“A blessed day?”
“Yup. When things get really irritating around here, I tell people to have a blessed day instead of blessing them out.”
Junie laughed. She never laughed. The irritating phone call had been totally worth it.
I turned to Rob. “You might want to get down some official rules for next year’s chili cook-off.”
Rob smiled, shook his head and handed me a pair of gardening gloves. Junie and I shot each other a knowing grimace. I pretended to be annoyed so that she and I would have that bond, but, truth be told, I looked forward to a fun surprise at the beginning of the workday.
“So,” I said, as I climbed into the passenger seat. “Are gardening gloves my only clue?”
Father Rob smiled. “Mrs. Taylor is one of our most faithful parishioners, and she sprained her ankle last week.”
I could feel my brow wrinkling. “I’m not certified in any way to be a caretaker.”
He laughed. “She’s fine, but she has an award-winning garden, and I woke up this morning feeling like we should go prune her roses.”
“That’s fine with me, but I won’t be held responsible for any damages. I don’t know the opposite of green, but that’s what color my thumb is.”
Father Rob laughed again, but I stayed serious. “This is not a joke. I can kill any plant, anywhere.”
My phone beeped, and, looking down at the screen, I felt myself grimace. The new message on my Facebook wall read,Happy nineteen months to the most beautiful girl in the entire world. You are the love of my life and I can’t wait to celebrate with you tonight!
“Oh, no,” I said out loud. “No, no, no, no, no.”
“What?”
“Ben just wrote this hideous, lovey message on my Facebook wall.”
I fully expected to have to explain why that was a problem, but, instead, Rob said, “Oh, no. Why would he do that?”
I shook my head. “I hate that so much.”
“Oh, I know.” Rob made a gagging sound. “It’s like ‘Hey. I know we’re sitting across the room from each other, but I wanted to tell you I love you.’ So insincere.”
“Exactly!”
My phone beeped with a text from Cameron.Are you and Ben getting divorced? I hear writing on each other’s Facebook walls is the first sign. And it makes me vomit.
I laughed and turned to Rob. “My best friend is also appalled by the Facebook shout-out.”
“Why don’t you just take it down? Can’t you do that?”
I sighed, thinking of sweet, sweet Ben and how he would do just about anything to make me smile. “I don’t want to hurt his feelings.”
I realized that it was probably bad form to be talking to my boss about something so personal and trivial, so I said, “Poor Mrs. Taylor. Probably going to have a yard full of formerly award-winning roses totally dead by tomorrow.”
Fifteen minutes later I found out that the yard wasn’t the only thing I wanted to kill. “Not like that,” Mrs. Taylor was griping, for probably the tenth time. “I’m over here in this chair, foot all akimbo, and you can’t even manage to prune my shrubbery properly.”
It wasn’t the gracious, warm thank-you I had expected. How Father Rob smiled through it all I don’t have the slightest idea, but he whistled and took it all in stride while I couldn’t have felt less happy. We were kneeling over in the dirt, our backs to Mrs. Taylor, sweating, replanting a couple of bushes.
Perhaps it was because our gardening skills weren’t enough to complain about, but Mrs. Taylor, presumably to my rear end, said, “So why is it that none of you young people around here ever volunteer?”
“Well,” I stuttered, “I just moved here, so I’m not totally sure, but I think everyone is just so busy with work and kids.”
What would you call this?I felt like asking her. I swallowed the lump in my throat and clipped those bushes a little harder as I remembered my own childless state. On the bright side, it made me think of Ben. Fun, gorgeous Ben. We had planned a special date that night, just the two of us, and, though I was still a little concerned about Cameron’s mostly joking text message, I couldn’t be more ready for a night out.
It was the first time in my life that I had had even an ounce oftrouble making new friends. I had acquaintances and was invited to the girls’ events, but I hadn’t felt that special spark with anyone yet, that sixth sense that this person was going to be a lifelong friend.
