“Oh, yeah,” she agreed. “Jimmy has some awesome friends.”
Fen didn’t appear to have picked up on the fact that she wasflirting with him. “Yeah, he does.” He turned his attention to Bree. “Where do you want to sit?”
Uma frowned. “Told you,” she said to Bree.
“Told you what?” Fen asked as they settled at one end of the outdoor table.
A couple of little boys raced past, shooting each other with squirt guns. “Nothing,” Bree said, watching them. “You know she’s into you, don’t you?”
He shrugged. “Not looking.” He smiled at Bree, and it made her heart turn over. “There’s only one person I’m really interested in.”
“I don’t know why you’re wasting your time,” she said.
“Since when is hanging out with you a waste of time,” he countered.
“Since never,” she joked.
“Exactly.” He wasn’t joking.
She decided she needed a cookie.
By the time she’d gotten one for both her and Fen, two of his friends had joined him. Good. That spared them from getting into dangerous conversational territory and the time passed comfortably.
“We should get going,” someone said eventually, and the party moved on to its next destination, leaving behind nothing but crumbs and a recycle can filled with cans and bottles.
Fen drove and conversation on the way stayed light. He ignored a text coming in from his uncle, who owned the nursery where Fen worked. His job mainly consisted of lugging around large bags of soil and fertilizer, which anyone with eyes could see wasn’t hurting his pecs or biceps. But he also had to ring up sales, and sometimes deal with irritable people.
“He probably wants me to work tomorrow even though I’m not scheduled,” said Fen.
“You should. I bet Orange Tree Lady has told all her friendsabout you. They’ll be coming in wanting you to come over and prune their roses.”
Fen made a face. Orange Tree Lady had come in earlier in the week, sure she’d been sold a defective tree and had lugged the poor dying thing back to the nursery as evidence. She’d not only wanted a refund. She’d also wanted Fen to come back to her house and give her advice on where to plant its replacement.
“She’d had it for three months,” he said. “If it was so defective, why didn’t she bring it back right away? And how am I supposed to know where to plant a tree?”
“You are working at a nursery,” Bree said. “Anyway, she probably wanted more from you than to plant a tree.”
He made a face. “Gross.”
She laughed. “Well, you are a pretty hot gardener.”
“I’m not a gardener,” he said with a frown. The frown grew into a smile. “I’m hot, huh?”
“You know you’ve got aura,” she retorted.
His smile got bigger.
“Don’t be reading anything into that,” she said tersely, and the smile shrank. “Moving on,” she said, and switched them to talking about the cool house his friend had.
“I wouldn’t mind having a place like that,” he said.
“You’ll be able to afford it once you’re a superstar financial planner.”
“Being with a finance expert sounds like a safe bet to me,” he said.
“There’s no such thing as a safe bet,” she muttered.
He pretended not to hear.
