Chapter 15 #3
“I swear, I knew nothing,” he repeated, starting to look a little antsy. “As you well know, Will and Naomi are cut from the same cloth. They’re always texting. So, am I surprised to see them both here to check out your guy?”
“He’s not my guy.”
Tap ignored me. “The answer is no, I’m not surprised.” He glanced toward the house and that loopy smile I loved was back. “But you have to admit, it’s kind of amusing.”
I gave him a shove. “It bloody is not. What about Thaddeus? After everything he’s been through, how do you think he might feel having Laurel and Hardy descend on him like smiling vultures to a fresh kill? Interrogating him while they pick his bones clean.”
Tap blinked. “A little dramatic, don’t you think?”
I simply stared.
His cheeks brightened and he sighed. “Okay, okay. Fair point. We better get inside, then.”
“Ya think?” I growled and gave him another shove before storming up the path and ignoring the muffled snort at my back.
I left my boots at the front door, walked straight past an excited Ziggy waiting to greet me, and was almost at the kitchen when guilt stopped me in my tracks.
“Come here, boy.” I bent down to scoop him into my arms, suffered the admonishments of his wet nose and tongue on my neck, and apologised for ignoring him.
As I calmed down and caught my breath, the distant sound of conversation and laughter filtered into the hall from somewhere outside.
“God help us,” I whispered in Ziggy’s ear, then set him on the floor.
Tap’s hand landed on my shoulder from behind. “Remember, never show any fear.”
“Funny guy.” I elbowed him in the ribs and headed for the deck, but whatever I was expecting, it wasn’t the sight of my sister, Will, and Thaddeus wiping tears from their eyes as they hooted with delight at whatever Naomi was saying.
I stopped mid-stride and took a couple of seconds to digest the unexpected tableau.
Thaddeus sat sprawled in a cane armchair, wine in hand, and barely able to catch his breath as his shoulders heaved in choking laughter.
My sister lay on one side of the double lounger, facing Thaddeus and shoulder to shoulder with Will.
Both dangled glasses of wine from their respective hands, and judging by the colour, it looked like one of my best pinot gris.
The deck either side of the lounger was littered with tell-tale splashes of the expensive vintage, and someone was going to be buying me a new one .
. . or two, I thought as I spotted two empty bottles on the cane coffee table.
I froze, thrown back almost a decade to the last time I’d come home to a similar scene, when James and I were still together and the cottage rang to the sound of laughter.
When our friends or, more specifically, his friends, would gather on the deck just like this.
A time when the cottage felt more like a home than just a place I crashed while I worked on the garden.
Back then, it happened so frequently that I almost resented the intrusion on our lives.
With the wisdom of hindsight, I saw the need James had to fill his world with so much more activity and people than living with me provided.
But I also couldn’t deny the warm feeling those social occasions brought with them.
The same feeling I was experiencing right then.
Being a part of something bigger. Being a couple.
It was a warning I couldn’t ignore, because just like James, Thaddeus too was a self-proclaimed city boy. But not an extrovert, a voice popped into my brain. Not a people person like James. But as I watched Thaddeus laugh and wipe his eyes, I wasn’t so sure it mattered.
When Thaddeus looked up and caught me staring, his smile went wide. “Ryder!” he exclaimed, getting to his feet and walking a little unsteadily toward me.
Behind him, the two shit-stirrers immediately turned, their expressions part guilty, part delighted.
I was going to kill both of them very slowly and very painfully and hoped my glower conveyed exactly that.
Whether it did or not appeared to be moot as Naomi simply blew me a kiss, while Will raised his glass in some kind of defiant toast.
“Oh boy,” Tap’s whisper came from somewhere behind me. “I somehow don’t think that’s their first drink.”
I spun and shot him a deadpan look, then plastered on a grin as Thaddeus stepped from the deck into the room and came to a stop. He wore a huge smile, and his golden-brown eyes gleamed with pleasure. To see me? The idea was enough to drain my irritation and force me to recalibrate.
