‘You look fresher than I feel. What time did you get up?’ he asked her.
‘About twenty minutes ago but I’m a morning person,’ she said. ‘I love coming out here and looking at everything in the garden. There are ladybugs on the roses.’
‘Ladybirds,’ Simon said.
‘They’re ladybugs where I come from.’ She poked her tongue out at him.
‘That’s the North American lineage. Here they are ladybirds because they’re not bugs, they’re beetles.’
‘You’re a beetle,’ Amanda said and Simon laughed.
‘I’m a tired beetle.’
‘Poor you,’ said Amanda as a car drove up the driveway and stopped.
‘David,’ she called and waved as her new boss jumped from the car.
‘Good morning,’ he said.
‘David, this is Simon, my friend who has been working in the garden.’
David and Simon shook hands and then David looked around.
‘This is incredible,’ he said.
‘It could be,’ Amanda said. ‘But we need some guidance, I think. Simon and I are doing our best but it’s so much work.’
David nodded to them both. ‘But it doesn’t need to be done all at once. A garden is always evolving and changing. I think this time next year you would both be surprised at the changes in the spaces.’
Amanda looked at Simon who was staring straight ahead.
Simon had only agreed to be here for the summer and hadn’t said he had plans to stay any longer, but the mere thought of him leaving hurt her heart and head.
‘Want to give me a tour?’
As they walked around the garden, Amanda listened to the way Simon spoke about the ground, the plants, the nurturing tone he used when handling the flowers and explaining the process of rebuilding the pond and planting out the shade-loving plants in the surrounding area.
‘You will eventually build your own little microclimate here,’ said David, looking around.
‘That’s really cool,’ Amanda said to Simon.
‘Right? We might get frogs here.’
Amanda liked the way he said ‘we’, but she wasn’t ready to ask him if he would stay because why would she assume he would stay for her?
Her last boyfriend hadn’t even offered for her to move in when she was nearly homeless. Why would a man who was running away from his life want to stay here digging in the dirt for a living?
‘Amanda?’ Simon’s voice interrupted her thoughts.
‘Yes? Sorry, was thinking about the pond,’ she said.
‘David wants to know if we have had the soil tested.’
‘For what?’ she asked.
David smiled. ‘To see the quality of it, if it’s acidic or loam, or loam clay, or sandy, or all sorts of things. The more you know about the soil the better your plant growth will be. It’s choosing the right plants for the right environment. Some things just aren’t suited to some environments yet thrive in others.’
Amanda nodded as David spoke, thinking of herself in New York. She had never thrived in the city, no matter how much her mom loved living there, yet the moment she moved to Foxfield and Moongate, she was in her element.
