Tara
I’m still thinking about Kellen hours later when it’s past the hottest point of the day and the sun’s dipping down. Purples, reds, oranges, and more burst across the sky, and I’m busy poking at cactus plants trying to make sure they’re going to blossom properly in the next few weeks and wondering if I need to maybe replant them somewhere else.
But I’m mostly fussing and picturing Kellen’s muscular arms and chest as he carried around that overstuffed bag. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that we could go dump it and get another one since he seemed so intent on collecting and hauling, and I doubt he’s ever worked outside doing any landscaping in his life. Not to say Kellen hasn’t been through some shit and done hard work, just that gardening isn’t his thing.
I can’t help but analyze all his motions and motives. Why come out and tell me about his mother? Why help me get some work done? If he’s only doing it to get me to marry him so he can access his money, that’s a shitty and manipulative thing to do.
But is that Kellen?
As long as I’ve known him, Kellen’s been straightforward and honest, almost to a fault. He’s painfully blunt at time, and I can’t imagine him using his pain over his mother’s disease to further his goals, but anything’s possible in this family.
God, I wish I weren’t so stuck in the middle of all this.
“Evening, Tara.”
I jump and nearly try to steady myself on a big spiky ball of pain and instead windmill my arms until I manage to stand and keep from faceplanting in needles. I turn and there’s Hugh standing on the path, scratching the back of his head and smiling.
He’s got that Hayle look. Light eyes, dark hair, very Irish. But where Kellen’s big and broad, Hugh is more wiry, thinner and leaner. He’s tall and decent looking, but he’s almost boring, nondescript. Like I’d never think about him twice if I passed him in a crowd, while Kellen stays with me, lingers in my mind even hours after I last saw him.
“Hello, Hugh,” I say, straightening and hoping he didn’t notice my extremely clumsy reaction. “How are you?”
“Doing well, doing well.” He walks over and glances down at the plants. “It’s a miracle what you’ve done in here, you know.”
“Ah, it’s nothing. It helps that I’ve been given a big budget and lots of time.”
“Even still, I remember these gardens before you and they weren’t so…” He hesitates, frowning. “They weren’t so beautiful. And they were full of shit that never grows in Arizona and was dying all the time.”
“There’s still plenty of that in here.”
“Ah, come on, don’t be so modest. I noticed all the native species in there. The cacti and such. It’s very well done.”
I nod and smile and strip off my gloves. The compliment is nice and all, but in the years since Hugh has been coming around, he’s never once told me any of this before, and there have been plenty of chances.
It’s no coincidence that he’s doing it now.
“I appreciate you saying that. What can I do for you?”
“I wanted to ask you something and it’s kind of awkward, so I’m apologizing in advance.”
I shrug a little. “You’re the boss.”
“Right, I am, aren’t I?” His smile is tense like he’s not sure what to make of this. “I’ve heard from some of the staff that you’ve been seeing Kellen.”
I go very still. My heart thuds a slow dirge in my chest. The conflict between Hugh and Kellen isn’t my business, not yet at least—I haven’t officially chosen a side. And there’s some voice in the back of my head that’s urging me to stay away, or at least to choose Hugh and the status quo, since I’ve had it so good for so long. I can keep hiding in my cottage and pouring myself into the gardens for as long as I live, if only I refuse to help Kellen.
“He and I know each other from way back,” I say, trying to be as careful as I can.
“He was helping with your work earlier, wasn’t he?”
“I didn’t ask him to.”
“But he did anyway. Why is that?”
“I don’t know. I think he had a hard time with—” I stop myself before I say it, but I realize it’s much too late. Hugh’s eyebrows shoot up and he comes a few steps closer.
“Hard time with?”
“His mother,” I finish reluctantly, kicking myself for that. I’m so stupid for mentioning it, and now I see my mistake. Hugh didn’t know that Kellen was talking to her, which means that his spies didn’t tell him everything that happened today.