Page 40 of A Touch of Spring Magic

He paused on the second to the top rung of the ladder, arms upraised as he secured the final rail and clipped on the light and plugged it into the power source.

“Have a lot of people let you down, Jay?” Storm asked as he hopped off the ladder a few rungs from the bottom. His expression was serious, and she felt embarrassed. She’d been staring at him while he worked instead of the plants they’d finished arranging—the ones that were unaffected by the greenhouse destruction along with the plants that had been damaged, but she thought she could nurse back to health.

“I think I’ve let people down,” she admitted. “I know my parents are going to be horribly disappointed that I’m no longer a CPA.”

There, she’d admitted it out loud.

“And I’m disappointed in myself that that still stings, and that I didn’t have the nerve to study horticulture and botany in college like I wanted. My dad was adamant that I study business. It was safe. Steady. And those skills would help me join him at Maye Development when he felt it was time.”

Even that decision had been his, and Jessica’s heart sunk deeper. “I feel like I’ve wasted time.”

His regard was steady, but she had the feeling he was holding back.

“Say what you’re thinking,” Jessica invited, waving her hand. “I’m turning over a new leaf here—literally—so I might as well plunge into the open and honest instead of swallowing everything I think and feel down and locking it away, never to be looked at again.”

She hadn’t even been this honest with her sisters.

“I don’t think walking away from the past is the panacea you think,” he said slowly. “But expressing yourself and being honest is a good way to go, though not always easy or comfortable.” He ran a lean hand through his thick light brown hair that was heavily streaked with blonde, making him look a little like a perpetual slice of summer.

The blend of colors called to her to run her fingers through the thick silkiness. Jessia had always loved Storm’s hair. It had been thick and wavy and grew back from his forehead like Harry Styles’s or Timothee Chalamet’s.

“But I imagine under the push, your parents want the best for you. You were always so talented, smart, buzzy. Golden.”

“I did my best,” she admitted. “It was like a contest—getting Mama and Daddy’s approval.” She took a step back from the intensity and sheer masculinity that was Storm and jammed her hands in her pocket. “I wanted to be the shiny perfect one.” She laughed a little. “There was some stiff competition academically, so I piled on the activities. It sounds so stupid now.”

“You were a kid. It’s normal.”

She huffed out a breath.

“Sorry.” She reached out to touch his forearm, but quickly tucked her hand back in her pocket, hoping he hadn’t noticed. “I didn’t mean to make this about me,” she said.

“Your business. Your vision. Your future. Your sister and her fiancé’s party. Of course it’s about you.”

His words sent relief tumbling through her.

“I really wanted something for myself,” she admitted. “I wanted my nursery to be my vision.”

“That’s part of being a business owner.”

She nodded. “I have a hard time accepting help. Working on a project together truly collaboratively. It’s hard for me to trust that the others will hold up their end.”

“Should I send out an IG post with this news?”

Usually his joking when things got serious had irritated her in high school, but maybe that was his tension release whereas she snapped or shut down.

“You do that,” she said looking around the barn at all they had accomplished today.

She saw a few of the feral cats that made the barn home when they wanted to escape the weather nosing around the plants. “Oh, that might be a problem.”

“We’ll move them. I can build them a structure, but there are a couple of outbuildings on the property. There must be an equipment shed. If we move their beds, cat towers and food and water, they’ll adjust.”

Nothing fazed him. He just jumped all in whether it was part of his job or not. Nothing seemed above or beneath him.

“You have such ease and confidence,” Jessica marveled. “You seem to glide through life.”

He smiled at that. “Like you do?”

“Me? I got fired.” She slapped her hand over her mouth. “But it wasn’t my fault.”

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