“When Ziggy bolted for the front door, I knew it was you.” Thaddeus swayed slightly, leaning against the bifold frame for support. “But I thought you weren’t expecting to be home so early.”
Home? I frowned at his surprising use of the word, but Thaddeus seemed completely oblivious. Tap, of course, hadn’t missed a thing, and the finger stabbing into my back confirmed it. I thought of Tap’s earlier words—Maybe he hoped you’d convince him otherwise—and frowned again. Was Tap right?
“It was too hot to work so we called it a day.” Not a complete lie, I told myself.
Tap gave a loud huff of amusement and clapped me on the shoulder. “I’ll grab us some beers while you go sit and socialise.”
I didn’t want to sit down. And I certainly didn’t want to socialise.
I glared through the glass doors to where Will and Naomi were talking quietly.
They both looked up at the same time and immediately smiled.
I tapped my watch pointedly, but all they did was turn away and resume their conversation.
No points for guessing who it was about.
“Come on.” Thaddeus grabbed my hand and tugged me onto the deck to join the others. “Do as the man said and take a seat.” He steered me toward a chair. “I’ll go put some snacks together.”
“You don’t need to—” I began, but he brushed my protest aside.
“Don’t be silly. Besides, that wine’s gone straight to my head.”
No kidding. But I had enough sense to keep my mouth shut and Thaddeus left me to it.
Will leaned forward and patted the seat of the armchair next to him. “Come on. We saved you a spot.” He waggled those ginger brows of his, and I suppressed the immediate urge to yank them off his pretty face.
I scowled and made my way over, landing in the chair with a grunt. “You’re lucky you’re cute,” I told him.
He grinned sunnily. “And don’t forget awesome.”
I ignored him and glared at my sister instead. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”
Naomi reached over and patted my knee. “Looking after my little brother’s interests, of course.
When you didn’t answer my texts for days—” She paused for effect, and my cheeks grew hot.
“—I called Will for the latest gossip, and he delivered, as usual.” She raised her glass to the young man, who returned the gesture with a beaming smile.
Tap joined us and pressed a beer into my hands. “Drink up. You look like a rattlesnake crawled up your arse.”
“Gee, thanks.” I tapped my bottle to his and took a long swallow as I watched Thaddeus move about my kitchen like he’d lived there for years. He was dancing to whatever music was playing in his head as he loaded a platter with cheese and crackers and potato chips.
“He looks very much at home, doesn’t he?”
I turned to find my sister smiling smugly. I shrugged and took another guzzle of beer. “It’s been ten days. Not surprising, really.”
Tap dragged a chair alongside Will’s lounger, sat, and held out his hand.
Will grinned and slid his hand into Tap’s, allowing himself to be hauled out of the lounger and into Tap’s lap.
The young man nestled into a comfortable sideways position and threw his legs over the arm of the chair.
When he kissed Tap soundly on the mouth and turned back to me, I tried not to be envious of what they had.
“He likes you.” Will flicked his head toward the kitchen. “And he’s nice.”
“He’s on the rebound,” I grumbled, shooting a sideways glance into the kitchen. “He’ll be leaving soon.”
“Mmhmm.” My sister eyed me with interest. “When we arrived, he was pulling weeds.”
I jolted in my seat. “He was what?” I spun to the garden and wondered how I’d missed it before.
The garden bed closest to the deck looked surprisingly tidy, as in way too tidy, and at the bottom of the steps sat a bucket from the laundry, a hand trowel and fork from the greenhouse, and a pair of gloves that were at least two sizes too big for Thaddeus’s small hands.
That particular garden bed had been on my to-do list the previous weekend, before the storm, before I’d become . . . distracted.
What the hell?
Ignoring my sister’s chuckles, I leapt up and headed down the steps to inspect the damage.
I checked the bucket first, and as I’d suspected by the very clean state of my garden, it was full of weeds.
