Chapter 9 Only One Garden Bed
Only One Garden Bed
Jonah
After Renée left yesterday, Dane showed me how to take care of and ride Ginger.
I had this image of dashing through a field of wheat with her, climbing over rolling hills at breakneck speeds, throwing my hands up in the air.
But apparently, those days are in the old girl’s past. She prefers a simple life.
Long walks and maybe, if she’s feeling frisky, a trot or two.
That’s probably for the best anyway, because riding a horse is nerve-wracking.
Ginger and I wind through my property with a muddy Rugger beside us while Yogi stays back with his ducks by the pond.
I couldn’t even get the boys to come inside with me last night.
They usually sleep in my bed, but with Ginger here, they both refused to come inside.
Instead they slept in the barn with their goats, ducks, and new horse.
I took pictures when I found them this morning, all cuddled up. So cute.
As we make our way back toward the barn, I peek over at Renée’s house. That house can’t be over eleven hundred square feet, and I’m not entirely sure it has a basement. Her yard is small too, and I notice the itty-bitty garden in her backyard.
That’s a shame. I know she loves plants. She filled her classroom, biology lab, and even her office with plants and displayed dead bugs with precision and elegance. There were owls and birds and a bobcat scattered throughout, and I was never sure if they were taxidermied or fake.
Maybe I could give her some space over here for a sizable garden.
I’m certainly not using most of my property, and there’s a great big open area between our houses she could have.
This area must have been a garden at one point because there’s an empty gardening shed not ten yards away.
There’s a slight hill, but we could work around that.
Ginger and I stray dangerously close to her house when she pulls her old Subaru into the driveway.
A smile stretches across my face when I catch Delta in the backseat with her hands plastered to the window.
I can hear her squealing from all the way over here.
I’m not sure if she’s howling for me, the horse, or the dog, but I enjoy being mixed into consideration.
Renée catches my eye and rolls hers before parking.
“Mommy, can we pet the animals?” Delta chirps as soon as her feet hit the ground.
“Yes, but not Jonah.”
Lo catches up with her sister as I dismount. “Well, howdy girls!”
Rugger takes a seat and accepts his fate before Delta’s hands are all over him. “Where’s your cowboy hat?” she asks.
“I don’t have one.”
“But you were riding a horse. You need a cowboy hat if you’re riding a horse.”
Renée saunters toward us and picks Lo up so she can reach more than just Ginger’s legs.
“I suppose I should get a cowboy hat then,” I say. “What do you think, Professor Wilde?”
She sighs. “Just call me Renée.”
My heart skitters at the gigantic door she’s flung open for me. I can call her by her first name? To her face?!
I fight back the strongest grin with valiant effort. “Would you like to see me in a cowboy hat, Renée?”
There is no reply, just a flat look.
That’s not a no.
Lo silently gestures to be lifted into the saddle, and her mother asks, “Can she sit up here?”
“Of course! She won’t go anywhere.”
As the youngest Wilde fixes herself atop my horse, a wave of happiness crashes into me. This is the first time Renée hasn’t fled my presence, so I take it as a sign to shoot my shot.
I clear my throat and nod toward her backyard. “I noticed your garden over there. It’s nice.”
“It’s small,” she sighs, stroking Ginger’s rump without a look back to her yard.
“But it’s really nice.”
She flashes me a look of indignation as her only reply.
“Would you like a bigger garden?”
She lifts a nonchalant shoulder. “Of course.”
“I could give you this space right here,” I gesture around us.
She furrows her red eyebrows. “This is your property.”
“I’m not using it. You could plant whatever you want here.”
A long pause stretches out as she studies me. “Why are you offering this?”
“Cuz I think it would make you happy. Would it?”
“Jonah,” she sighs. “This is too much.”
“But would it make you happy?”
Her hand stills on Ginger as she takes a moment to respond. “Yes.”
“Then it’s yours. How many garden beds do you want?”
“No, no, no. You don’t need to create garden beds. I can just work with the land.”
I point to her backyard. “But you have a raised garden. Is that what you’d prefer?”
