Page 41 of Where You're Planted

“Say what?”

“The woman I saw in that library,” he told her firmly, “and later on her flooded porch, keeping other people safe, carrying those damn birdsagain, was thefarthestthing from a victim I know.”

She blinked, then huffed, obviously wanting to argue. But something prevented her from speaking. Her throat worked on a swallow twice, and he understood then. Emotion was blocking her voice. This victim thing was probably a bruise she pressed again and again, wishing it didn’t hurt. He knew plenty about that. But he meant what he’d said.

“Listen,” he told her. “We’re not friends, right?”

She expelled a dark laugh. “I guess not.”

“That means I have no reason to lie. I’m not blowing smoke up your ass.”

She studied him a minute, then said in a voice barely above a whisper, “Thank you.” She shook her hair, her face scrunched as if the words were tangled up in something filthy, and added, “Apparently, you don’t even like people. What on earth madeyougo out to rescue strangers?”

He shrugged. “I had a boat.”

She barked a laugh. “That’s it?”

“Yep.”

“You’re a bit of an enigma, Jack.”

“Not really.”

“To me, you are.”

He shifted under her quiet scrutiny, like she was actively puzzling him out. It made him nervous. “What the hell is on your neck?” he asked, deflecting.

Her hand rose to the streak of mud there. “Ugh. I need ashower. That is drywall joint compound.” She looked down at the bib of her overalls, finding another spot there and scratching at it with her nail.

So shewasdoing her home repairs herself. Finishing drywall wasn’t the simplest project. His chest tightened with the impulse to offer her help, even though they’d only just agreed not to actively work against each other. But she’d probably balk at the insinuation that she couldn’t tackle her walls herself.

“Anyway,” she said, “now that we’re allies, I guess I can mention that you should add a QR code to your fundraiser banner linked to an online payment system. People are more likely to pay on their phones than carry cash or cards with them.”

“QR code,” he repeated dumbly. A nagging sense of guilt globbed up his insides like a lava lamp. She must have sat on that suggestion before the truce, but now she was putting action behind her words, and he wondered if he owed her a heads-up that he’d applied for the Fullton grant.

But moments passed without him finding the right approach and then Tansy was clearing their trash, saying, “You were right. These might be the best tacos in town.”

He grinned. “Just imagine if you’d managed to get more than half of their contents into your mouth.”

13

Tansy

Tansy couldn’t deny a building sense of optimism. Festival planning with Jack wasn’t suddenlyeasy, but itwasless contentious. Story times and other programs were gaining bigger crowds, and Tansy’s new commitment to working with the environment had opened her eyes to its resilience as winter shifted into spring—vibrant, green growth on the tips of trees and bushes and bluebonnets opening up right on time, despite the recent ruin.

One week before the festival, Tansy led Briar the long way to the library so she could show her a big orb-weaver spiderweb that had recently been constructed in the formal garden where she sometimes ate her lunch now. Dottie, their old neighbor who still watched Briar after school, had forgotten about today’s school holiday and scheduled a doctor’s appointment.

“Can I come to work with you every day?” Briar asked when Tansy finally tugged her along to the library.

“What about school?”

“I could just learn stuff here,” Briar said. She pointed at a sign. “Like, that’s a yaw—yow…”

“Yaupon,” Tansy said, nudging her past the tree. “And we’ll see how you feel after eight hours in our shed. I bet you’ll be begging for school.”

Kai hung back at the Little Green Library with Briar during Tansy’s story time, and by now, the environment was less exciting for the regular kids, so Marianne alone was enough to help Tansy keep them corralled and safe. For the rest of the morning, Briar sat at her elbow while she took care of administrative tasks, dutifully laminating book character illustrations for their new scavenger hunt and then pulling animal books off the rack and reading under the desk.

The only hitch was when Sheila, Tansy’s supervisor from library admin, moved tomorrow’s video call to this afternoon. She had to use a small meeting room in the admin offices because the Wi-Fi in the shed couldn’t reliably support Zoom, and she couldn’t take Briar with her because she didn’t want admin thinking she regularly brought her child to work. But everyone else was busy.

---