Chapter Four

 

Willow drove around to the greenhouse when she arrived at the house Saturday morning, but she didn’t see Gannon inside. She stepped up to the back door and knocked, not surprised when Nana opened the door looking as though she had been awake for hours even though it was still just barely after breakfast. Nana always seemed to be awake and ready for whatever the day was going to bring, even when that meant that the day was already over and she was still going late into the night. It amazed Willow how energetic this woman was even in her older years and she felt a pang for her own grandmother. Though not as busy as Nana tended to be, Violet had still been a vibrant woman when Willow was younger. During her later years, though, illness and heartache had taken some of the sparkle and by the time that she reached the end of her life, she barely resembled the woman Willow had once known. Willow’s adoration for her had never faded, though, and she still held every moment that they had shared close to her heart.

“Good morning, Willow!” Nana said. “I hear you are here to scoop up Gannon for a day of…gardening.”

Willow gave a short laugh and stepped into the warmth of the kitchen.

“There really didn’t need to be that much dramatic pause,” she said. “We really are gardening. He’s going to help me out with my strawberry plants.”

“I’m sure he is,” Nana said, crossing to the coffee maker and pressing a flashing blue button to dispense a fresh cup.

“I don’t even know what that is supposed to mean,” Willow said.

Nana chuckled and set the cup in front of her.

“Have you eaten?” she asked. “You can’t have a whole day of…gardening…on an empty stomach.”

“Again,” Willow said, picking up the cup and gratefully swallowing a sip of the black coffee. “Dramatic pause.”

She lowered the cup to the table and drew in a breath. The smell of a full breakfast still lingered in the air and she felt her stomach grumble. She had eaten a protein bar as she headed out of the house, but that didn’t feel particularly satisfying anymore.

“Let me make you something,” Nana said. “Gannon is out tending to the horses anyway. He’ll still need to get ready. You have a bit of time.”

“Horses?” Willow asked. “You have the man taking care of your horses, too?”

“I don’t have him doing it,” Nana said. “He’s doing it on his own. He saw one of them out in the field one day and followed me out there to see it. He’s been taking care of them since.”

“To see it?” Willow asked. “What do you mean?”

She knew she sounded like she was picking apart everything that Nana said, but everything about Gannon was making Willow curious and she wanted to know more. Nana cocked her head at Willow as she stepped up to the stove to cook a pan of eggs and sausage.

“I mean he wanted to go see the horse. He has a way with them.”

“The way he does with the plants?”

“Well, the horses respond to him a little bit more than the flowers do. I don’t know if it’s a personality thing or if the horses are just easy, but they seem more willing to move around when he asks them to.”

Willow felt a hint of embarrassment and concentrated on sipping her coffee, not wanting to make eye contact with Nana. She didn’t want to get into another conversation with the woman about her attraction to Gannon. She was still trying to navigate it herself and the last thing she needed was Nana trying to decipher it for her.

She was finishing off the overloaded plate that she never should have eaten all of when Gannon walked through the door and gave a small wave.

“Good morning,” he said. “Have you been waiting long?”

He sounded apologetic and Willow shook her head.

“Oh, no. It’s fine. I’ve just been sitting here letting Nana feed me way more than I should first thing in the morning. No rush.”

He offered the slight smile that she had learned was the most positive emotion that she could really expect from him and started across the kitchen.

“I just need to get ready. I’ll be down in a few minutes.

Willow sipped her way through another cup of coffee while waiting and was just settling her cup into the sink when he came back into the room. They both said goodbye to Nana and headed out of the house, climbing into her car in silence. As they traveled down the road, she watched him out of the corner of her eye. He seemed almost enthralled by the experience of being in the car, as if he wasn’t accustomed to it. She knew that he didn’t drive, but the way that he was acting made it seem as though he hadn’t spent much time just riding in a car, either. It was another question, another detail that made him even more intriguing.

When they arrived at her house, Willow showed him inside first rather than bringing him directly around to the greenhouse. She felt the need to reassure him, as if she didn’t want him to think that he was only there to take care of her plants, though that was exactly what she had asked him to come do.

“Would you like me to show you around?” she asked.

Gannon nodded.

“Yes.”

Willow brought him through the entryway into the living room and then around through the kitchen and dining room. They climbed the stairs and she showed him the office, tiny guest room that she had turned into a library, and balcony. She hesitated at the final closed door. Without opening it, she pointed at it.

“That’s my bedroom,” she said.

She felt a weightiness in her belly when she said it, but Gannon didn’t seem to have the same reaction and she guided him back toward the stairs, swallowing the response and trying to force her thoughts away and focus back on the reason that she had brought him there in the first place. As they crossed through the living room again, she noticed Gannon slowing and looking around the space with interest. She paused and waited until he noticed that she was looking at him.

“Do you live here alone?” he asked.

Willow let out a sigh and nodded.

“I do now,” she said. Gannon looked at her quizzically and she looked around as he had. “I used to live here with someone. A relationship that lasted for several years. We were actually planning on getting married.”

“But you never did?” he asked.

She shook her head.

“No,” she said. “Something happened. It actually wasn’t too long after we moved in here. This was our dream home and I thought that it was going to be where we were going to spend our lives. We settled in here and had lived here for around a year when he started changing. It was pretty gradual at first, and I thought that maybe it was just because of his new job. It was a major change and I knew that he was going through a lot of stress. I hoped that he would get into the rhythm and that everything would just go back to normal, but it never did. One day, he left. He got up in the morning like he always did, got dressed for work, and walked out of the door. He never came back.”

“What do you mean he changed?” Gannon asked.

Heat stretched across Willow’s cheekbones and she heard herself stammer for a few seconds.

“Um,” she said. “I don’t really know how to explain it. He just…changed. It was like he was a different person.” She gestured toward the back door. “Do you want to see the greenhouse? We can get started on those strawberry plants.”

Gannon nodded and she gratefully turned away from him. She was embarrassed that she had let herself go that far in her explanation of her relationship with Gavin. Though it had been quite some time since their relationship had disintegrated and he had walked away from her, it was still painful talking about him. She really hadn’t wanted to delve too deeply into it, especially with Gannon. Her attraction toward him made it feel uncomfortable to mention Gavin, much less detail how long they were together and the seriousness of their relationship. At the same time, though, Gannon felt so easy to talk to and she already felt herself beginning to trust and open up to him in a way that she hadn’t in longer than she could remember.