Page 83 of Where You're Planted

“Those are relationship things, Jack. Why aren’t you in a relationship?”

He was shaking his head, still smiling, but in a way that looked incredulous, caught off guard. He scoffed, his shoulders lifting in a shrug. Then he pressed his smile away, his head going still, that wild look in his eyes focusing to anintense stare that made her work to swallow. He came one step closer. “Why are you asking me that, Tansy?”

She bit her lip, wishing she’d kept this whole thing to herself. She knew where they stood, and yet here she was, pushing at the limit they’d agreed on, fishing for any sign that there could be something here beyond Monday.

“I’m not asking you to be in a relationship withme,” she assured him, but she could barely get it out, embarrassed to have to clarify and hurt by the relief it must bring him.

He studied his boots in the grass for a beat, dragging in a long breath and blowing it out before saying, “Okay. Let’s just…” She heard him take a step closer. Then he tilted her face up to look at him, and she put on a last-second smile.

He searched her eyes for a long moment, zeroing in on the furrowed spot between her eyebrows. With a sympathetic frown, he smoothed it with his thumb and then hooked her in tight under his arm and kissed her hair. “Let’s keep going. Yeah?”

And just when Tansy felt like all hope was lost, they opened the door to the next warehouse to find a dozen water heaters.

24

Jack

On Saturday night, Jack was coming in the back door after turning the steaks on the grill when Amy and Omar entered through the front, carrying six-packs of Shiner and a store-bought cake. Amy quickly passed off the cake to Omar, whose hands were already full, to pet the cats. Tansy had been calling the cats Cece, Schmidt, and Winston fromNew Girl, despite Jack’s protest that he’d never even seen that show. Still, he’d relented because they were the least-ridiculous names she’d come up with so far.

Amy laughed at the persistent orange one—Schmidt—finally picking him up and carrying him through the living room. She was hugely pregnant now, wearing a stretchy, summery dress through which Jack could clearly see the outline of her belly button. She didn’t notice his surprised and vaguely embarrassed reaction because she was eagerly scanning the living room and kitchen, finally asking, “Where is she?”

“Tansy’s on the phone. Should be out in a minute.”

After managing his armloadandhers, Omar slid two longnecks from their carrier, unscrewed their caps, and passed Jack one. “ ’Bout time you hadusover for a change.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Amy put the cake and the rest of the beer in the refrigerator, eyeing the mashed potatoes going on the stove and the salad ingredients Tansy had been assembling before Briar called. “How very domestic,” she remarked, giving him an impressed look. “I have to admit, I’m intrigued by this whole development.”

“It’s not a development. We’re just…getting to know each other.”

“Mm-hmm.”

Omar washed his hands, slid into Tansy’s spot at the counter, and began dicing tomatoes. The guy couldn’t leave a cutting board unattended. “How’s work?” he asked.

Jack filled them both in on the week, surprised to find he had a lot to say. Spring break and the extra library programming had brought a surge of visitors through the gardens. Tansy had been announcing their new children’s gardening club at all her story times, and there was a lot more interest than they’d initially anticipated, so after assessing the park’s supplies, Jack suggested a tool donation drive to ensure they had enough shovels and gloves for the kids. Tansy had taken that idea a step further. She wanted to start a tool-lending library, where people could check out basic lawn- and home-maintenance equipment for jobs like she’d been doing at her house—tools people didn’t need fifty weeks of the year and shouldn’t have to splurge on just to complete a weekend project. He’d dug through his own shed for duplicates to add to the collection.

He only realized how long he’d been talking when he heard his bedroom door open down the hall, and soon Tansy camearound the corner, freshly showered, in an emerald green dress it had taken her half an hour to choose. She looked so fucking pretty. She also looked unworried, like her call with Briar had gone well and like, even though he knew she was nervous to meet Amy, she wasn’t stressed about it. He had come to enjoy her feisty, combative side, but hereallyliked her like this—comfortable, relaxed.

After their awkward moment at the crazy hoarder’s palace in the woods, he half expected her to pump the brakes on their arrangement. He’d thought—hoped—when she asked why he wasn’t dating anyone, she was trying to say what he’d been feeling, too. That a week wasn’t nearly enough. That there had to be something else betweenscratching the itchand him trespassing into her carefully protected life.

But whatever tension had bubbled up in that moment burned right off. She’d beenherewith him, connected and open. Relieved, maybe, after that gut check. Whatever the explanation, it was a double-edged sword because the more she settled into his home and his life, the more he panicked internally at the clock ticking away on all of it.

Tansy glanced across the room at him, a quick wordless check-in, before Amy squealed with excitement and yanked her into an aggressively tight hug.

“Tansy, Amy. Amy, Tansy,” he unnecessarily introduced them from the kitchen.

“Wow, you are very pregnant,” Tansy said, laughing when Amy kept holding on to her.

Amy blew a weary sigh between her lips. “Tell me about it. I got the fun, all-the-time sickness that has only just started to lift, ateightmonths, just in time for the constant heartburn and sciatic pain.”

“Ugh, I’m so sorry,” Tansy said. “I do not miss that.” Shecame into the kitchen to officially meet Omar and then slid an arm around Jack’s back, giving him a quick squeeze.

“Everything good with Briar?” he asked, holding her there long enough to press a kiss to her hair.

“Yep,” she said. “What else can I help with?”

“Go sit,” he told her, nodding at Amy. “Make her take a load off with you.”

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