Page 71 of Hometown Girl

She followed his gaze downward and saw three good-sized raised garden beds, filled with fresh soil. Raised beds that looked exactly like the ones in the article she’d saved.

“Eventually, I think we could clear this whole area for a garden. If you like it, I mean.” Drew waved a hand across a section of grass tucked behind the farmhouse and directly in the sun. “But I thought it might be good to start with these. Fewer weeds to deal with in a raised bed, but we’ll have to water them like crazy.”

Beth stared at the scene in front of her. “When did you have time to do this?”

“Yesterday.”

“Sunday.”

“Yesterday was Sunday.” He smirked at her.

“This was a lot of work. I read the article. I got overwhelmed about three sentences in.”

He stuffed his hands in his pockets. His feet were still bare, his hair still damp. His eyes were bright blue in the morning sunshine. And he looked perfectly at ease. She knew he wasn’t—no one who worked this much could be—but in that moment, he almost looked peaceful.

“Are they okay?” He looked across the beds, as if double-checking his work. “I didn’t mean to snoop through your stuff—I just saw the article and thought they’d be great out here.”

He’d turned one of her wishes into a reality. But why?

She wasn’t sure anyone had ever done something so thoughtful for her. The realization of it hit her all at once, but she swallowed it and forced herself to smile. “You know there’s a really good chance I’m going to kill every plant we put in these.”

He smiled back—a real one—with his eyes. “I know. I’ll keep an eye on them.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” she said with a laugh.

“You’ll be fine. I’ve got more soil in the barn. We just need to decide what you want to plant, and we can get started.”

She waited until he met her gaze. “Thank you for this.”

He waved her off. “It was nothing.”

But it wasn’t nothing. It was the first indication she had that Drew might actually be paying attention to more than just his job. Why did her stomach somersault at the thought?

She chewed the inside of her lip, suddenly nervous. He probably expected her to have some idea of what she wanted to plant. She didn’t. Not yet, anyway.

Hadn’t she read something about what to plant in raised beds? “I was thinking maybe some tomatoes? And peppers?” She tried to keep the sound of not knowing what she was talking about out of her voice.

“That’d be a good start,” he said.

She gave a nod that was much more confident than she felt.

“And maybe some cucumbers and squash?” he said. “If there’s room, we could do green beans too.”

“Sure.”

“All right. I’ve got some seeds in the barn. I’ll go get what we need. I think there are some gardening tools and gloves in the house.”

“I’ll go get them.”

When she returned, he was standing beside the beds. He’d put his work boots on, along with a ball cap he pulled down low over his eyes, the sun growing warmer as the day wore on. “Have you planted anything before?”

Her grimace gave her away.

“I’ll take that as a no.” He motioned for her to join him at the edge of the soil. “We’re just going to create rows, like this.” Using his hands, he dug a little trench in the dirt, dropped the seeds in and then covered it back up. “Wanna try?”

As she leaned in to clear away a spot for more seeds, he didn’t move, forcing her to stretch across him to scoop the dirt out and to drop the seeds in. He reached down to help her, his hand brushing hers and sending a warm tingle down her spine.

She smoothed the dirt over the seeds and patted it down.

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