Page 13 of Suzanna's Surrender
Her head shot up. He saw her eyes, big and blue and alarmed. Her face, flushed from the heat and her work, went very pale. He’d seen that kind of look before—the quick, instinctive fear of a cornered victim. Then it was gone, fading so swiftly he nearly convinced himself he’d imagined it. Color seeped slowly into her cheeks again as she managed to smile.
“I didn’t think you were here.”
He stayed where he was and continued to scowl. “So, you decided to dig a hole in my yard.”
“I guess you could say that.” Steady now, annoyed with herself for the instinctive jolt, she plunged the shovel in again, braced her foot on it and deepened the hole. “I brought you a bush.”
Damned if he was going to take the shovel from her this time and dig the hole himself. But he did cross to her. “Why?”
“To thank you for helping me out today. You saved me a good hour.”
“So you use it to dig another hole.”
“Uh-huh. There’s a breeze off the water today.” She lifted her face to it for a moment. “It’s nice.”
Because looking at her made his palms sweat, he scowled down at the tidy shrub pregnant with sassy yellow blooms. “I don’t know how to take care of a bush. You put it there, you’re condemning it to death row.”
With a laugh, she scooped out the last of the dirt. “You don’t have to do much. This one’s very hardy, even when it’s dry, and it’ll bloom for you into the fall. Can I use your hose?”
“What?”
“Your hose?”
“Yeah.” He raked a hand through his hair. He hadn’t a clue how he was supposed to react. It was certainly the first time anyone had given him flowers—unless you counted the batch the guys at the precinct had brought in when he’d been in the hospital. “Sure.”
At ease with her task, she continued to talk as she went to the outside wall to turn on the water. “It’ll stay neat. It’s a very well behaved little bush and won’t get over three feet.” She petted Sadie, who was circling the bush and sniffing. “If you’d like something else instead...”
He wasn’t going to let himself be touched by some idiotic plant or her misplaced gratitude. “It doesn’t matter to me. I don’t know one from the other.”
“Well, this is ahypericum kalmianum.”
His lips quirked into what might have been a smile. “That tells me a lot.”
Chuckling, she set it in place. “A sunshine shrub in layman’s terms.” Still smiling, she tilted her head back to look at him. If she didn’t know better, she’d have thought he was embarrassed. Fat chance. “I thought you could use some sunshine. Why don’t you help me plant it? It’ll mean more to you then.”
He’d said he wasn’t going to get sucked in, and damn it, he’d meant it. “Are you sure this isn’t your idea of a bribe? To get me to help you out?”
Sighing a little, she sat back on her heels. “I wonder what makes someone so cynical and unfriendly. I’m sure you have your reasons, but they don’t apply here. You did me a favor today, and I’m paying you back. Very simple. Now if you don’t want the bush, just say so. I’ll give it to someone else.”
He lifted a brow at the tone. “Is that how you keep your kids in line?”
“When necessary. Well, what’s it to be?”
Maybe he was being too hard on her. She’d made a gesture, and he was slapping it back in her face. If she could be casually friendly, so could he. “I’ve already got a hole in my yard,” he pointed out then knelt beside her. The dog lay down in the sunlight to watch. “We might as well put something in it.”
And that, she supposed, was his idea of a thank-you. “Fine.”
“So how old are your kids?” Not that he cared, he told himself. He was just making conversation.
“Five and six. Alex is the oldest, then Jenny.” Her eyes softened as they always did when she thought of them. “They’re growing up so fast, I can hardly keep up.”
“What made you come back here after the divorce?”
Her hands tensed in the soil, then began to work again. It was a small and quickly concealed gesture, but he had very sharp eyes. “Because it’s home.”
There was a tender spot, he thought and eased around it. “I heard you’re going to turn The Towers into a hotel.”
“Just the west wing. That’s C.C.’s husband’s business.”
