Page 10 of The Brit and the Bridesmaid
Her blush deepened, but her shoulders straightened. “I only thought your gardener would appreciate knowing what we did to save our bushes from this awhile back. Black rot can be stubborn.”
Though he couldn’t be entirely sure, Matt suspected he’d offended her somehow. Maybe this was simply more of herassumption that he was arrogant. Let her see for herself. Mum’s advice echoed in his mind. He could do that.
“What’s the formula?” he asked.
Larry explained it, but in terms Matt wasn’t entirely familiar with. He tried to follow but didn’t do a very good job. When the chemicals and explanations wrapped up, he simply threw out an, “Ah,” and left it at that. “Does it work?”
“Of course it does,” Abby insisted. “I wouldn’t have driven all this way for something that wouldn’t help.”
He’d rubbed her wrong again. It was Sainsbury House that did it. He had to act... well, for lack of a better word, posh while he was there. Even when he tried to be himself, he couldn’t do it entirely.
“I was about to go get some lunch.” Invite her to go. His stomach twisted a little with nervousness. “Would you like to join me?”
She was clearly surprised.
Say yes. Say yes.
“We’re going to look at a few more plants,” she said after a moment’s pause. “So I’m going to be kind of busy.”
“Sure.” He tried to shrug it off, but the rejection stung. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d really wanted to impress a girl. He had no idea how Abby Grover had reached that point so quickly, and after talking to her only twice. But she had. And he was blowing it. “If you two are going to be working through lunch, maybe I could pick you up something and bring it back.”
Larry took him up on it right away. “Are you going by the sandwich place on Third?”
“Sure.”
“I'll take a club with everything and a Coke.”
Matt looked to Abby, hoping she would take him up on the offer. He could convince himself she had reasons to decline his offer— it was too inconvenient or something— but to not even lethim bring her back lunch was harder to explain away. Maybe he would have to admit to himself she wasn’t interested.
“BLT, no mayo,” Abby said.
So she hadn’t brushed him off. For a minute, he was too surprised to even say anything. He pulled himself together. “Anything to drink?"
“No. I brought some water with me.”
With an eagerness he couldn't entirely explain, Matt made for his car. He repeated the order in his mind again and again, not wanting to get it wrong. When he got back, he meant to sit by the two of them while they did their gardening, even if nothing they said made any sense. He wanted to be there by her, to try to figure out if she disliked him as much as he was afraid she did.
“You’re completely lost on her,” he muttered as he pulled out onto the small road leading away from Sainsbury House. He felt like a fool. He hardly knew Abby Grover, and he was already making a fool of himself over her.
Fool or not, he was back in record time with three sandwiches and a Coke. Larry and Abby were still at the roses, but kneeling by the bushes, pruning.
“Ready for a break?” he asked, holding up the bag.
They both agreed, slipping off to a nearby spigot to wash their hands. Matt sat on a bench. Would Abby sit by him or take her sandwich somewhere else and avoid him entirely? Maybe he should try telling her he was just “a regular bloke from Stanmore.” It couldn’t hurt, right?
He gave Larry his club sandwich. Larry handed him some money.
“Yours wasn’t this much.” Matt started to give some of it back, but Larry shook his head.
“That’s for mine and Abby’s. I talked her into letting me pay for her lunch, since she won’t let me pay her for the work she’s doing.”
If Larry hadn’t been old enough to be Abby’s father, Matt might have been jealous.
She came over. He held out her BLT, fully expecting her to take it and walk away. She sat on the bench beside him. That was promising.
He tried to act casual, eating his sandwich like he couldn’t care less that the woman he’d been thinking about almost constantly for a week and a half was willingly sitting next to him. If she knew, she’d think he was a complete idiot.
Abby and Larry talked about plant fungi and insect treatments. Matt listened but had nothing to add. He’d reached the end of his lunch break but hadn’t said more than a few words to Abby. He was supposed to call Mum and tell her how things went. “I watched her eat a sandwich, and I looked stupid while she talked about flowers.”
