Page 31 of Where You're Planted

Reluctantly, Tansy opened the door just enough to fill the opening with her body. “Hey, what are y’all doing here?”

Kai lifted two bags of supplies. “We came to help with your walls.”

“My— What do you know about my walls?”

“All-purpose joint compound?” Kai said slowly. “I saw it in your backseat and googled it. You are DIYing your drywall. Which is interesting because when I asked how things turned out with your house a long-ass time ago, you said everything was basically back to normal.”

Tansy’s face burned. She opened her mouth to speak—to deny it even now, or else turn this into some kind of joke. But Irma stepped forward, placed a firm hand on her shoulder, and said, “I need to pee, so we’re coming in now.”

No one gasped at the sight of Tansy’s house or exchanged pitying glances. They just opened their bags, pulled out spatulas of their own, a stack of carpentry books, a platter of assorted cookies, and a Bluetooth speaker. Within two minutes, they were all spread out around the room, shimmying to Irma’s music and scraping mud into seams.

An hour later, Tansy’s entire living room, kitchen, and breakfast nook were complete. Briar had even joined them after her brief call with Charlie—he hadn’t immediately texted or called Tansy to demand answers, so she assumed their project hadn’t come up—and she’d let Irma guide her in smearing one brave swipe of mud onto the wall.

Now they were eating pizza for lunch, which Kai refused to let Tansy pay for, sitting on drop cloths in the living room. Tansy opened and closed her mouth to speak twice but couldn’t voice even a simple thanks through her mounting overwhelm. How could she adequately thank them for the hours—the days—they’d saved her?

They all insisted they’d stay after lunch to finish the rest—Briar’s bedroom and bathroom and the back hallway. It was all so much.Toomuch, really. As much as they waved off her assurances that she could finish it herself, she knew Irma would be sore from this tomorrow, and that spot of mud wouldn’t come out of Marianne’s skirt. Or just…

They’d expect something in return one day, and who knew if she’d have her head above water by then? That open loop of obligation would hang over her. She loved them, and somewhere underneath the anxiety about never making this up to them, she was grateful they’d come. But that gratitude was easily swallowed by the urgency to make themleave. To limit the strings that could wind up attached. To reclaim a smidge of self-possession and at least the appearance of competence.

“Thank you all again,” she started.

Kai jabbed their slice of pizza at her and exclaimed, “Oh my God, tell Marianne what her weird friend did during Movement and Meditation.”

Tansy blushed. Kai’s delight in her recap about the grass-eating woman and the very serene expressions on all the other participants’ faces had validated how absurd it had felt to Tansy at the time.

“It was all a little weird. I was expecting more yoga.”

Kai told the story for her, embellishing the details Tansy had told them yesterday.

“I wonder what Jack was thinking during all that,” Irmasaid, wiping her fingertips with a napkin and pushing up slowly from the floor.

“Jack?” Tansy echoed, warmth climbing up her neck.

“I saw him come out of the greenhouse and stand there for a long time at the beginning of the class.”

“At the beginning?” She’d only seen him at the end, when he’d cursed at the discovery of bees in the greenhouse wall. “Scowling?” she guessed.

She couldn’t help replaying the start of the class, trying to remember what she’d been doing, if she’d just handed him more evidence that she and her library and her programs were absurd and annoying.

“No, not scowling,” Irma drawled knowingly.

“What’s that tone?” Tansy asked.

Irma laughed and waved a dismissive hand. “I don’t think you really want to hear it.” Her eyes darted to Briar, who was eating with one hand and holding her book open on the floor with the other, and that quick glance said there was another reason not to speak too plainly.

Tansy slid her overalls buckle open and closed, open and closed. Her friends’ eyes were on her, and, aside from Marianne, who was waiting for someone to spell it out, they all looked rather pleased with themselves.

She’d intended to send them on their way before they could get back to work, but now Irma was lifting a container of mud and a spatula and taking them into the back hall. Kai jumped up to follow.

Tansy couldn’t let the comment go. She tossed her plate and followed, trailed by Marianne. “Jack would never— He sees me as—”

“A pornographic Magic Eye poster?” Kai teased, their voice low for Briar’s sake, although Briar was deeply engrossed inher book on the other side of the wall. “Like he can’t quite see it yet, but he’s sure it’s gonna be worth it when he does.”

Tansy barked a laugh. “If that’s true, and I’m not saying it is, it’s clear that he’d lose interest as soon as hesawme. I overheard him saying he doesn’t dorelationshipsoremotional bonds, like those are the worst possible things someone could want from him. He’s a gross cliché.”

Kai lit up, a sure sign of dirt to share. “I actually heard he was married once.”

“Do you have a side gig as a private investigator?” Tansy asked. “How do you know that?”

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