"I'll say. "
* * *
Roz didn't pry into other people's business. She didn't mind hearing about it when gossip came her way, but she didn't pry. She didn't like - more she didn't permit - others to meddle in her life, and afforded them the same courtesy.
So she didn't ask Stella any questions. She thought of plenty, but she didn't ask them.
She observed.
Her manager conducted business with her usual calm efficiency. Roz imagined Stella could be standing in the whirling funnel of a tornado and would still be able to conduct business efficiently.
An admirable and somewhat terrifying trait.
She'd grown very fond of Stella, and she'd come - unquestionably - to depend on her to handle the details of the business so she herself could focus on the duties, and pleasures, of being the grower. She adored the children. It was impossible for her not to. They were charming and bright, sly and noisy, entertaining and exhausting.
Already, she was so used to them, and Stella and Hayley, being in her house she could hardly imagine them not being there.
But she didn't pry, even when Stella came home from her evening at Logan's with the unmistakable look of a woman who'd been well pleasured.
But she didn't hush Hayley, or brush her aside when the girl chattered about it.
"She won't get specific," Hayley complained while she and Roz weeded a bed at Harper House. "I really like it when people get specific. But she said he cooked for her. I always figure when a man cooks, he's either trying to get you between the sheets, or he's stuck on you. "
"Maybe he's just hungry. "
"A man's hungry, he sends out for pizza. At least the guys I've known. I think he's stuck on her. " She waited, the pause obviously designed for Roz to comment. When there was none, Hayley blew out a breath. "Well? You've known him a long time. "
"A few years. I can't tell you what's in his mind. But I can tell you he's never cooked for me. "
"Was his wife a real bitch?"
"I couldn't say. I didn't know her. "
"I'd like it if she was. A real stone bitch who tore him apart and left him all wounded and resentful of women. Then Stella comes along and gets him all messed up in the head even as she heals him. "
Roz sat back on her heels and smiled. "You're awfully young, honey. "
"You don't have to be young to like romance. Um . . . your second husband, he was terrible, wasn't he?"
"He was - is - a liar, a cheat, and a thief. Other than that he's charming. "
"Did he break your heart?"
"No. He bruised my pride and pissed me off. Which was worse, in my opinion. That's yesterday's news, Hayley. I'm going to plug some silene armeria in these pockets," she continued. 'They've got a long blooming season, and they'll fill in nice here. "
"I'm sorry. "
"No need to be sorry. "
"It's just that this woman was in this morning, Mrs. Peebles?"
"Oh, yes, Roseanne. " After studying the space, Roz picked up her trowel and began to turn the earth in the front of the mixed bed. "Did she actually buy anything?"
"She dithered around for an hour, said she'd come back. "
"Typical. What did she want? It wouldn't have been plants. "
"I clued in there. She's the nosy sort, and not the kind with what you'd call a benign curiosity. Just comes in for gossip - to spread it or to harvest it. You see her kind most everywhere. "