Page 18 of All Inn Thyme
“He saw me in my underwear,” I squeak.
“What? Where were you at in your underwear?” Beth wonders.
“If he’s a creep, I’ll—” Allie starts to say as she steps up from the table, ready to pounce.
I hold up my hand to interrupt. “He didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Oh, this is going to be good,” Beth says, rubbing her hands together with glee.
“I was out trying to put the greenhouse together—”
“Which looks great, by the way,” Allie interrupts. “I saw you got it all done. Great job.”
“What? It’s not done.” I shake my head, confused. “I still have so much work to do on it. It’s a mess.”
“Well, it looks good to me. It looks like you can even start moving your plants in.”
That greenhouse is most definitely not even close to being done. “What do you mean?”
“I can’t imagine what else you would need to do to it, but anyway,” she waves at me, “go on, tell us more…”
I shake my head again, not really getting what she’s seen that I haven’t, but I’ll get back to that in a minute. “Anyway, I was wearing my best jeans and a nice shirt and didn’t want to mess them up, but I didn’t have time to go all the way back to the garden shed to change, so I stripped down to my underwear to keep my clothes nice.”
Allie’s eyes are wide. “Oh my God. That’s hilarious.” She begins to laugh so hard she hiccups, which makes Beth laugh even harder.Ugh. These two.
“I’m glad you think so,” I deadpan.
“And then what happened?” Beth asks, making a goofy, dreamy face. “Did he bone you up against the greenhouse?”
“Yeah, girl, we’re definitely living vicariously through you,” Allie interjects. “I’m happily married, but have you seen that man?” She looks at Beth, and Beth smirks and nods back. “He’s built like a unit.”
“Continue…” Beth says, smiling expectantly.
“That’s it. It was humiliating, okay? Now I can’t show my face around him. My heart can’t take the awkwardness.” I realize I’m exaggerating a little here. It was embarrassing, but now that I’m saying it all out loud after it’s over, I even want to laugh.
“What kind of underwear were you wearing?” Beth interrupts.
“Why does that matter?” I stammer.
“Was it your hot underwear or your granny panties? It most definitely matters.” Allie nods in agreement.
“Granny panties,” I mutter. “It’s all I own.”
“Ugh, well, we’re fixing that,” Allie declares.
Beth agrees. “Yeah, we are. Every girl must have emergency sexy panties for when you garden in your underwear.”
“You two are absolutely no help,” I say, exasperated, but deep down I’m so relieved to share this with them. It’s been so nice having Allie and Beth as friends to laugh with and do life with during the hard times.
I’ve missed this. I had friends once—Piper and Nora. They were dental assistants at the clinic where I worked. We had lunch together every day, did secret Santa’s at Christmas, and we took turns bringing in coffees for everyone. And then I had to quit, which meant quitting being friends with Piper and Nora, too. At first, they’d text and call, but it got harder and harder to make up new excuses on why I couldn’t meet up with them. A few times, they mentioned they were worried and wanted to check on me. Bradley didn’t want me to be friends with anyone, though, and then he eventually stopped letting me leave the house altogether.
I felt so lonely and isolated, which is when I started crafting to cope. I’ve learned to be creative with what I have around me, and I can stretch a dime into next week. That’s how these gardens got built on a budget.
I’m still confused about the greenhouse, though. “Wait, are you sure it’s done? There’s no way.”
She shrugs. “Roof and all. I was impressed. I figured the guys you hired showed up after all. Or you got Pete or one of the guys to do it.”
“They most definitely did not show up, totally stiffed me. I’ll check with Pete.”
