Sage pulled her gloves from her back pocket as we walked, snapping them against her leg as if to dust them off. “How’d your guy from the big city do? What'd he say? Or did you scare him off?”
That cracked me up. The big city. Wildwood Meadows wasn’t quite the sticks, but it didn’t even have a big-box store, and that suited me just fine. Small-town living was just going to take a little getting used to.
I pushed the door open for her, the creak louder this time. “It was pretty much a bust. I’d thought he’d be able to come in and give me a set plan or something, but maybe he hadn’t been the right person for the project.” Slanting a look at her, I tried not to stare as she moved past me. “So, maybe I did scare him off.”
“Ha ha,” she deadpanned. “Imagine that.”
She stepped inside ahead of me, her scent a mix of floral and strawberry notes that mingled in the musty air. Following her, I watched as her eyes brightened the deeper she went into the greenhouse. Now, there was no Opal to distract her, and she was really getting into it as she brushed aside vines with careful hands, talking to herself. I was careful not to bother her as she moved up and down the pathways, watching as she catalogedwhat seemed to be a lot of dead things. Instead, I just enjoyed watching her work.
She crouched, her jeans stretching tight over her thighs in a way that sent heat pooling low in my belly. "There’s some good stuff in here. There were labels on these….” She was talking to herself, completely enthralled with what she was doing. She’d unearthed some half-buried terracotta pots that were apparently right up there with the holy grail.
I leaned against the frame, arms crossed, but my attention focused on her—how her hair fell forward, brushing her cheek as she worked, and the curve of her back as she bent lower. She was alive with enthusiasm as her fingers gently touched the soil with reverence that made my pulse race.
She straightened up, dusting her hands as she removed her gloves. She turned to me with bright eyes. “The far wall is best for maximum light capture. We could clear this section first. This greenhouse could be dedicated just to palms and ferns, based on some of the stuff that is already here. I could draw up a plan for you. If you want?”
“Yeah.” I stepped closer without thinking, drawn by the passion in her voice, the way her lips parted slightly as she gestured. “That sounds good.”
I found my hand coming up and tracing the freckles across her nose, the flush creeping up her neck under my scrutiny.
“There was a little dirt there,” I lied. It was just an excuse to touch her. There were quite a few smudges of dirt there, but I didn’t want to brush them away. My hand dropped, but her breath hitched, and her eyes darkened as they dropped to my mouth, her pulse fluttering in her throat. “Why don’t we look atthe rest?” Stepping away from her, I motioned to the back of the space.
She nodded, swallowing hard before turning to lead me deeper into the structure. She pointed out a rusted irrigation line snaking along the floor that would definitely need to be fixed.
"This could be revived. A drip system would probably be needed too for efficiency. If you’re doing tropical in here, it’s best to have a spray system set up that you can activate. With misters.” As she knelt again to examine it, her hair slanted over her neck, revealing a sliver of pale skin, and I clenched my fists to keep from reaching out, imagining how soft she'd feel under my palms as I smoothed my hands down her back, bending her where I wanted.
Outside, Opal’s giggles rang out and reminded me that there were things I needed to focus on besides a plant goddess who made my cock hard.
Letting my mouth run away with me, I found myself saying, “Want to go to town with Opal and me for pizza? We can talk about these plans?”
She smiled, slowly. “Sure. I could eat.”
“Me too.” I gave her a slow, answering smile.
Sage
Donatello’s Pizzeria had been a staple in town since I was a little girl, and it was nice to see Opal’s face light up when we walked through the door. Outside, the air was just cool enough that the temperature had dropped a bit, and moisture hung in the air. I’d followed Rhodes’ truck because I didn’t want to follow him back to Castleton afterward.
The temptation earlier in the greenhouse might have had me making a move on anyone else, but on Rhodes? That probably wasn’t in the cards, even if he was a damn colossus. A handsome one. I had a weakness for men bigger than me, and seeing him with Opal was giving me all the feels. They were so stinkin’ adorable, but he was still Wade’s friend and didn’t seem to be in a dating space.
However, that didn’t mean I didn’t need to eat, and I was starving. Donatello’s was a happy memory for me, so it was easy to say yes to the invite. There was no harm in grabbing a bite.
They’d renovated recently, and the whole town was happy about it. It used to be dark in here with dim lighting and sticky booths, but now they had knocked out a wall and put in some light tubesup in the ceilings, so even on grey days it was better. Not so cave-like.
They also resurfaced the hardwood floor and kept it a lighter color, and while they installed new vinyl on the booths, they were still that dark red, which seemed typical of pizza parlors everywhere. The kind you always stuck to in your shorts and the backs of your legs. The jukebox in the back corner still played because Donatello Magione was eighty-two and wouldn’t hear of any of that streaming crap.
The best part of Donatello’s (besides the pizza) was the way it smelled, like cheese and pepperoni that brought a particular kind of happiness you could almost breathe in to the center of your heart. The very first time the Holts brought me here, I thought I’d burst from happiness when the first pizzas started coming to the table.
I slid into the booth across from Rhodes and felt the familiar sticky-sweet resistance of the seat even though my legs weren’t bare.
“Hey, Sage.” Betta Mangione gave me a grin as she passed us menus and handed Opal a box of crayons with a coloring sheet. “Hi there, sweetie. These are if you want to color. I brought extras if you wanted to share.” She shot me a knowing look. “Someone across from you there also likes to color.”
“Thanks.”
I had noticed that Opal was carefully polite, and it made me want to ask personal questions about the circumstances that led Rhodes to raise her alone, but I tamped down the urge. It wasn’t my business. Maybe I wanted to make it mine, but that didn’t mean anything.
Opal’s tongue pressed to the corner of her mouth as she picked crayons from the little box with focused intensity. “Daddy, look. There’s a cat.”
“I see.” His lips tilted into a smile, softening the lines of his face.
