much, since the fairy garden stuff wasn’t cheap, even at cost. One of his mom’s friends was into fairy gardens, though, and had offered to do a free class here afterhours, with the attendees covering the cost of their initial supplies. Daralyn had suggested having catalogs available in the store so once they got their projects off the ground, they would order more things for them, without the store having to keep a lot of it in stock.
Daralyn had also told him she’d handle closing on the night of the class, because she was thinking of starting her own fairy garden in front of her cottage. In short, she liked the fairy garden stuff, which automatically made him more open to the idea.
And speaking of which, they’d finally gotten a lull, no one else in the store. When Daralyn had arrived after lunch, he’d been busy with customers, and then more had come in, needing her attention. They hadn’t had a moment together alone, but when she met his eyes in that first moment, she’d smiled her shy smile. She was obviously okay after her Dr. Taylor appointment, and the things in her gaze suggested she had more on her mind than that. Good things, the kind occupying his own thoughts.
He’d been inside her, his mouth on her, her hands on him. And she seemed more than okay with that.
He thought of her sitting at her kitchen table in his shirt, and knew he’d want to see her again tonight. Maybe do it all over again. But right now he wanted to see her, period, while they could steal a moment.
“Johnny, is Daralyn still outside?” He called out the question as he swept the cursor across his screen to put the computer to sleep.
“Yeah, man.” Johnny straightened. Built husky, as a former high school linebacker would be, he had a face full of dark whiskers and looked like a younger cousin of the Duck Dynasty crew. “She was going to move that load of pine straw over to the west side of the building, to make room for more of the girly stuff up front.”
“What?” Rory’s head snapped up. “How is she moving it?”
“The smaller tractor, what else? The trailer was already hooked up to it and last week, I showed her how to—”
He was already around the counter, pushing toward the front door. As he heard the tractor start up, that roar of sound, he went out the door fast, kicking up the front of his chair with a jerk of his upper body so the casters didn’t catch on the stoop. The screen door bounced off the siding.
“Daralyn.”
He was downwind, and there was a good breeze. Plus that engine noise swallowed all other sound. She was trundling toward the section Johnny had described, her hands carefully placed on the wheel, her expression focused, attentive on her goal.
As he turned her way, he pivoted too sharply, a wheel leaving the ground, but he shifted his weight to slam it back down before the chair could tip. His shoulders flexed like rubber bands as he headed her way. It only took moments, but it felt like hours.
She was making the turn to back the trailer up. When she looked over her opposite shoulder, she saw him. He made a sharp slicing motion with his hand.
A puzzled look crossed her face. She brought the tractor to a halt and put it on idle, leaning down as he rolled up to her. She obviously thought he was there to give her additional instruction. He sure as hell was.
"Get off of that thing,” he shouted over the noise. “Right now."
Her expression was curious, but still relaxed. "It's okay,” she called back. “Johnny told me how to use it. It's just a--"
"Shut it down. Get the fuck off of it." He needed her off it, right now, and he banged his chair against the side. When he closed his hand around her arm, her startled glance jumped up to his face.
Of all times for her to get stubborn with him, to trust that fragile thing between them, the promise he’d made her, she went with now. Her chin set.
"I know how to do this. I can do this."
"No, you can't. If you don't get your ass off that thing this instant, I swear to God I will blister it so you can't walk for a week."
Red stained her cheeks as the rest of her flesh around it went pale. He'd tightened his grip, and