But it was also full of many, many self-seeded flowers and most of the fledgling plants that had sprouted from my scattering of seeds the month before. Holy shit.
“So, what do you think?”
I jumped at the sound of Thaddeus’s voice and spun to find him smiling brightly, his expression hopeful but nervous at the same time.
Behind him on the deck, my sister had a hand clamped over her mouth as she smothered a laugh.
A gardener herself, she knew exactly what I was thinking.
That my summer flower garden was going to need a bit of a redo.
“I wanted to surprise you.” Thaddeus raced past to show me his work. “Remember, you said on that first day that you could barely look at the garden, it was so full of weeds.”
I nodded blankly, staring at vast swathes of bare dirt where hopeful plants had once poked their heads through the soil seeking the spring sun.
But Thaddeus was on a roll. “I had to google a ton of stuff since my knowledge of plants is shit, as you well know.”
“You . . . googled them?” I croaked.
“Yep,” he answered proudly. “I used the best-reviewed name-that-plant app that I could find. It didn’t identify everything, but I did my best. Is it okay? You can say if I fucked up.”
On the deck behind Thaddeus, Will had his face pressed into Tap’s chest, clearly pissing himself with laughter.
My best friend couldn’t even look at me, and Naomi was madly waving her hands in warning as if I might say something mean.
Like that was even possible with Thaddeus’s golden hound-dog eyes staring pleadingly at me.
I took all of that into consideration, in addition to the way my so-called friends and family sat in silent, gleeful anticipation of my response, and the decision was easy.
“Thank you.” I pulled Thaddeus in for a hug, surprised when he clung to me in obvious relief.
“I can’t believe you did all this.” No lie there.
I let him go and wandered along the garden bed, trying not to wince at the empty space where granny bonnets, cosmos, and zinnia had been ready to break forth.
“It’s very . . . tidy,” I managed. “Ready for me to plant up for summer.” Again. “It must have taken you ages.”
Thaddeus joined me, pointing excitedly to a further two buckets that had been hidden from view, both of them full.
“Three hours, all up,” he announced, sounding happy about the fact.
“It’s harder than you think, right?” He wandered to the far end of the garden and then back.
“To be honest, I kind of enjoyed it. It was nice working outside for a change. I can do the other side tomorrow, if you want?”
Before I could answer, Naomi’s syrupy voice slid over Thaddeus’s shoulder. “That’s so kind of you, Thad.” I didn’t need to see her face to know she was wearing a shit-eating grin a mile wide. “I’m sure Ryder would love that.”
“No!” I blurted, sounding a little more panicked than I would’ve liked as I flicked Naomi a threatening look.
Thaddeus frowned. “Oh. Well—”
“What I meant,” I rushed to explain, as in a lie, “is that I’m not sure what I want to do with that bed yet.
I was thinking that I might make some changes to it this summer—” I was going to have to, based on the current state of the other one.
“—and I wouldn’t want your efforts to go in vain.
But maybe you could help me with something else .
. . on the weekend?” When I’m around to supervise.
Thaddeus brightened. “Really? I’d love to. Maybe you can teach me how not to kill the next house plant I buy.”
Oh God. I was going to have to find something really, really safe for him to do. My gaze swept the rather empty garden bed once more, and I swallowed around the lump in my throat. They’re only fucking plants. Get over it. I glanced at Thaddeus’s smiling face and the lump dissolved.
“Come on.” I put a hand on the small of his back and steered him toward the others. “I’m feeling hungry, after all.”
Thaddeus turned, winked, and shot me a wicked grin. “Yeah, me too.”
The sexy note to his voice had my cheeks burning, and my belly flopped embarrassingly like a dog rolling over at its owner’s attention. He’s just tipsy, I told myself, an explanation confirmed when his grin dissolved, and it was Thaddeus’s turn to blush.
“Shit. I’m sorry.” He slipped away from my hand and was gone in a flash.