An hour later, as promised, Shay had hot pancakes ready to eat. But Josh hadn’t returned from his run. Nervous about what he would say when he got back and the pancakes were stone cold, she focused on her task, but her mind refused to ignore the worry that clawed at the back of her mind. Would he be angry? Would he yell at her? Would he make her cook a fresh batch? What if he was like Will? What if he hit her?

Forcing those thoughts away, she continued cooking the batter. She had to stop worrying so much about what someone else would do in reaction to her, and she had to stop assuming that all men were like Will. So far, Josh hadn’t given any indication that he was like that. Of course she hadn’t known him very long. Still, she couldn’t live her life that way, and since right now she was dependent on Josh’s kindness, she had to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Distracted by her thoughts, she almost burnt the last batch of pancakes, but managed to salvage them. She carried the plate with the stack of pancakes to the table, then took a few from the top and put them on her plate. She was going to start without Josh. She had to. She’d told him that’s what she was going to do, so she needed to do it.

Frowning, she poured syrup over the golden brown pancakes, then began eating, her ears attuned to Josh’s return. She had no idea how long his runs were. He could be gone for hours.

Ten minutes later she heard the front door open, and a bright smile burst upon her mouth. Was it because she was glad the pancakes were still warm for him, or was it because she was eager to see him?

Not happy with either choice—she didn’t want to worry about pleasing him, and she certainly wasn’t looking for a replacement for Will—she focused on eating her breakfast.

“Did I make it in time?” Josh asked as he walked into the kitchen, a grin on his face, and sweat soaking his t-shirt.

“Barely,” she said with an answering smile, thrilled to see he wasn’t angry or upset that she’d started without him.

His blue-eyed gaze was steady on her. “Good, because I’m hungry.”

Glad she hadn’t screwed up breakfast, she smiled. “How was your run?”

He sat at the place she'd set for him, then moved a large stack of pancakes from the serving platter to his plate. “Exhilarating.”

“Do you run every day?”

“I try to.” He poured a large glass of milk, and after downing it in one long swallow, he filled it again. “What about you? What do you do for exercise?”

Truth be told, exercise wasn’t high on her list of priorities. Between working full-time and staying on her toes around Will, she didn’t have much energy left for exercise. “I’ve, uh, I’ve been meaning to get to that.”

He laughed as he poured a generous helping of syrup over his stack of pancakes.

Wait a minute. She did have something she did for exercise. “Gardening counts as exercise.”

His head tilted as his eyes narrowed. “Gardening? Really?” His tone showed how ridiculous he thought that was.

“It’s true.”

“How can that be exercise?”

Not offended by his disbelief, she set her fork down. “Have you ever gardened?” She didn’t know why she was asking. Going by the way the property around his house looked, she didn’t think he did any yard work at all. Let alone maintain a garden.

“Nope.”

“Okay. Well, think about it. Digging, planting, weeding. Those things are a lot of work.” Work that she enjoyed. Something about pulling weeds out of the ground was cathartic, like she was pulling negativity out of her life. And now that she'd uprooted herself from Will’s control, the possibilities were infinite. Just thinking about that made her smile.

“Yeah,” Josh said as he polished off his pancakes and took a few more. “I guess so.”

An idea began to fill her mind. “You can find out for yourself. After breakfast I’m going to start working on a garden in your backyard.” That would have a two-fold benefit. First, it would be fun, but more importantly, growing a garden took time. And as long as she was working on that project, there would be a reason for her to stay. Right here where she felt safe.

He put his hands up. “Wait a sec. Are you suggesting that I should work on this garden?”

“Only if you want to.”

He seemed to think about it. “What are you going to plant? I mean, it’s not like I have any seeds lying around.”

That thought had crossed her mind, but she hoped he was willing to make this work. “Is there a nursery we could go to? To get supplies?”

“Why does this feel like it’s starting to become my project?”

She laughed. “I promise I’ll do all the work. But since this garden will be in your yard, and since I don’t have any transportation, I would need you to take me to get supplies.”

His lips lifted in a smirk. “And buy them?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Right.”

This wasn’t like him buying her clothes. The garden would be to his benefit, so she had no problem asking him to buy the supplies.

“What would we need to get?” he asked.

Pleased that he was showing some interest, she smiled. “A shovel, which you probably already have. A trowel, a garden rake, a hoe, a soaking hose. And of course seedlings.”

“Okay. That sounds reasonable.”

Excitement that this project was starting to come together rushed through her. When she'd visited her grandmother as a child, she'd helped her with her small garden, and she'd loved it. But she hadn’t done much gardening since her grandmother had passed away several years earlier. Still, she was confident she could do this.

“We’ll take a field trip later this morning,” Josh said.

* * *

Why was he digging himself in deeper? Why was he investing time into this garden idea? Had he lost his mind? He had work to do, yet he was ready to spend half a day driving to a nursery to get stuff for a garden? What the heck?

Yet there was something about Shay’s excitement that had gotten to him. She was obviously passionate about this garden idea, and somehow that had become contagious.

It was just a few hours. They would go there, get the stuff, and come back. Then he could focus on what was important while she played in the dirt.

Josh finished eating, pleasantly surprised by how good the pancakes had turned out. After the dinner fiasco the night before he’d had his doubts about her ability to cook. Of course, after his run he’d been famished, so that may have played a part. But no, the pancakes were good regardless.

“I’ll be ready to go in an hour,” he said as he stood to carry his plate to the sink.

“Great.” Her smile was radiant, which kind of stopped him in his tracks. Her dimples deepened in her cheeks and her emerald-green eyes sparkled.

Pulling himself away, he went to the sink and washed his dishes off before setting them on the counter to be washed by hand.

Turned out he was looking forward to their field trip.