And my whole world was her and those plants.
If she wanted a maze of rose bushes, I was shovelling dirt.
If she wanted my garden relandscaped, I was hiring a team.Right now.
Her smile froze, she cleared her throat again, and I withdrew my hand. She refreshed the page, and the little blue line at the bottom of her screen crawled.
“One second,” I said.
I returned with the pot of tea that Anna had bought for me yesterday, three mugs balancing on top of each other, and a strip of paper wrapped around my finger.
Before, I would have just taken her phone and put the WiFi password in. But that might not be polite. And it would be helpful, but I wanted to be helpful on her terms.
She was loading her scone with the cream, Nagyi following her lead. So when I offered her the slip, she gave me her phone andoffered to make my scones too.
“We could definitely plant some chillies,” Fia said, placing my plate before me as I handed her phone back. “Remember when the bell peppers were nearly as big as my head?”
Nagyi smiled but didn’t say anything, and I felt Fia’s energy dissipate.
Her nan couldn’t agree because she didn’t have her garden anymore.
“You could do it here,” I offered. “I could do with saving some money on vegetables. Dog-friendly ones.”
Fia snorted, but she was still off, staring at the mug in front of her.
Until Bodri walked out, his whole body rolling with excitement at seeing her. She shuffled to the edge of her chair to stroke him. “Whose a little wigglebutt, huh?”
“A what?” I asked.
“A wigglebutt,” she said before translating it into Hungarian for me.
“Wigglebutt,” I repeated, trying to sound the odd nickname correctly.Did she make that up? Was that a common word in English?
She was so knowledgeable, I was sure she knew every word of every language.
We ate the scones as she caught up with her nagyi, and I left them to bond. I fed the dogs and unpacked my suitcase before pretending to read my book on the sofa, the patio doors open, so I could hear her laughter.
Not her words. Because, as desperate as I was to hear every thought she had, she deserved alone time with her nagyi.
That was why I had arranged this. So her father — Imre — couldn’t interfere.
And I ate the rest of the scones when they said they didn’t want any more.Damn, they were good.
Fia made them better, though. She had the jam and cream ratio just right.
I was scoffing the last of the strawberries, lying on the sofa, when they came through, and I realised it was dark out.
Vincent, the largest of my dogs, was curled up beside me, his head on my feet, so I couldn’t move.
Not because I couldn’t physically, but because it was wrong to wake a dog.
“Nagyi’s taxi is here,” Fia said.
I sat up as carefully as I could, careful not to disturb Vincent. “Oh. I could have driven you or arranged—”
Nagyi shook her head. She was always so quiet around me. I hadn’t heard her at all when she was out on the patio with Fia. Maybe she was generally quiet anyway.
Fia saw her out, and as the door closed, Vincent jumped down anyway.
