Arlene James - Second Chance Match

Chapter Three

Jessa gulped down the remainder of her meal, made sure that Hunter thanked Hilda and followed Garrett out the door. She found herself on a narrow, covered walkway that linked a smaller house with the mansion.

“Carriage house,” Garrett informed her with a wave of his hand. “All the staff live there.”

He was staff, she told herself silently. And family. Almost. Sort of. She still didn’t know what to make of that.

He led them past a shoulder-high hedge that flanked an expansive patio strewn with wrought-iron furniture and bright potted plants, but the greenhouse some thirty yards away captured Jessa’s full attention. She’d seen smaller airplane hangers! Built of glass panels rather than plastic sheeting, the glittering building rose from a lush green lawn artfully transected by wandering walkways of broken paving stone.

“Wow,” Jessa said, while standing in the midst of what amounted to a small forest in pots, Hunter’s hand in hers. She identified miniature fruit trees and several ornamentals, but the rest were unknown to her.

“The larger trees for outdoor plantings will come after I get the greenhouse built on Charter Street,” Garrett told her. “I mean, if I get the greenhouse built on Charter Street.”

Jessa looked at him, “You’re telling me that you want to build a similar nursery at the Monroe place?”

“Actually, I was planning to move this greenhouse there. It belongs to me. Most of it, anyway. I’ve been planning to open a retail nursery for years, and Magnolia’s been helping me by letting me expand the original greenhouse here and load it with stock. She even talked Kent into applying for the combined-use zoning because she thought the Monroe place would be a good site for me.”

Jessa winced, deflated. Well, there was the nail in the coffin of her own dreams for the place. “I was planning to open a florist shop in the front room of the house.”

He nodded. “So I gathered.” Smiling wanly, he added, “Looks like the old adage was right. Great minds do think alike.”

Unfortunately, Jessa mused, only one of those “great minds” could claim the property.

“Well, if it’s flowers you’re interested in,” he said, changing the subject, “you should take a look back here.”

Gesturing for them to follow, he led her and Hunter through the potted grove and past a well-organized work area. He pushed through a split divider of heavy plastic and into a shocking riot of color.

“Ooooh,” Hunter breathed, as intrigued by the display of blossoms as Jessa.

“Are you going to wholesale at some point?” she asked after taking it all in for a minute.

“Hadn’t planned on it. Magnolia likes flowers, so this section kind of got out of hand, if you know what I mean.”

Hunter pointed at a lush rose bush heavy with glorious orange blossoms. “That’s Grandma’s flower.”

“It is,” Jessa told him with an approving smile before explaining to Garrett, “We planted Cinnamon Glow roses on my mother’s grave before we moved here.”

“I see. Sorry for your loss. Did she pass recently?”

“Five years ago,” she replied, oddly touched.

“Almost six for my mom,” he said quietly. “Doesn’t go away, does it, the feeling of being alone in the world without her?”

“I’m not alone,” she replied, squeezing Hunter’s small hand, but Garrett was right. Knowing her mother no longer walked this earth left her feeling orphaned.

“What about your dad?” Garrett asked suddenly.

She straightened her shoulders. “I have no idea. He left us and just disappeared.”

“That’s too bad,” Garrett said. “My dad died when I was seven, but I think that might have been better.” She jerked her head around and found herself staring straight into eyes the color of the bluest sky imaginable. “I know that he didn’t want to leave us because he loved us all so much,” Garrett went on, “but that he’s well and happy in heaven with the Lord.”

“You’re right,” she told him, gulping and looking away. “That is better. I’d like to see those violets you mentioned.”

He seemed to accept the change of subject as gladly as she made it. “Over here.” He led her through tables and shelves burdened with too many plants to count. “They’re just Common Blue Violets.”

“The color is an intense purple, though,” Jessa noted, examining dozens of the small, five-petal blossoms, “and they’re very healthy.”

“I have a few not-so-healthy ones over there,” he said, pointing. “I think I can bring those around by the wedding.”

“What are you using?”

“I always go organic first.”

That started a discussion of organic treatments that carried on far longer than Jessa realized, until Hunter yanked her hand.

“What is it, honey?” She looked down to find him standing with crossed legs and a worried expression on his face. “Oh.”

Garrett, too, got the message. “Hey, the carriage house is closer. I can run him over there, if you like.”

Seeing Hunter’s distress, she almost agreed, but then she realized how close she stood to Garrett and just how long they had been lost together in conversation, and she mentally berated herself. She knew nothing of this man beyond his preferred methods of treating various garden pests and diseases. But a tiny voice in her head argued that they had more than a love of plants in common: they’d both grown up fatherless and lost their moms a few years ago, and they were both Christians.

“He can make it to our rooms. Can’t you, sweetie?”

“I’m six, not a baby,” the boy said in his little-boy voice.

“Go through the sunroom,” Garrett advised. “There’s a men’s room in the East Hall, across from the ballroom.”

“Thanks,” she said, urging Hunter forward. “For the tour, too.”

“No problem,” Garrett called after her. “You’re both welcome to poke around anytime.”

Jessa didn’t answer, mostly because she knew that she should stay away from him. She couldn’t risk liking Garrett Willows any more than she could let herself get too comfortable in a place like Chatam House. East Hall, library, ballroom, suites, greenhouses that would make commercial growers weep with joy; Chatam House had it all—including the too-handsome man who had upset all her hopes and plans.

“Skittish little thing,” Garrett muttered, watching Jessa and Hunter disappear through the divider. The long, vertical strips of heavy plastic flapped and swayed behind them as if to underscore the turmoil that they left in their wake.

He turned back to the violets, heavy of heart. Something was going on with the Pagetts, and it disturbed him plenty. Something about Jessa Lynn Pagett brought out Garrett’s protective instincts, and that, he had learned the hard way, was never a good thing. He struggled with that protective part of himself, which often led him to erroneous conclusions and impulsive actions, like the time he’d yanked Chandler Chatam out of his pickup truck and started throwing punches, believing that the man was responsible for Bethany, Garrett’s sister, being pregnant and unmarried.

He’d soon found out otherwise, of course, but not until he’d made a real idiot of himself. Thankfully, that episode in stupidity had not created an enemy of the man who was now his brother-in-law and the father of his nephew. Garrett took a moment to thank God for that, smiling to think how happy his sister and her little family were. Obviously, Jessa had not been so blessed.

For one thing, she was divorced. For another, she was clearly overprotective with the boy. Plus, something about her manner signaled that she expected to get the short end of every stick. The boy’s quietness and docility bothered Garrett, too. He’d been shocked to hear the kid say that he was six years old. Normal six-year-olds didn’t stand silently clasping their moms’ hands for the better part of an hour. None that Garret knew, anyway. Still, it wasn’t his concern.