Page 70 of Lust & Lies
Something in my chest pulled tight. Emotional memories, or should I call it a sense of Déjà vu, drifted over me. I found myself smiling back at the man.
“This flower garden is beautiful,” I said softly, meaning it.
“Yeah, the layout you gave me made everything look real nice,” he told me. “The color scheme of the flowers really sets the tone back here.”
“I came up with this layout?” I asked.
“Of course,” he said. “I was a bit skeptical at first, wanted to do it my way. But this is much better than I had planned.”
My smile widened.
“This is Samuel,” Aiden told me. “He’s our gardener.”
“It’s nice to meet you...again, Samuel.”
Samuel nodded, his smile wide. “It’s nice to meet you again, too, Noe. I mean... Mrs. Park.” His gaze flicked to Aiden, a nervous look appearing in his eyes before they returned to me. “Mrs. Park,” he said again, though his smile had dimmed.
Did Aiden not like it when this man referred to me by name?My jealous savage.I squeezed Aiden's hand, hoping he’d get my message.Be nice.I looked up at him. His frown morphed into a smile when he stared down at me.
I turned my smile on Samuel. “You’ve done an amazing job. Thank you for your hard work.”
That brightened his smile. “You’re welcome. So welcome. I can’t wait to have you back out here in the gardens with me. I’ve left some space for you in the vegetable garden, so you can plant whatever you like back there.”
“Thank you.”
Before I could ask if I could see the vegetable garden, another man came up from the side yard. He was an older Hispanic man with warm brown skin, and he was wearing a baseball cap pulled low.
“That’s Tomas,” Aiden explained, then added, “Dolores’s husband.”
From the way he was smiling at me, his wife must not have told him what happened earlier.
Tomas tipped his cap to me. “I’m Tomas, Dolores’s husband. She feeds you, and I keep the grass in line. That’s our deal.”
I smiled.
“It’s good to see you up and on your feet, Mrs. Park,” Tomas told me.
“Thank you,” I replied.
“If you don’t need anything else, I’m going to return to the front yard and work on a few things until Dolores is ready to leave. It’s my day off. But I hate to just sit in the car while she’s busy working.”
“Oh, go ahead,” I told him, not wanting to hold him up.
He tipped his hat and was off.
“And there’s my wife,” Samuel said, staring over my shoulder. “I called and told her to come up here when Dolores said Mr. Park wanted you to get acquainted with the staff again.”
I turned to see Samuel’s wife walking toward us. She was an older, black woman who moved with a quiet grace that made her presence impossible to ignore. Her hair was cropped close in a chic buzz cut, the silver strands gleaming in the morning light. It was so pretty. She was slender and much taller than her husband.
“There’s my little hurricane,” she said, her lips curving into a grin that brought a smile to my face and tears to my eyes.
I remembered her. Not really. But kind of.Damn it, memory loss.I didn’t know how to explain it, other than that I felt drawn to this woman. The emotional memories were at work again.
Releasing Aiden’s hand, I strode forward. The woman stretched her hands out and clasped mine once I was near her.
“Look at you. You’ve lost some weight. Dolores' cooking will take care of that,” the woman told me. “Let me look at you some more.”
Still holding my hands, she turned us until her back was to Aiden, and mine was to the house.