“Yes, but—”
“Consider it done. I’ll take care of installing them, and you’ll keep everything you grow. You’ll have access to them and the gardening shed whenever you want—they’re yours. How many beds do you want?”
Blush creeps over her neck and spreads across her face, and I kind of love how it doesn’t stay confined to her cheeks.
Her entire head and neck turn red, and it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.
Renée Wilde has always been all woman to me—sophisticated, and sure of herself.
But watching her become speechless and blush like a little girl has me itching to see more of it.
All of it.
“Just one.”
I shake my head. “That’s not enough. Sky’s the limit.”
“Mom, can we plant sunflowers?” Delta asks as she rubs my dog’s hairy belly.
“I love sunflowers,” I reply.
“Fine,” Renée concedes. “Four beds. I can pay—”
“Oh, no. You’re absolutely not paying.”
“Jonah...”
“Fine. You can pay me in baked goods. I like cookies and cupcakes. Ooh, I also like Jell-O and pie.”
“We can do that!” Delta beams.
I point at her and give her a serious look. “You have pretty high standards to live up to, miss. Those no-bake cookies were incredible. I expect nothing but the best.”
“We are awesome bakers!”
“It’s settled then.”
“It is not,” Renée pushes.
“Fine.” I shrug dramatically. “I guess... you could come with me as my date to my brother’s wedding three weeks from Saturday.”
Her eyes roll the same way they did when I was her student. “There it is.”
“I’m only kinda joking. This garden has nothing to do with me actually wanting you to be my wedding date. The garden has absolutely no strings attached.”
“You promise?”
“Cross my heart and hope to die.”
“Why on earth would you want to take me to a wedding?”
“Because I like you.”
“Take someone younger, someone your own age.”
“No.”
She lets out an exasperated huff. How do I sweeten this for her? I’ve gotta lock her in.
“There will be great music, dancing, a plated dinner, and champagne. Oh, by the way, my brother is marrying two people. I should probably mention that.”
Her eyebrows raise up because, yeah, I get it. How often do you get to attend the wedding of a throuple?
She crosses her arms. “And it’s local?”
“Yes!” I suddenly remember where the wedding will be and know this will be the thing that will lock her in. “You’re going to love the venue. It’s at the Fairmount Park Horticulture Center.”
Her eyes go wide. “I’ve never been there for a wedding. Oh, it’s so beautiful,” she says, her voice a mix of wistfulness and hesitation.
“So you’ll come with me?”
“If you can promise me there will be nothing more after the reception,” she breathes, and I catch her meaning. “We will leave the venue and come right back to our respective homes.”
I place my hand over my heart. “I wouldn’t dream of it,” I lie.
She looks like she barely believes me, but when she sighs, I know I’ve got her. “Fine.”
I take her reluctant, defeated acceptance and bathe in it. Mark my word: I’m gonna wear her down to her panties soon enough.
She plucks her phone from her purse. “When is it?”
“Oh, um... I don’t remember. I’ll text you about it.”
“You’ll tell me right now.”
I wanted to have an excuse to text her, but her eyes tell me to obey and—whoa Nelly—do I want to. Pulling my phone from my pocket, I nod. “Yes, ma’am. Wedding is at 3:00 p.m.”
After taking a few moments to type, she tucks her phone back in her purse. “I’ll see you then,” she says curtly. “C’mon, girls.” She lifts Lo from the saddle, and Rugger gets up from his lounging position to make sure Lo is safely put down. “We have to put the groceries away.”
“Bye, Jonah!” Delta hollers, before running back to their car and opening the hatch.
“Bye!”
Lo takes her mom’s hand and waves to me with the other as they walk away, too.
Rugger rubs his head against my thigh like some kind of post-game handshake, and I lift all one hundred eighty pounds of him into my arms. “We got her!” I whisper. “We got her, boy! C’mon, let’s go.” He leaps from my arms and runs toward the barn with Ginger and me trailing behind him.
Time to call a landscaper, because I’m about to have the most beautiful garden in the state of Pennsylvania.