Page 22 of Wishes on Wildflowers
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“You seriously askedmy sister to dance last night?” Basil slapped his thigh as he uttered a loud guffaw. “What are you, some sort of glutton for punishment?”
Nathan sighed. “It seemed like a good idea at the time. Didn’t you see how great she looked in that pink dress?”
His friend shook his head. “Uh, I can’t say that I did. She’s my sister.”
Did that mean a man couldn’t notice how pretty a girl looked? No, not girl. Woman. The image of Jasmine’s light olive skin and long dark hair done in some kind of fancy bun on her head, wearing that amazing pink dress would be stuck in Nathan’s mind for the rest of his life. Lace had covered the entire dress. He’d never known Jasmine to wear pink, let alone lace. He’d never really noticed the soft, feminine side of her before. Oh, sure, he’d definitely always known she was female. He hadn’t dated her all those years ago without realizing that full well.
But last night… whoa.
“You can’t seriously be thinking of getting back together with my sister.”
Nathan knew the appropriate answer. It wasno, so he shook his head. “Nah, I don’t think so. But you still have to admit she looked pretty amazing last night. She must’ve gone out with half a dozen guys at least in the last few years.” He glanced sideways at Basil. The two of them sat outside on Alex’s back deck on this sunny Easter Sunday afternoon. All the hard work from the previous few weeks had paid off in neat lines of raised garden beds with gravel paths between them. The black soil was already sprinkled with the tiny green shoots of the seeds they’d planted. Of course, some of the beds waited until the last hint of frost would be gone from the air and the soil warmed up more.
“Not that I’ve ever heard of.” Basil narrowed his gaze as he looked out on the backyard. “It seems to me like she’s always been very content with her life just the way it is, without a guy in sight.” He chuckled and glanced at Nathan. “Like me. Happily single. No one to tell me what to do or when to do it, other than the bosses at my job, of course. But I’m done with all that now.” He grinned smugly. “Jasmine was even smarter than me, opening her own clinic.”
“A massage therapist. Not what I was expecting her to do with her life.”
“Why not? It pays reasonably well and, because she owns the business, she can set her own hours. My sister has always had a rather independent streak, if you ask me.”
But still, she’d been thinking of going on to become a physical therapist at one time. Whatever happened to change her mind had been after Nathan left for Los Angeles. As for the independent part, yeah, he could totally see that. She’d sent out mixed signals even when they were teens. On the one hand, looking to Nathan to fulfill all her dreams, and on the other hand, dancing to the beat of a drummer only shecould hear.
“You can do a whole lot better than my sister if you’re looking to settle down,” Basil added. “You could check out Kass North, for instance. That girl can cook.” He rubbed his hand over his belly.
The North cousins. Kass seemed nice enough for sure, and even Hailey had managed to turn off the flirting long enough to get serious work done regarding the promotional campaign they were looking to start running in a few weeks. Both women were pretty, Kass with her long red hair and Hailey with her short blond bob, but neither stirred anything in him. Not like Jasmine. He definitely should push that thought right out of his mind, now and forever. The sight of her fiery eyes last night when she told himnowere only eclipsed in his memory by the image of her slipping her high heels off and stalking out of the community center in bare feet. He’d seen her jog by the window a moment later. Bare feet in April. That was more like the Jasmine he remembered, but it’d never been because she was trying to get away from him before.
“What about you, Basil? Seeing anyone?” As near as Nathan could tell he wasn’t interested in anyone from the church, not that Basil attended every week. No woman swung by the house looking for him, either. Not that Nathan was keeping close track. Didn’t Basil spend a lot of evenings out, though? Well, that was his business. Not Nathan’s.
Basil shrugged. “No one I’ve been serious with. I guess you could say I date occasionally and recreationally.”
That sounded more like the California Nathan, except he would have changed theoccasionallytofrequently. But that had only left him with a dissatisfied feeling in his gut. None of them had seemed worth committing to. Even Rae, whomhe’d called his ray of sunshine for a few months, had quickly become a rain cloud complete with thunder and lightning when he’d figured out her dual shopping and gambling addictions.
“Well, that makes quite a pair of us, then. Two guys pushing thirty and as single as the day we were born.”
“The difference being, you seem to care about it, and I don’t.” Basil stared off into the distance, not meeting Nathan’s eyes.
Did Basil truly not mind? It seemed unlikely. Maybe someone had broken his friend’s heart and left him jaded. Maybe as they renewed their friendship, living in the same house, Nathan would get more of the story. Forget it. That would mean sharing some of his own miserable choices, and he wasn’t sure Basil or anyone else needed to know about those.
A truck crunched gravel on the other side of the house then the engine cut out. A moment later Peter and Alex rounded the corner of the building. “Hey, guys.” Peter’s gaze bounced between them. “Beautiful day, huh?”
Nathan nodded.
Basil jerked his thumb toward Nathan. “This bozo asked Jasmine to dance last night.”
Peter’s brows furrowed as his gaze zeroed in on Nathan. “It was pretty crowded in there, but I don’t remember seeing you two together.”
Thanks, Basil.A good reminder that the guy couldn’t keep a secret worth anything. Nathan stretched his legs and crossed them at the ankles. “That’s probably because she turned me down.” He shrugged. “It was just a moment of weakness. Don’t worry, it’s unlikely to happen again.”
But only because of the fierce darts coming from hereyes. If she’d have said yes, he might’ve figured he’d died and gone to heaven. In that case, it was a good thing she’d rebuffed him.
Kass puther hands on her hips as she stared at Jasmine’s Harley-Davidson. “When I said I’d love to come foraging with you, I thought you meant your truck.”
Jasmine held her spare helmet toward her friend. “You know I always park the beast over the summer. I love to feel the wind on my face far too much to drive around in anything with a roof when I don’t have to.”
“I thought you might have to, now that you’re working with the guys at Bridgeview Backyards.” Kass did not reach for the helmet. “At least, that’s what I hoped.”
Jasmine flipped the helmet vertically and plunked it over her friend’s head. “Do up the buckle on that, Kassidy Jane, and let’s get going. I have all my favorite wild asparagus spots to check this afternoon.”
