Page 7 of Where You're Planted

“It’s small,” Irma said, squinting skeptically.

“Yes,” Tansy agreed with confidence, as though this was a highlight rather one of the building’s many, many flaws—chunks of stone missing from the walls, for one, and dark sludge climbing up the chimney. They couldn’t fit even half of their old circulation materials inside this building. But it was what they had. And anyway, admin wouldn’t allocate many new materials for them. They would keep a small rotating collection of books borrowed from other branches but primarily serve as an interlibrary-loan pick-up hub. So really, a bigger space would only emphasize their austere offerings. “It has charm, though, right?” she said. “A fairy-tale feel?”

“Sure. The witch’s house in ‘Hansel and Gretel,’ ” Marianne said.

Kai batted back an overgrown bush encroaching on the walk while Irma forged through the patchy grass to peek in one of the windows. “I can’t see a thing.”

“Door’s stuck,” Kai reported, jiggling the handle.

Tansy sighed. “We’ll have to get the key.”Wherewas Jack Reid?

“No, it’s not locked. Just needs a little muscle, I think.”

“Okay, but don’t—”

“This window’s broken!” Irma called, making her way around the side of the cottage. Tansy’s every muscle tensed at the sight of her Naturalizer loafers traversing the uneven ground.

Just as she started to call her back, Kai threw their shoulder into the door, bouncing back with a grunt. Marianne shrieked and swatted in a panic at some invisible bug, distracting Tansy just long enough to fully lose sight of Irma around the building, and now Kai was crouched in a runner’s pose for another try. “Wait, don’t—” she exclaimed.

Kai ran and leapt into a flying kick at the door. Their boot broke straight through the wood with an impressivecrackand then lodged in it, suspending their leg at the knee. Kai hopped on one foot. “It’s okay. I’m—nope. Shit. Mistakes were made.”

Marianne said helpfully, “Well, this is embarrassing.”

“Irma?” Tansy called, steadying Kai. “Could you please come back where I can see you?”

“Huh?” Irma shouted. Then, “Y’all need to see this!”

“See what?” Tansy asked warily. She wasn’t sure she could handle any more surprises.

“I don’t think her hearing aid is on,” Kai said, hissing in pain as Tansy tugged at their leg.

She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. This was fine. She would free Kai from the door, retrieve Irma before she tripped in a gopher hole, see what unwelcome development awaited them at the back of the building…and then figure out how to fix the door. One step at a time.

“What thehellare you all doing?” came a deep voice.

Tansy whirled around.

Jack. He was dismounting an ATV she hadn’t heard motor up, wearing an untucked sage-green polo, khaki cargo pants, mud-caked boots, and a severe scowl. He jabbed a plastic water bottle at her in a way that could only be considered aggressive and then at the door as he marched across the grass toward her. “What is this?”

Another, younger guy stepped down from the passenger seat of the ATV but hung back, taking in the situation. His shirt was tucked in, and his boots were far cleaner, his round face shaved smooth, blond hair combed neatly to one side.

Kai propped a nonchalant arm up against the door as if to downplay the fact that their leg was stuck through it.

Tansy’s cheeks burned as though they’d caught her personally spray-painting dicks on the door. Jack’s energy was angry, dismissive, and impatient—as she’d expected—and immediately put her on the defensive. “We were trying to get into our building.”

“This isn’t your building,” Jack snapped.

“Yes, it is.”

“No,” he said, crossing his arms and glaring down at her. Whoglaredat someone they barely knew? “It’s not.”

“The commissioner promised—”

He shrugged flippantly. “That guy’s an idiot.”

She floundered at his quick dismissal. This couldn’t fall apart. The commissioner had pointed tothisbuilding whenhe promised her space here, and Greta, the gardens’ director, had agreed to it. But maybe Jack was already transitioning into her position, if Kai’s digging was true, and maybe hecouldundo that agreement.

“That guyis your boss,” she pointed out weakly.

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