“I warn you I’ve not had much experience with gardening, but I’m a quick study. It’ll be nice to have something productive to do.” Ahri rubbed her temples. “I’ve had too much free time the last few days.”
“Free time to think about things you’re not ready to.”
“Yes.” Ahri couldn’t keep the sadness from her voice.
“I’ll keep you busy then.” Francie gave her a one-armed hug. “Make yourself at home here. Let me know if you’re missing anything. Our guests frequently forget important things like toothpaste, so we keep a supply on hand. Good night.”
Ahri put the glass case with her mother’s Korean doll in the center of the dresser. Having that in place already made her feel like she was home.
She took her time unpacking. Funny that she’d just done it a few days ago at Kayn’s place. Why had that seemed more like staying in a hotel than this did? She tried the bed and found it a comfortable fit for her back.
Yes. Now, if she could stop worrying that she’d still heard nothing from or about Zed, she thought she should enjoy it here.
7
AHRI STRETCHED IN THE COMFORTABLE bed, testing her hamstrings. After three days of gardening, the worst of the over-used muscle aches had decreased. She’d always exercised back home but must not have used the same muscles. When she’d tried to get out of bed the second day, she’d hardly been able to move. Gardening, it seemed, was a great form of exercise.
She hadn’t understood how much work helping with the garden would be, things like hauling wheelbarrows full of compost, pushing a Rototiller, hoeing the rows, setting up drip lines. She’d even gotten a little sunburned because she hadn’t been careful the first day. The size of the garden had intimidated her, but she found she enjoyed the hard work. When she finally had her own place again, she thought she’d like a garden, though much smaller than Francie’s.
The sound of the children rising drifted up to her room, with Nik squealing about something Lessa had done. The Diederiks were laid back as parents. Did that come because they were older? Francie had mastered a stern look that brought her children intoline, while Alex had a way of teasing his children out of their temper tantrums.
For a second Ahri wondered what kind of parents she and Zed would have been. She pushed the thought aside. It didn’t matter. Now that she’d seen this style of parenting, she knew this was what she wanted to be like. If she ever had a family of her own. Hopefully she wouldn’t end up like her mother, unable to let go and move on.
At dinner, Alex talked about the history classes he taught at the college. This weekend he was hosting an end-of-term guillotine party for his Revolution in History class. Ahri wished she’d had fun teachers like him when she’d been in college. She might have stuck with her general studies and then finally chosen a major.
She went to the gable window that overlooked the property and surveyed the grounds, as she did every morning. The weather here was definitely muggier than she’d been used to in Arizona. Summer might be a bit much, but the B&B had air conditioning for hot days, so it shouldn’t be too bad. She paused at the thought. Would she be there for the summer? Maybe.
Showered, her hair in a ponytail, and dressed for work in jeans and a T-shirt, Ahri skipped down the stairs. She picked up Nik, hugged him, and then chewed on his belly, making him squeal. His sister scurried over, her arms outstretched for her morning hug.
Zed hadn’t grown up in a demonstrative family, and he hadn’t liked much touching outside of the bedroom. Ahri’s parents had been better about it, mostly her mother. It’d probably been the one parenting thing she’d been really good at. Until Ahri had experienced the Diederik family, she hadn’t realized how starved for touch she’d been.
“What can I do to help this morning?” she asked, entering the kitchen.
“If you would be a dear and get the oatmeal going for those two, I’d appreciate it.” Francie gave her the usual one-armed hugbefore going back to packing a sack lunch for her husband. She did that for him every day.
“Have you gotten the results for your online test?” Ahri asked as she took down a pot from a hook on the wall.
“I got an A.” Francie’s cheeks flushed, and she looked proud.
“When do you graduate?”
“At this rate I might be eighty when I finally walk.”
Ahri considered that as she waited for the water to boil. She knew that Francie had cut back from a full schedule because of the children.
“Do you resent only being able to take one class a semester?”
“Oh, heavens no.” Francie closed the lid on the lunch box. “I have the best of both worlds now. I’ve always wanted to graduate from college, so I signed up once Rafe went to Harvard. The local college accepted me for an employment program for women returning to the school. I was assigned to the history department.”
“History?” Ahri grinned. “So Alex was one of the professors in your department.”
“He wasmyprofessor. I worked for him.” Francie colored again. “Once we started dating, I went to work for one of the other professors in the department. The first time Alex came to the house, I was so surprised I fell off the roof.”
Ahri blinked, thinking of the pitch of the B&B’s roof. She couldn’t imagine climbing on it, much less falling from it. “Were you hurt very badly?”
“I only sprained my ankle because Alex broke my fall with his chest.” She burst out laughing. “He must have had theworstbruise from my boot, but he’d never admit it to me.”
“Guys,” Ahri said, stirring the now-bubbling oatmeal. “All their macho gets in the way of showing a flaw.” She wondered if that’d been part of the reason Zed had never confided in her about what he was up to.
