Page 52 of Retrograde
‘With lingerie, too. Would complete the look.’ She could hear the smirk in his voice.
Lucie’s entire body heated up. ‘Will you behave?’
‘Ahh, it’s so beautiful here.’ Brett changed the topic fast, unaware of the effect his words had on her hormones. ‘Can we just live here?’ he sighed wistfully.
‘It would be nice, wouldn’t it?’ she agreed.
‘Not that I want them to go anywhere yet, but you tell your parents they’d better keep this place in the family. I want to be visiting here when I’m old and grey. Mateo can leave his car collection behind too, if he wants.’
‘That’s very morbid, you know.’
‘Just saying. Doesn’t get much better than this.’
‘How the hell do I know if a tomato is ripe?’ Brett stared at the plants in awe. ‘I cannot let Rosa down with this. She’s depending on me to save the saladandthe lasagne.’
He had taken his tomato-picking duties seriously and told Lucie to let him take charge, right up until they’d arrived at Rosa’s vegetable patch, and he’d realised he didn’t have a clue what he was doing.
Lucie had done farm work in Australia for a month during her first season with the IEC, so she smugly came to the rescue. ‘Look for the colour first. They should be quite a rich, deep red. They should also be firm, but they should have a little give when you squeeze them. They should also separate from the plant quite easily when you give them a tug, but you can just use the pruners if you want.’
‘Awesome. Thanks, Gardener Luce. You’re basically the modern-day Alan Titchmarsh.’
‘Who?’ Lucie watched as he picked his first tomato, admiring it and gently placing it into the bucket like it was made of fine China.
‘He’s a famous British gardener.’ He raised an eyebrow, as if she should know who that was.
‘You’re clued up on British gardeners now, are you?’
‘Nah, met him at a fundraising event in Oz about eight years ago. Nice bloke. I aspire to be just like him one day. Going to rival the Garden of Eden.’
As Brett continued to add to his impressive collection of round, red fruits, Lucie studied him. He was completely in his element. Maybe he wasn’t going to live the playboy lifestyle forever… Eventually he’d settle down, buy a house with some land and spend his days doing exactly this. He just said this was what he wanted one day. Was Lucie really that delusional if she thought she might get to be a part of it?
‘Which fruits are ready to harvest? I want to make smoothies for everyone.’ His voice pulled her out of her thoughts.
‘Strawberries, peaches, apricots. You’ll have to wait a bit longer for anything else. We were lucky to get this many tomatoes so early on, I thought we’d have to wait another few weeks, at least.’
‘How do you know so much about everything, ever?’
‘I’ve learned a lot on my travels.’
‘Yeah, like the fact I amamazingin bed.’
Lucie felt her cheeks immediately flush at his remark and turned away. ‘Could your head get any bigger?’
‘Probably, if I tried. Oh, look! That one looks perfect!’Brett pointed at a tomato he’d spotted, hidden away. He reached over the plants on his side of the planter, almost falling face first into a mass of leaves and soil.
‘Go round the other side, idiot,’ she sighed.
‘Got it!’ He leapt up, victoriously holding the tomato in the air before losing his footing and stumbling backwards. Right into the bucket full of fresh, ripe tomatoes.
Lucie keeled over, her body trembling with laughter. ‘Oh, my God.’
‘My babies!’ he cried out, his devastation distracting him from Lucie whipping her phone out and capturing the moment for the world to see. ‘Don’t just stand there!’ He held his hands out for her to help him up. It was a big bucket, which meant he’d sunk into it.
‘Have any escaped unscathed?’ She peered into the bucket, studying the aftermath.
‘I hope so, but I haven’t.’ He twisted to look at the back of his shorts, which were covered in wet, juicy tomatoes. ‘These were expensive,’ he whined.
‘I knew we shouldn’t have tried to do any form of work until we’d been shopping. You’re worse than Gabriel, sometimes. The pair of you are so clumsy.’
