Page 6 of Where You're Planted

Kai clutched theirSmurfsshirt in protest. “I saw what I saw. He’s, like, rugged. Not reallyhandsomebut definitely hot.”

“Rugged,” Irma parroted with interest. She paused to rub her knee through her wide-wale corduroy trousers, and Tansy waited, then resumed their trek at a slower pace.

“He looks like he sweats a lot, but somehow it smells good,” Kai went on, adding a skip to their step. “Or he dips in the creek once a week and calls it a bath.”

Marianne wrinkled her nose. “So he’s filthy? How is that attractive?”

Kai turned to share a mischievous grin with Irma, who fluffed her white hair and answered, “Sugar, if you don’t know, I can’t explain it to you.”

Marianne gasped. “Irma.”

“You got all this from a staff photo?” Tansy asked over Kai and Irma’s delighted cackling.

“No,” Kai said. “I found one of their interns on Instagram, and he’s all over the account, like, digging holes and lifting heavy stuff. It’s a whole vibe.”

When the commissioner agreed to move the library into the gardens, Tansy had poked around on its website and stumbled upon a video of Jack kayaking through the park a day or two after the storm, describing the damage. She hadn’t realized it washimat first, drawn in by his muscular arms and easy oar strokes. She could understand the appeal of those arms doing all kinds of manual labor, and for just a second, she wanted the name of that Instagram account.

Unfortunately, reality had already ruined for her any fantasy involving Jack Reid.

“A rugged, sweaty, unwashed vibe,” she summed up, hoping to shut down this line of commentary.

But Kai was just getting started. “Like he’d take you overnight camping on a first date.”

Tansy laughed. “So an actual nightmare.”

“He’d pitch a tent for you,” Kai continued, pausing for dramatic effect, “and then…you know…”

“This is inappropriate work conversation,” Marianne said, yelping as a gecko darted across her path.

They reached the cottage and stopped. It was a small stone structure, maybe twenty feet wide, with a chimney and crooked wooden shutters. “Trust me,” Tansy said, “from what I’ve seen, the guy would leave you to pitch your own tent and then lecture you for doing it wrong. He’s the one who yelled at me when I came back for the birds.”

Kai frowned. “Oh, shit. Really?”

“Really.” As if she’d forget the man who’d made her feel like an idiot on the worst night of her life.

She hadn’t told the group chat that it had beenhisboat that had picked her up during the storm. The deep gratitude she’d felt in that moment—beforeshe’d recognized Jack—was entirely woven through with shame and fear and a dozen other sharp-toothed emotions, and she’d have given a kidney to never have to see him again.

Except Briar wore his ball cap every single day, like a talisman. And despite him apparently standing them up this morning, she was going to have to face him later at a joint staff meeting.

Marianne crossed her arms, souring at the mention of Jack’s disregard for the birds. “It’s official then. He’s dead to me.” Strong words from her—she thoughthatewas a swear word and could only whisper it. But Tansy’s account of that run-in with Jack in the library had struck the one nerve that could make Marianne openly dislike a person.

“And just howarethe birds, Marianne?” Kai asked.

“The birds arefine,” Marianne said primly.

“What am I missing?” Irma barked, struggling underthe weight of her tote bag that said, simply,Romance Novels, Y’alland was likely stuffed with exactly what it said. Tansy reached for it to ease her load, but Irma waved off the help.

Kai grinned. “Her seventeen cats almost murdered them.”

“Fivecats,” Marianne corrected. “And Mr. Beasly just held Jelly in his mouth. He didn’t bite her.”

“Now she has to separate them, and that’s on top of keeping all the healthy cats from the one with the contagious skin disease. She keeps the birds in her bedroom, and they squawk all night while the cats yowl and scratch at the door, all bloodthirsty.” At Marianne’s indignant glare, Kai explained, “You posted about it on that cat-fostering Facebook group. It’s all public.”

Irma laughed but pulled Marianne in for a consoling hug. “Maybe there’s a lesson in all this, hon.”

“Close off my heart to the Lord’s most vulnerable creatures?” she asked petulantly. “Never.”

Before Kai could rile up Marianne more, Tansy directed their attention to the cottage. “Here it is, our new home.”

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