“Hey, guys,” she said, hoping Cooper couldn’t hear the sudden pounding of her heartbeat.
He was looking at her with an unreadable expression, making her wonder if he was also remembering that kiss along a moonlit path.
“Hi, Livie,” the adorable Charlie said, pronouncing her name Wivvie.
“Hello, Sir Charles. How are you this fine evening?”
“Good. Hey, where’s your dog? Can I play with him?”
“Oh, he would love to play with you, but I’m afraid he’s home babysitting my mom right now.”
Charlie giggled. “A dog can’t babysit a lady.”
“My amazing wonder dog can.”
“Uncle Cooper has a dog, too,” Ryan, the middle boy, chimed in.
“His name is Jock. He’s old and sleeps a lot.” Charlie said “sweeps” but she interpreted that to mean “sleeps”—unless the dog was some kind of neat freak, which would be odd but undeniably handy.
“He’s earned a rest,” Cooper said. She still couldn’t get a read on the way he was looking at her. He seemed a little uncomfortable, but she couldn’t tell whether he was regretting that they had kissed or wishing they could do it again.
“Why is that?” she asked, then cringed at the unnaturally high tone of her voice.
“He is almost fourteen. That is pretty old in dog years.”
“Jock used to be a fire dog,” Will informed her. “He would ride in the fire truck and everything.”
“I didn’t realize fire departments still had dogs.”
“A few still do. He was kind of the mascot with the fire department at my last base in Texas. Then he got too old and had bad hips and couldn’t climb into the fire truck anymore, so I took him home so he could live the good life and take it easy. So far, he’s enjoying his retirement here, though he still perks up anytime we hear a siren.”
Oh, the man was making it tough for her to remember all the reasons she couldn’t fall for him.
First, he came in being so sweet with his three adorable nephews. Then she learned he had taken in an aging fire dog. How on earth could any woman resist him?
“Do you know where my mom is?” Charlie asked.
“I think I saw her in the next greenhouse over. Should we go take a look?”
“You look like you’re busy here,” Cooper said, gesturing to the miniature toadstools, arbors and bridges on the cart next to her. “We can find her.”
“This can wait,” she assured him, and led the way into the next greenhouse, where she found Mel deep in conversation with Henry Cragun.
The two of them were filling a huge cart, loaded with shrubs and perennials.
Henry must be working on a job and Melody was helping him fill the order.
“Looks like she’s busy for a few minutes,” she said. “You guys are welcome to wait in my office, if you want. Or you can hang out at the sandpile.”
In a strategy move Olivia thought was genius, between greenhouses her mom had constructed a sandpile filled with trucks and shovels, where kids could hang out and play while their parents shopped.
“Maybe you could help us,” Cooper said.
“Um. Sure,” she said, trying to keep the wariness out of her voice.
“We’re on a quest,” Melody’s oldest son, Will, declared.
“An important one,” his brother Ryan added.
“Wow. Sounds serious. How can I help?”
“We need to find some plants for Uncle Cooper to grow at the firehouse.”
“He says this is the best place in town to buy plants,” Ryan said.
“I can’t argue with you there,” Olivia said with a smile. “What kind of plants did you want?”
To her surprise, Cooper looked uncomfortable, as if suddenly wishing he hadn’t said anything. “There’s a small plot of land along one side of the fire station. It’s south-facing and gets sun most of the day. Right now it’s kind of an eyesore, choked with weeds. I need to clear them away, and I thought instead of just filling that space with rocks or some other kind of ground cover to keep the weeds out, maybe we could plant some vegetables and herbs there that we could then use to fancy up some of the food in the station kitchen.”
“That sounds like a great idea,” she said with a smile. “My mom always had an herb garden off the kitchen. You would be amazed at how a little snip of tarragon can enhance a chicken marinade. And pizza just isn’t the same without a few fresh basil leaves.”
“That’s what I thought. Usually the food we get is pretty basic. It’s okay but