Page 51 of Where You're Planted

“Okay. Let’s go.”

The area was congested now with parents returning for their kids, realizing the light sprinkle was turning to rain, but Tansy and Briar soon reached Kai near the edge of the crowd.

Another rumble of thunder broke over the din of voices. Somewhere a child began to cry, pulling Tansy’s attention back into the fray. She saw Jack off to the side now, deep in a tense-looking conversation with the commissioner, and her step stuttered. Someone needed to help these kids find their parents.

“I’ll take Briar,” Kai said, clocking Tansy’s hesitation.

Tansy started to wave off the offer. Briar was her first priority. But she made it only a few more steps with them before she was pulled back by a child’s warbly cry of, “Mommy?”

“Briar, can you go with Kai while I help these kids?”

Kai, bless them, was removing their outer button-down and draping it over Briar’s hair to keep her dry. Briar nodded and charged ahead, tugging the shirt tight around her face.

Tansy recognized a few kids from her library programs and offered them big, reassuring smiles. The girl who had called for her mom threw her arms around Tansy’s neck when she reached her, and Tansy lifted her to her hip, scanning the crowd, spotting the girl’s mom almost immediately. It took only a couple minutes to reunite the other kids with their families, who then migrated to the covered courtyard to escape the rain. It looked to be a quick shower, blue skies still bright to the north, but it was gaining intensity, already slicking Tansy’s exposed shoulders and dampening her dress and hair.

She was about to head after Briar and get out of the rain herself when the commissioner’s big black Stetson drew her eye back to the men. The commissioner was gripping Jack’s forearm, pulling him in close so he could speak directly into Jack’s ear. The energy of it was confrontational and tense, so she wasn’t surprised when the commissioner made pointed eye contact as he stepped back, as if to confirm understanding or compliance, and then strode off.

Jack turned around and then just stood there, rooted in his spot, his mouth a tight line, his face…stricken. When he finally registered the steady rain pelting him, he ducked his head and bolted for the greenhouse.

And against her better judgment, Tansy followed him.

—

The door creaked as shelet herself into the greenhouse. It was a long space, about half a football field, and end-to-end tables with various pots and tools and a smattering of plants ran in three lines all the way to the far side. Although the walls and ceiling were glass, the panes were covered in a grimy film that made them opaque, making the interior not quite dark, but dim enough that her eyes had to adjust.

Jack was about halfway across the space, bent over a table, his hands braced on its surface, his broad back tense, and his head low. Overhead, the rain drummed loudly on the glass ceiling and ran down the sides of the structure in rivulets. Humidity hung in the air. She took a few quiet steps toward him but caught her toe on a pot sticking out from under a table and cursed, and his face half turned.

“This area’s restricted,” he said tightly.

“What was that back there?” she asked, continuing toward him. “With the commissioner?”

“Tansy,” he warned, “you can’t be in here.”

“Too bad.”

He shook his head, but he didn’t move a single other muscle. A frantic energy vibrated from him, like he was literally coming out of his skin.

“Jack.”

He still didn’t look. She came close enough to hear his shallow, panting breaths and see that his back was rising and falling with the effort. He flinched when she touched his shoulder, pushed up to his full height, and strode three big steps away, keeping his back turned the whole time.

“What is this?” she asked. “A panic attack?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” he snapped. “I’ve had panic attacks. This is just—”

She wasn’t surprised to hear that he’d had them before. “Just what?”

He bent, clasping his hands to his knees, and breathed shallowly at the cement floor.

“Are you going to be sick?”

“I’ll be fine. Just stop fucking talking, please,” he said gruffly.

And because Tansy truly did not want him to throw up in front of her, she shut her mouth.

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