Page 20 of Flirting Lessons

“That’s okay, we can learn together.”

“Garden club!” Everyone immediately quieted down and turned to the woman who had led Avery over there. She had that kind of voice. “I see that we have some new members today, welcome.” She nodded in the direction of Avery and Beth, and everyone in the group turned to look at them. Avery tried to smile, to look friendly, but she probably just looked terrified. “For those of you who don’t know me, I’m James Kincaid, I’m a Napa County Master Gardener, and I’m the president of the garden club here. It sounds like a very big title, but simply means I’m here all the time, and I’m alwaysavailable for your garden questions. We meet here on Sundays because many of us have beds here, and sometimes at members’ homes and gardens throughout the area for lectures and discussions. For the new people”—she turned to stare straight at Avery and Beth—“as you can see, we’re deep into summer growing, and the vast majority of the garden is all planted up. But if you two are willing to share, we just had one garden bed open up for the rest of the year. Do you want it?”

Way to put us on the spot, James. Avery had a lot of questions: What did taking over one garden bed entail? Did they have to pay for it? What were they supposed to plant? Did they get graded on their plants? Could they fail out of the garden if their plants died? Was it a cursed garden plot since it opened up in the middle of the summer?

As she tried to decide which question to start with, she saw Beth looking at her with raised eyebrows. Right, okay, this was a yes-or-no question. She nodded at Beth, and Beth turned to James.

“We’d love to share, thank you! And we’ll take advice and guidance from anyone who is willing; we’re both very inexperienced at this.”

James nodded to them.

“Good.” She handed them each a form. “Fill that out and pay the city online. I’ll take you to your bed shortly. Now, who wants to go first?”

Avery had no idea what that was in reference to, but apparently everyone else in the garden club did, because one person toward the front of the group raised their hand.

“Lillian, thank you,” James said. “Lead us to your bed.”

Beth turned to Avery, her eyes full of mirth. She pulled Avery down so she could whisper in her ear.

“If she doesn’t stop saying ‘your bed’ like that, I am one hundred percent going to lose it. So far, it’s been that we have to share a bed, she’s going to show us our bed, and now ‘lead us to your bed’? This is too much for me.”

Avery held back a giggle as they followed the group to Lillian’s bed. Lillian pointed out her vegetables and flowers and told the group about the problems she was having with them, and then the group gave her advice. And then James asked for the next person to go, and a man named Damien raised his hand, and they went through the same routine with his…bed. This was apparently the way the Sunday meetings worked, at least this time of year. They walked around and talked about people’s gardens, which, honestly, was very soothing. Everyone used words that Avery didn’t know, likeblack spotandgerminationandleaf curl, and there was a lot of headshaking or excitement about things she’d never heard of. A few people standing around her and Beth must have seen the confusion on their faces, because they explained things to them in low voices, which was very sweet. Avery understood only about a quarter of their explanations, but she thanked them and filed away her questions for later.

Once they were done walking around to the different beds, James pointed at her and Beth.

“You two. Come with me. I’ll take you to your bed.”

Avery did not make eye contact with Beth, knowing that if she did, they’d both start giggling. James led them to a plot in the far corner of the garden. It already had a bunch of plants in it, most of which Avery couldn’t identify, but a few were definitely tomato plants. She could tell by the tiny green tomatoes hanging on them.

“We usually have a long waiting list for plots here, but this is a special case. Henrietta had to move away for the rest of the year,but she’s hoping to be back next year, so she didn’t want to give her plot up. She already planted some tomatoes and peppers before she moved; I’ve been tending to them, but I’ll pass this bed over to you two for the rest of the year. You can add—or take away—anything you want, and you can ask me or anyone else at the garden for assistance if you have any questions. Here.” She pulled two cards out of one of her voluminous pockets and handed one to both Avery and Beth. “We get discounts at the local garden center, show them that for anything you want to buy.”

“Oh, thank you,” Avery said. She slipped the card into her pocket but wasn’t sure how much she’d use it. Would she really end up buying that many plants? She glanced over at Beth, but Beth wasn’t looking at her. She was staring down at her phone with a weird look on her face.

“If you want to remove anything from the bed, don’t throw it away,” James said so forcefully that Avery immediately felt guilty, like she’d already been planning to dig up and throw out the entire bed to start from scratch.

“Oh, no, of course not,” Beth said. Okay, good, it made Beth feel guilty, too. “What, um, should we do with it instead?”

“There’s a plant exchange here, just pot it up and put it on the shelf by the entrance, someone will take it. You should look over there before you go to the garden center, someone might have what you want.”

A plant exchange. Adorable.

“I’ll leave you two now to take stock of your bed.”

And with that, James stalked away, and left Avery and Beth standing next to their bed.

“She kind of scares me, you?” Avery asked Beth in a low voice.

Beth nodded but didn’t look at Avery. She stared down into their garden bed, with a distant look on her face.

“Um, yeah, me, too,” she said.

Oof, okay. Avery had meant that as a joke, a we’re-in-this-together kind of thing, but apparently it hadn’t landed. Maybe she’d read this all wrong. She’d thought she and Beth were bonding, that maybe she’d found someone who could be a new friend. Did Beth not want that? Was she being too friendly too early? Did Beth not want her to get the idea that just because they were sharing a garden bed—garden plotwas maybe a better way to say that—that they could be friends? Yeah, that was probably it.

“I think I’ll head home now,” she said. “I’ll, um, go to the garden store or whatever sometime this week.”

Beth sat down at the edge of their plot.

“Yeah, okay,” she said.

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