There—the last cabbage was balanced on the table, looking very attractive for a cabbage. Who could resist its promise of fiber and flatulence? Gabriel’s flush of pride at a complete table setup never quite faded. As the seasons changed, the setup changed with it to reflect the vegetables and farm produce in season.

He liked rearranging the table occasionally, too, testing to see what sold best. A few annoyed comments from regular customers later, he’d learned to keep the staple foods in the same place each week and rearrange only the seasonal produce.

“Another week, another nickel, huh?”

Gabriel turned at the sound of a familiar voice. That was Nate, who had worked down on Victory Boulevard since he was twenty. He’d retired three times and counting. Every week, he came to the Moore Wood Saturday market to pick up his produce for the week.

“We’d all be rich,” he answered, falling into the familiar routine as he stepped behind the table and set up the cashbox. “How’s your week?”

As usual, he got to hear about Nate’s grandkids—and one great-grandbaby now—and his bird-watching, and most recently, the bingo club he’d joined.

Once he’d carefully packed the week’s order into Nate’s reusable cloth bags, Gabriel exchanged it for the bill and handed over his change. “Thank you. Hope you get a chance to see that duck this week!”

A couple guys were strolling up to the booth. He didn’t recognize them as regular customers, which meant salesman mode went into overdrive.

“Afternoon, gentlemen. Oh, and young lady!” Gabriel beamed at the little redheaded child who scampered up to the booth for a look at the vegetables. “Bottom of the food pyramid, vegetables. You want to grow up big and strong?”

“Like a princess!” she declared, staring at the rutabagas.

“Those are weird, aren’t they? Oh, a princess! An archer, by chance? With hair like yours?” Gabriel grinned when she nodded hard. “Well, rutabagas will help!” The guys were laughing, so he pulled them into the conversation. “What about you? Carrots? Potatoes? Or something more exotic?”

“I think we’re good,” one of them said. The way he said it—this wasn’t just two dads out for a stroll. They were totally together.

Goddamn it. Why did all the cute guys have to be taken? And by each other, too. Any gay men he’d met around here already seemed to have found love. It didn’t make living here any easier.

“Oh, you don’t want to wither away without your vitamin K,” Gabriel clicked his tongue sadly. One of them looked kind of familiar, actually. He’d seen him around town somewhere recently.

“That would be bad,” the other guy agreed, laughing and nudging his boyfriend? Fiancé? Hell, they could be husbands.

A nose appeared around the corner of the table and Gabriel leaned over for a look. “Oh! And an adorable dog.” Of course they have a fucking adorable dog. Goddamn it. The puppy had a missing front paw, but that didn’t stop it from nosing into Gabriel’s hand for attention. “Does the adorable puppy like fresh vegetables? Of course he does! Because he’s adorable!” He scratched the dog’s ears and then straightened up. “He recommends lots of everything.”

They were both laughing now, picking out vegetables slowly. With a little extra encouragement, he cross-sold some fresh parsley and leeks before they managed to escape, kid and dog in tow. He blew a kiss after them, smiling at the adorable little family. Even if he was jealous, he could be happy for them.

A few other customers followed, and then there was a brief lull in foot traffic, as often happened during markets. There were unpredictable rushes and slow periods every week—it never got boring.

It was only then that his heart dropped, now that he didn’t have anything to distract him.

I am jealous, he finally admitted to himself. He’d been here his whole damn life and he’d never found anyone who seemed interested in him—any guys, at least, and girls had given up a long time ago.

Apart from Chad, that was, and Chad was interested more in the easy sex than anything resembling a relationship. Thankfully, Chad also wasn’t interested in getting up before noon on Saturdays, so he never came to market days.

God, it was enough to drag his self-esteem down if he wasn’t careful. Seeing other gay people here, clearly happy and head-over-heels for each other, didn’t make it easier. In fact, it was a little worse.

How had he never run into anyone who seemed genuinely interested in him?

“And suddenly it got slow.”

That was Caspian Grey, a wood carver and sculptor who made adorably kitschy backyard decorations. Gabriel could never figure out how he got enough sales in this sized town to do it full-time, but he’d noticed Christmas season was hot for decorations. Why did he even bother turning up now, in the spring? Maybe the rest of the year was just fun for him.

“I know. One of those lulls,” Gabriel said, leaning back in his folding camp chair. He brought his own now with a drinks holder in the arm and a comfortable seat. Like the gardening books, it lived in his car—the hassle of taking it in and out of the house wasn’t worth it.

“I’ve been working on some wind chimes you might be interested in.” Cas had seen him drawing before, and Gabriel had admitted what he did as a hobby. He didn’t talk to many people about it, but of all people, someone who helped decorate people’s yards was unlikely to make fun of him for it.

“Made out of wood?” Gabriel sat up straight. He usually planned the larger aspects of gardens, like the bed placement and centerpieces, but the finishing touches interested him, too.

“You bet. Here.” It was a still day, unlike the weird storms that had been rolling through town frequently this spring and killing the market foot traffic, so Cas had to touch one of the chimes next to him to make it sway. “Not as jangly as a metal chime.”

“No, it isn’t.” The rhythmic, hollow notes of the wooden wind chimes were strangely soothing, and a welcome distraction from his own thoughts. “I’m going to have to think about those.”

“Have you thought much about soundscaping?”

Gabriel’s ears pricked up. “No. That’s a really good point.” In this isolated little bubble, he didn’t have to worry about covering up road noise or blocking unattractive views like designers in most other places. But most of the yards he designed were either fictional or based on places he’d been himself in town. It would be an interesting challenge to find a Houston backyard on satellite imagery and design a garden as an oasis.

“Do you mind?” Cas gestured at his sketchbook. With anyone else, Gabriel wouldn’t have let them, but Cas seemed interested. He was probably the closest thing Gabriel had to a friend, and they rarely even saw each other outside market day. They’d gone for coffee or lunch a few times and that was it.

“Go ahead.”

As Cas flipped through, studying a couple of recent plans, he looked up. “You know, if you took classes on this and turned it into a business, you could get landscaping jobs.”

Gabriel blinked at him a few times, then shook his head. “No. I don’t know what I’m doing, really. It’s just messing around. What if I killed people’s trees by making bad recommendations?”

“It happens,” Cas laughed. “You’d learn from experience.” He handed back the notebook. “I love the spiral garden you’re doing right now. Have you thought of a water feature in the middle? Maybe running through the center, end-to-end? Obviously not something in a straight line…”

Gabriel caught his breath. “Oh, I already know what I’d do.” He focused on the mental image to fix it in his head and look up other ideas later. “Thanks.”

“Seriously, though, this is really great work. If you got into 3D modeling it, that could be fun, too.”

“I’d like that,” Gabriel admitted. “I haven’t made the time to learn any programs, though. And my laptop’s pretty crappy. I don’t know if it could handle those applications.”

Cas shrugged. “Might be worth a shot if you’re bored one day.” A customer was approaching, so he had to step away and greet them.

That left Gabriel’s mind racing. Why hadn’t he thought of this before?

Well, he had perfectly good reasons: he wasn’t exactly built like a landscaper. Getting involved with companies here seemed intimidating when they wouldn’t take him seriously, surely. And how would he even get started? How much would he charge? The whole idea left him feeling excited, yet adrift without a rope.

There was no easy starting point on the path Cas had just pointed out to him, but it felt like it could lead to freedom nonetheless. Getting away from this town. Getting into a real job, not just the first crappy minimum-wage thing he could find. Getting the life he’d always wanted.

If only he knew what the hell he was doing.