Page 9 of The Brit and the Bridesmaid
“Then I’ll have to start wishing on my star again.”
He stopped in his tracks. “Don’t do that, Mum.”
She had a metal star hanging in her kitchen that, ever since he was a child, she’d made wishes on any time her kids needs to be guilted into doing something. “Star on my Wall—” Her typical beginning to any wish. “—find Matt a way to talk to this girl who knows a lot about roses but who thinks he’s posh. Matt needs a second chance.”
“Mum.”
“Star on my Wall, convince Matt that he can call this girl and still be a stuffy professional like he thinks he needs to be.”
He held back a laugh. “Are you done?”
“For now.”
His mother had always been enjoyably nutty. “I miss you, Mum.”
“I’d tell you to move back home, then, but since you’ve gone and made yourself an official American, I don’t suppose that’s going to happen.”
“You should move here.” He knew what her answer would be; they’d had this conversation before.
“Maybe if you don’t get your act together and find yourself a nice girl, I’ll do that and find one for you myself.”
That was a threat if he’d ever heard one. “No need. I’m certain I’ll—”
The words died. His feet froze. Larry, the Sainsbury House gardener, was talking to someone by the rose garden. It was a young woman in a ratty pair of jeans, and a button-down flannel work shirt, with hair a familiar shade of light brown.
“Matt?” Mum’s voice hardly registered.
He was certain that Abby was talking to Larry. But why was she there?
“Matt?” Mum asked again.
“I... uh, I gotta go.”
“Is everything all right?”
He began walking toward the roses. He lowered his voice. “She’s here. Abby. The girl I’ve been telling you about. She’s here at my work.”
“The star does it again! Go talk to her, dear. Quickly. But call me tomorrow and tell me all about it.”
“Sure. Bye, Mum.”
He walked toward Abby and Larry with no idea what he meant to say. Larry spotted him before he had time to figure it out.
“Hey, Matt.” Larry was the only person at Sainsbury House who didn’t call him Matthew.
He nodded a greeting, but turned almost immediately to Abby. “Hi. What brings you around?”
She blushed a little. Was she embarrassed or happy to see him? He hoped happy. He really hoped. “I’ve come to save your roses.”
“Save the roses?”
Larry nodded. “She noticed when she was here that we have black rot in a few of the bushes. She brought a special formula to treat it.”
Her cheeks were still red, and she didn’t quite meet Matt’s eyes. What did that mean? A good sign? Bad?
“Abby works at the Northwinds Nursery,” Larry added.
That explained a few things. He was surprised she’d made the drive out just to tend a few rose bushes. Sainsbury House wasn’t really near anything. “You cannot stand to see an innocent plant suffer, is that it?”
