for him, he knew full well what his mum’s idea of getting out of her head and into her body meant. It usually involved finding a lover or two, with or without his dad’s participation, because Goddess only knew his dad got up to the same sort of hippie love fests that his mum did, so she could be a perfect heathen until inspiration returned.
The halls of Hawthorne House were busy as they made their way downstairs and through the lobby that had been constructed out of the original entry hall when the building hadbeen transformed into a school in the mid-twentieth century. The family hadn’t been able to afford being classic aristocracy after the Second World War, after the first one, really, and had moved out, leasing the house to a boys’ school. That school had existed up until the nineteen-nineties, when it had gone out of business and the house had reverted to the family’s use.
His parents had turned the entire estate into an arts center and landscape gallery around the turn of the millennium. That had been one of the reasons every member of the family had gone into one artistic discipline or another. Rhys had taken after Janice and become a celebrated painter. Robbie was a world-class ceramicist. Rafe and his partner Jake were making a splash on the glassblowing scene. His late sister Raina’s widower, Nick, who was now in a committed relationship with their cousin Baxter, was a metal artist who created magic in the forge that had been part of Hawthorne House’s estate workshops since the seventeenth century. Even Nally, the youngest in the family, had recently made a name for himself as a film composer while also getting engaged to his childhood best friend, Jude.
Ryan was definitely the odd one out in the family. His career had gone as flat as his love life.
“Here you are,” Janice called out happily as they rounded the far end of the house and started into the once-grand kitchen garden. “I’ve brought you a willing sacrifice to the Goddess.”
Ryan wanted to roll his eyes at his mum’s theatrics as they approached the young man toiling in the garden with a shovel. He wanted to, but his libido spiked in a rush as the young man stood and turned to them.
“You remember Graeme Dallen?” Janice asked him as they approached the man. “And Graeme, you remember my son, Ryan, don’t you?”
“Hello,” Graeme said in his soft, mellow voice, nodding politely to Ryan.
Ryan stepped forward, offering his hand. “I remember when Dad and I interviewed you for the job,” he said, smiling. “Your designs were far and away the best we saw.”
“Thank you,” Graeme said, removing one gardening glove, wiping his hands on his work trousers, then taking Ryan’s hand. “It’s a privilege to be able to work on gardens like these.”
“The privilege is ours,” Janice said with a bright smile. “Graeme is an up-and-coming star of the gardening world,” she mentioned to Ryan in a voice filled with teasing awe.
Graeme blushed and glanced down, taking Ryan’s libido to a whole new level. It had been way too long since he’d indulged in any sort of relief with anyone or thing other than his hand or the toys Rafe had cheekily given him in the family Secret Santa last year. That had to be the reason for his strong reaction to Graeme.
Or maybe it was the fact that the man was an earthy sort of perfection. He had golden-blond hair and green eyes. Despite being a bit on the short side, he was muscular without looking like a gym bro. His skin had the natural tan of someone who worked outside a lot, and the one time Ryan had interacted with him before, he’d had a sweet sort of vulnerability that made him want to wrap the man in cotton wool…as he pounded his prostate into next Tuesday.
“When the two of you are done staring at each other,” Janice interrupted, embarrassing Ryan down to the soles of his feet, “Graeme here has been doing a great deal of heavy-lifting all by himself, and I thought he could use some help.”
For a brief moment, Graeme’s face pinched. It was proof that Janice was adept at embarrassing more than just her own children. “It is a lot of work,” he conceded at last. “I wouldn’t mind a bit of help.”
“I don’t mind helping,” Ryan said, embarrassed by how clumsily he’d nearly parroted what Graeme had just said. Atleast he said it with what he hoped was a comforting smile. “Just explain what you’re doing and how you need me to help and I’m all yours.”
“Perfect,” Janice answered for both of them. “I’ll let the two of you get on with it, then.”
She clapped her hands together and held them to her heart, glanced between the two of them for a moment, then turned and walked away with a spring in her step.
“Sorry about Mum,” Ryan said as soon as she was far enough away not to turn back and give him an earful. “She’s…Mum.”
Graeme grinned, his cheeks pinking even more. “I like her, though,” he said simply. “She’s very different from my mum.” His smile slipped slightly and pain flashed in his eyes.
Ryan’s heart thumped hard against his ribs. He wanted to know what that look was all about, but it would have been incredibly rude to just come out and ask. Even if just coming out and asking was exactly what his mum would have done.
“What do you need help with?” he asked instead, spreading his arms to show he was ready.
Graeme sighed and leaned on his shovel, glancing around. “Well, I’m at the very beginning of the process,” he said, squinting slightly, as if the end of the process was a long, long way off. “The Hawthorne House gardens have been neglected for decades. I presented Mr. Hawthorne with designs that incorporate the existing structures of the garden, but now I’m starting to think that the whole thing needs to be dug up and started over.”
“Wow,” Ryan said, glancing around at the plants and paths that had been part of his life since he was a kid. “That sounds like a colossal amount of work. And you’re doing it all yourself?”
“For now,” Graeme said, glancing back at Ryan. “I’m just a one-man operation at the moment, although I’d like to expand again.”
There was something tight and angsty in Graeme’s eyes that Ryan wanted to uncover and deal with. Again? Had Graeme had a bigger business at one point? What had happened?
Not that it was any of his business. He needed to get a grip.
