Page 56 of Welcome to Forever
“Perfect, I’d say. Here you go.” He slid the glass of water across the counter instead, directing his focus to the window above his kitchen sink. “Looks like the rain stopped. I can show you my garden now. Unless you think it’s too late. I could take you home if you need me to.”
She shook her head, blushing as she looked up at him. He wondered which memory she was entertaining. There were several he could think of. “I’m not ready to go home quite yet,” she said.
Which was good because he wasn’t ready to let her go.
“Okay, then.” Reaching for her hand, he led her outside beyond his deck. The damp air smelled like rain-soaked soil and he gulped it in. He hadn’t shown many people his garden. Just Aunt Clara and Uncle Rick. His father had seen it a time or two in the beginning stages, but he’d always frowned and reminded Micah his career was with the military. His father always made sure Micah knew that.
This was the first garden that would be Micah’s only and no one else’s. He’d never had the luxury of growing roots in the past. All he’d had before was container gardening, where the roots grew shallow and the plant was never allowed to reach its full growth.
Here, though, there were no limitations.
Kat stopped walking for a moment and looked at what he’d created. He felt like he was seeing it for the first time, too, as he looked at it through her eyes. The wooden archways he’d built to walk under were no longer visible, covered by vines that twisted and tangled together, shooting off flowers where they fancied. Then there were the sectioned areas, where he’d created patches of gardens, like a quilt of many colors. Some squares of land were elevated and in wooden cases he’d built himself. Others were on the ground.
He’d purchased this home five years ago, knowing when it went on the market that this was the perfect place for him and Ben to live. Since then, whenever he’d gotten leave from the military, he and Ben had come here from whatever place they were stationed at the time, and Micah had worked in this garden.Hisgarden. When they’d finally gotten stationed at Camp Leon, that’s when the garden had really taken form.
Kat’s mouth was open. “This is amazing.”
And under the moon, with everything cast in a glow of pale white light, Micah felt slightly in awe, too. He never tired of being here. “Come on.” He continued walking down a wooden plank path he’d built to allow Ben’s wheelchair to roll through. “My aunt Clara would probably frown at me right now if she saw me wearing shoes.”
“You can’t wear shoes in the garden?”
“You connect better in bare feet,” he said, catching her uncertain gaze. “I’ll have to show you sometime, when the dirt isn’t quite as muddy.”
The corner of her mouth kicked up on one side. He’d noticed that she did that a lot. It was cute, and sexy as hell at the same time.
“What kind of flower is that one?” She stopped and touched a bright pink bloom.
“You like it?”
She leaned in to smell the flower’s gentle fragrance, her hair escaping from its clip and falling around her face as she did. “It’s gorgeous.”
“That’s a lily. Their petals are thick. They’re as beautiful as any flower out here, but a lot tougher. They could take ten times the storm we just had and still stand.”
She considered his description. “A survivor. Sounds like a flower I could get along with.”
Looking at her right now, he could swear he was falling in love with this woman. Which was ridiculous. They barely knew one another. And that was his problem. He didn’t fall for women often, but when he did, he fell hard, and once that happened, it was nearly impossible to turn those feelings off. That’s the way it’d been with Jessica. It’d taken her abandoning Ben to shut his feelings down for good. Right now wasn’t good timing. Falling for Kat Chandler was a bad idea.
“This is a really magical place.” She looked up at him with those angelic eyes as she continued down the path. “Thank you for showing it to me.”
“Thank you for not saying it’s stupid.”
“It’s definitely not stupid. You can really see how much love you put into your work.”
And when he loved something, he was incapable of giving less than a hundred percent. That one hundred percent belonged to Ben right now. He was the only parent Ben had, and his son needed him.
Micah swallowed hard. “It’s getting late. I should probably take you home.”
Her smile wilted slightly. “You’re right. My sister will be wondering where I’ve gone. Or, actually, she’s probably guessed where I’ve been and she’s stalking the living room, waiting up to hear all the details.” Kat looked up with wide eyes. “Not that I would.”
Micah smirked. “You don’t kiss and tell. That’s good.”
“If word got out about us at the school, a principal and a parent…” Alarm continued to build in her expression.
“Don’t worry. I don’t kiss and tell, either. And it was never supposed to have happened. I didn’t plan this when I invited you over tonight.”
“You didn’t?”
Micah shook his head, surprised that she’d even have to ask. “Of course not. I wanted to show you my garden. I have Ben. The last thing I need to be doing is…” He motioned toward his home and back to Kat, searching for the right words. “The timing is all wrong. I mean, you’ve told me yourself that you’re not ready for dating.”
