Chapter Six

 

For the next few weeks the time that she was able to spend with Gannon became the highlight of her week, and in the times that she wasn’t able to be with him, he was never far from her mind. She would pick him up from Nana’s house nearly every day and bring him back to the greenhouse where they would spend hours tending to the plants. The flowers, fruits, and vegetables were lush and thriving, but within the first few days their focus on the plants became less and less as their attention shifted more toward each other. They spent their time together talking and gradually the hesitation that she had seen in Gannon started to dissipate, eventually allowing him to relax with her. The sound of his laugh was thrilling and Willow found herself wanting to hear it more and more, wanting to draw it out of him as if it was something that he had never done and she wanted to give him as much of it as she could.

The longer that they spent together, the more curious she became about Gannon’s past. Though she had shared more about herself with him, telling him about her childhood and the family she had grown up with, he had given her few details about his own life leading up to when he came to stay with Nana. The information that he did give her was vague, and if she tried to coax more out of him, she could sense his unwillingness to talk further. It was difficult to decipher what was keeping him from being as open with her as she was with him. Willow couldn’t determine if the details of his life were something that he just didn’t want to share with her because he didn’t trust her as much as she had grown to trust him, or if there was something else that was keeping him from giving her more of a glimpse into his past.

Despite him keeping her at a distance with the details of his past, Willow could feel her draw toward him becoming stronger and the level of trust that she felt for him becoming deeper. She was excited that she was able to feel this for someone again and didn’t want to push it, not wanting to threaten the connection that they were building.

The strawberry plants had responded to Gannon’s suggestion to move them into other pots and stop feeding them the fertilizer that she had purchased. Now rather than the weak, limp plants that she had had when she first asked him to come, she had strong, bright green plants with such an abundance of runners that they had had to plant them in raised beds that he had built for her in the center of the greenhouse, moving aside flowers that were nearly ready to be transferred outside. The vines were heavy with luscious fruit and she knew that it was time to pick them. Gannon’s incredible skill with the plants had been so successful that she had far more berries than she had ever expected to have, and was excited about all of the potential that the sweet, juicy gems held. She was thinking about the recipes that she wanted to start with when she heard a low, rhythmic sound in the distance that brought a smile to her lips.

Willow hurried out of the greenhouse and around to the back so that she could look out over the rolling green pasture that stretched behind the house and toward the tree line in the distance. The sound grew louder and she caught sight of a dark figure ahead of her. It approached quickly and soon she could see Gannon sitting astride a massive grey horse, his hands grasping the reins firmly but without fear. This was how he had been arriving at her house for the last few days and it had seemed to light something inside of him. Though he hadn’t said anything about it, Willow could sense that not being able to drive and having to rely on her to get to her house bothered him. She hadn’t pried into why he didn’t drive. She could tell it was something that went beyond just never learning and he hadn’t offered an explanation. Instead, she had encouraged him when he mentioned that he thought that he might like to learn to ride one of the animals that he had been caring for, and helped him to find the easiest path between Nana’s house and her own so that he was able to ride to her. The first time that she had seen him arrive on the back of the majestic animal, the change that had come over him was obvious, and it had delighted her to see the smile on his face and the flush of color on his cheeks.

Her heartrate increased as she watched Gannon ride toward her. His body looked strong and powerful in the saddle, his muscles tight as he held himself in place. The movement of the air through his thick dark hair caused it to ripple and pushed his shirt open at the neck, revealing a small amount of smooth skin. She could no longer deny the feelings that she had for him and the reaction that her body went through each time that she saw him. No matter how strong those feelings were, however, she hadn’t been able to express them to him. There was still so much that she didn’t know about him, including any relationships that he might have had in the past, and that held her back from even considering what it might be like to allow herself to step out of the boundaries that she had created for herself and explore the pull that built in her belly and her heart every time that she was near Gannon.

The animal slowed and stopped near her and Gannon dropped down onto his feet beside it.

“Hi,” he said.

“Hi. If you want to bring the horse to the yard, I’ll meet you in the greenhouse.”

Gannon nodded and led the horse by its reins toward the fenced yard off of another section of her house. The fences were tall enough to keep the horse within them and there was enough grass that it could eat happily, occasionally wandering over to the bucket of water that she had put out for it for a drink. She was snipping berries from one of the plants and settling them into a basket when he came into the greenhouse.

“The berries are ready,” she told him. “We can harvest them now.”

He crouched down beside her and tucked a hand under one of the bright red berries, holding it against his palm as he tilted it back and forth to admire it.

“Are you happy with them?” he asked.

“Absolutely,” she answered. “They are more beautiful than I could have ever hoped for.”

“I know how that feels.”

He had said it so softly that Willow wasn’t sure if he had meant for her to hear it, but she couldn’t help but look at him in surprise. There was a cautious look of appeal in his eyes, but he quickly looked away again, turning his attention back to the berry plants in the bed in front of them. He scooped up a pair of gardening scissors and started snipping the berries from their stems. Willow felt her heart fluttering and had to draw in a breath to calm it, forcing herself to appreciate the delicate way that he was harvesting the berries rather than the innocent, yet impactful, comment. Even under his strong hands, cutting the berries instead of pulling them off of the stems protected them from bruising and kept them looking almost like they weren’t real they were so ripe and perfect.

“There are enough berries here for me to make several different recipes,” she told him as the baskets were filling. “I’d like to put up some preserves so that I can enjoy them all year. Have you ever done that?”

Gannon shook his head.

“No,” he answered.

“If you’d like, you can come over tomorrow and help me make them. It can be a bit of a messy process, but it’s fun.”

The tip of Gannon’s tongue slid across his bottom lip and he nodded.

“I’d like that.”

Willow reached for another berry, licking her own bottom lip as she imagined what his would taste like.

“Good.”