legs. Your eyes and ears. As long as you give me a detailed to-do list every day, everything will work out.”
Juliet hadn’t looked convinced, but a nurse came in just then to change one of the medications going into her IV line and she had finally let the subject drop.
“When is your mom supposed to go home from the hospital?” Doug asked her now.
“A few more days. That’s all I know right now. Her doctor wants to send her to a rehab facility for a week, but of course she’s not happy about that. We’ll see who wins.”
“I’m betting on Juliet.”
Maybe he’d been working here longer than Olivia thought. He certainly knew her mother well.
“I tend to agree, but we’ll see. How have things been going without her these past few days?”
Before he could answer, a customer approached them, pulling one of the store wagons with tires big enough to handle the gravel and sawdust terrain.
“Hi. I’ve looked through three greenhouses and can’t find what I need. Can you point me in the right direction? I’m looking for some ornamental grasses for my planters.”
“Ornamental grasses are in Greenhouse Four,” Doug offered.
“Can you show me?”
Olivia stepped toward Doug. “I can finish watering here, if you want to show our customer where to find the grass.”
She really hoped he would stick to the ornamental kind.
“This way, ma’am,” he said, leading the way through the door of the main greenhouse to the pathway leading to the others.
She didn’t know how much water the plants needed but decided she would give them all a small soak and let one of the more knowledgeable employees fill in if some of the plants needed more.
Olivia had worked her way down one long row of annuals and was pulling the hose across the way to the other side, focused on the job at hand, when a voice spoke behind her.
“We keep running into each other.”
She gasped in surprise and whirled around, completely forgetting momentarily that she still held a hose in her hand. Water splattered all over Cooper Vance. She froze for an instant, horrified, but finally managed to jerk the hose away from him and turn it back to the annuals.
“Oh. I’m so sorry!”
He looked down at the water splotched all over his navy fire department polo shirt and cargo pants. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”
“Look at you. You’re soaked! Let me find some towels.”
He shook his head. “Not necessary. It’s a warm day and this will be dried before we know it. Trust me when I say this is nothing compared to being blasted with a fire hose by a rookie on his first day.”
Not trusting herself to behave rationally when he was around, Olivia went to the wall, turned off the faucet and looped the hose against the wall holder to ensure no customers would trip over the line. He waited, wearing an expression of interest that left her feeling as if she had been the one doused in cold water.
“Can I help you with something?” she finally asked.
“I need to pick up a pruner. My sister has some shrubs and trees that need trimming, but her jackass soon-to-be ex-husband took all the lawn and garden tools with him, despite the fact that he currently lives in an apartment in Redding with no lawn whatsoever to speak of.”
“I wish I could take a pruner to him,” she muttered.
He raised an eyebrow and she thought she saw amusement flash in his eyes. “Agreed. I’m afraid that won’t help clip back her honeysuckle, though.”
She looked around the garden center. “I’m afraid I can’t help you much. I don’t know where anything is. I think I know where they used to be but I have no idea if my mom has moved things. If you want to wait a minute, I can find someone to help you.”
“No problem. I can take a look around. I’ll find what I need eventually.”
The smartest thing would be to leave him to it. Hadn’t she told herself the day before to stay far away from Cooper Vance? But she needed to familiarize herself with the layout of the greenhouses anyway and it made sense for her to help out a client at the same time.
“When I was a kid, Dad kept the loppers and clippers and other gardening tools in here,” she said, leading the way to a cavernous space next to the main greenhouse.
“Bingo,” he said as soon as they walked through the doors. The room held shovels and