“No. The soil has been turned over and the patio is getting laid tomorrow. I have nothing to do now that I’ve cleared out all my emails and answered a ton of questions from random people.”
“What?”
“Nothing.” She shook her head. “Adelaide is writing, and Eva is at work, so I’m bored. I was hoping you might have something to amuse me.”
“Why are you hovering in the doorway?”
“I’m not allowed in the greenhouse.” She pouted. “So I’m not coming in.”
My lips twitched. “You can come in the greenhouse, princess.”
Her face lit up like a child’s, and the happiness that flashed across her eyes made my heart flip.
Fuck.
“Really? You’ll let me come in?”
“You can come in,” I repeated, grinning.
“Ooh!” She made a series of little squeaky, excited noises as she carefully stepped over the threshold. “Oh, wow. So many plants.”
“Don’t—” Ah. “Don’t touch anything. Please.”
“Oh.” She brought her hands back into her body. “Sorry.”
“No, it’s just that everything is organised in a system, and if stuff gets moved now it’s going to make my job a whole lot harder, that’s all.”
“I understand. What’s in here? It’s like Christmas.” She spoke with such glee that I couldn’t stop bloody smiling at her.
“It’s just a greenhouse, Gabriella.”
“Yes, but nobody is allowed in here. But I’m in here. Hee-hee.” She squealed the last noise.
“Yes, but there’s a difference between you and everyone else.”
“What’s that?”
“I like you.”
She looked up, lips parted, and blushed. She looked as though she was about to say something when something caught her eye and she gasped. “What’s that? It’s pretty!”
“That is a rogue dahlia,” I replied, looking at gorgeous bloom that was white with a wine-red centre. “It was supposed to be planted out already, but someone messed up my winter storage system and it ended up in here, and now there’s no room for it in the dahlia bed.”
“It’s beautiful. I haven’t seen that colour before.” She leaned down, still clasping her hands to her stomach.
She reminded me of a child in a toy store, desperately trying not to touch all the things they want.
“That’s why I’m annoyed. It was a new addition,” I said wryly. “It is lovely.”
“So lovely,” she echoed. “Smells good, too.”
I paused after putting one tomato plant in the trailer. She was besotted with it, that much was clear.
“What if I can’t make her happy?” … “You never know unless you give it a bloody good go.”
Grandpa’s words flitted through my brain as I looked at her.
“Do you want it?”
She jerked upright. “What do you mean?”
“For your garden. It’s not too late to buy more tubers, and they flower through the end of October, so it’ll give you long-lasting blooms. If you really like it, you can have it, and I’ll see if I can order more for you.”
“Really?” She took a step forward but stopped herself. “I can have it for my project?”
I picked up a tomato plant and plucked off a sucker before meeting her eyes. “Would it make you happy?”
Gabriella nodded, and her hair fell out from behind her ear. “Very much so.”
“Then it’s yours.” I held her gaze for a moment, smiling, then looked away.
Maybe I could make her happy.
I could just give her a plant, evidently.
“What are you doing?” She walked over to me and peered over my shoulder, still keeping her hands to herself.
I looked down at her. “Plucking suckers.”
“That’s either entirely innocent or not at all, and if it’s the former, I’ve watched far too much television lately.”
I fought a laugh. “Tomato suckers.”
“Oh.”
“They’re all ready to go to their final places in the polytunnel now they’re big enough.” I put the one I’d done down and grabbed another. This one was riddled with suckers, so it was easy enough to find one to show her. “I only grow indeterminate tomatoes, so I have to take off the suckers or you end up with a monster plant.” I took one of the main stems between my finger and thumb and turned so I was almost facing her. “You see this bit?”
“The little bit growing out from the middle?”
“That’s it. That’s a sucker. I just pinch it out and it won’t grow again.” I did just that, showed it to her, then dropped it in the bucket. “That one will just produce leaves now, not fruit.”
“Don’t you want it to do fruit?”
“I do. But you see these two stems here?” I tapped the top of the plant where the single stem broke off into two. “These are the main ones. I want these two to bear the fruit, not all the other ones that pop up. The plant will be stronger and better if it’s somewhat controlled.”
“Oh, that makes sense. You can plant the suckers, can’t you?”
I nodded and pulled off the remaining ones. “I don’t at this size because they’re too small, but there are always a few that get away from us. I put those in water, let them root, and plant them up.”