Page 47 of Forced By the Alpha

“Well, look at the rest of the stuff that’s not going through them, like all these worms.” Beth had been amused to learn that despite Jonah’s interest in gardening for the sake of fresh produce, he did not enjoy the act itself. She’d been listening to his complaints all morning.

“I don’t want to look at that, thank you,” he said, tossing the gloves next to his shovel and getting to his feet. He brushed dirt from his knees and looked around. “Devon is not the most punctual man, is he?”

She checked her watch. Only two minutes past the hour. “Jonah, he’s two minutes late. Why don’t you sit over there, and I’ll finish up here?”

He didn’t need to be asked twice. Stretching out on the bench, he pulled a folded paperback from his back pocket and started to read. Beth worked in the quiet. She’d asked Devon to reduce the hours of the gardener they had hired before she’d arrived, hoping that taking over the work would give her a purpose during her isolation.

Pulling weeds from the dirt, she imagined the difficulties of her life being so easy to expel.Yank, there goes Emma.Yank,the Rosewoods, and the White Winters learn to coexist.Yank, Adria is there to visit. If only. Her problems were deep-rooted and tangled around each other, inextricably linked.

“Woah, hate to be anything green when you’ve got that look on your face.”

Beth looked up to find Devon approaching with a tray of ice-cold glasses. She noted with envy that his skin had tanned to bronze in this warmer weather, while hers had only gotten more freckled.

“Wait till I start using these,” she warned, grabbing the pair of long-bladed shears from her gardening tote. There was a dogwood in desperate need of trimming.

Devon set the tray down a safe distance away and held up his hands in surrender. “Are we arming the prisoners now, Jo?”

“Huh?” Jonah looked up from his book. “Oh, hey, Dev. Why do you think I’m all the way over here?”

“Laziness, probably,” Devon said, handing a glass to Jonah before bringing one over to Beth. “It’s looking… sparse. Is that the goal here? If so, excellent work, you two.”

Beth took a sip from the glass, delighted to find that it was strawberry lemonade. “This is delicious. Did you make this?” She asked Devon.

Jonah snorted. “No, I did. You’re welcome.”

“Could’ve let me get a little credit here,” Devon muttered, “some friend.”

Beth handed him a shovel. In his grip, it looked child-sized. “You’ll have to earn your credits. Start digging up those weeds. And yes, it has to look sparse before we can add the new plants. We need a fresh start.”

Devon dug around the edges of the weeds, making quick work of the more deep-rooted ones that Beth had been sweating over. His forearms flexed in the most distracting way. Beth found herself staring more than weeding.

“Want some help over there?” Devon offered, pointing at the weeds still overflowing Beth’s section. She really hadn’t gotten much work done since Devon had arrived. “You shouldn’t do too much, you know.”

Beth glanced over her shoulder at where Jonah was still lying, head in his book. Hopefully, he hadn’t heard that remark. They still hadn’t told him about the pregnancy, and though they trusted Jonah, one more person knowing was one more chance of the secret getting out.

“I think I can handle a little weeding.” She attacked the weeds with renewed vigor, though she was secretly pleased by his concern.

Each day, he came to her with a new tidbit gleaned from his internet searches into fatherhood. He’d already taught her about the importance of back sleeping and the necessity of a blanketless crib. He had amassed a shopping list three pages long of things the baby must have before it arrived. His e-reader was full of books about babies and how to be the best father.

He had confessed to her, late one night as they’d laid in bed together, that he was terrified, not of the baby, but of messing up, of being a father as terrible as the one he’d had. The fear cropped up again and again, no matter how she reassured him. Privately, Beth believed that it was that very fear that would ensure he was a good father.

“A garden party, and no one invited me?” Emma waltzed into the garden, wearing a sunhat, crochet dress, and oversized sunglasses.

Covered in dirt and wearing faded work clothes, Beth had never felt dingier. She brushed at the smear of mud on the front of her overalls but only succeeded in making it larger.

“I can’t imagine why we forgot your invitation,” Devon drawled.

Jonah sat up, making room for Emma on the bench. “You look nice, Em. Are you going out?”

She reclined on the bench, crossing her legs daintily. “Maybe I’m just dressing up for you.” She batted her eyelashes at Jonah, and he flushed pink.

Beth rolled her eyes. He couldn’t stop twisting himself around her finger, no matter how many times she showed him her true colors. It was a marvel, she thought, what people would overlook when a beautiful woman asked them to.

“Do you need something?” Devon asked, standing up and putting himself in between Beth and Emma.

Emma plucked Jonah’s lemonade from his hand and took a drink, mouth puckering. “Would be better with a splash of rum. And no, dear brother, I’m just here for a visit. I haven’t seen our beloved luna in so long, you know, I just wanted to check up on her. How are you doing, Beth? I see they’ve let you out of your ivory tower.”

Sweet as it was, she still didn’t want Devon fighting her battles for her. She faced Emma and tried to smile, telling herself that maybe the woman’s intentions were not evil this time. Maybe Jonah wasn’t the only fool.

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