I looked past Daphne.
Fletcher stood outside the P-Patch sign in a pale blue button-down, dark slacks, and shoes that had never lost a fight with dirt because they'd never been near it. He held his phone at his ear and looked through the gate like the garden was a delay he hadn't approved.
My hand tightened around the phone. "Stay there."
I ended the call.
Daphne set her gloves on the bench. "Zane."
"I know."
"Monica said not to argue details with him."
"I'm not arguing Cascadia details." I walked toward the door. "I'm telling my brother to stay off my land."
Daphne followed me into the sun.
Birdie moved aside but didn't leave. Gus set down his rake. Tyler looked between me and Fletcher with the open curiosity of a man who should absolutely not be trusted near conflict.
"Tyler," Birdie said.
"What?"
"Compost."
"But this seems important."
"Compost," she repeated.
Tyler sighed and dragged himself toward the bins, looking back every three steps.
Fletcher lowered his phone as I reached the gate. He glanced past me at Daphne. Something in his face changed, quick and calculating, and I stepped in front of that look before it had somewhere to land.
"Don't," I said.
His attention came back to me. "You don't even know what I was going to say."
"I know enough."
Daphne stopped beside me, not behind me. She didn't crowd in, and she didn't try to speak for me. She just stood there in her dusty boots and green tank top, with her chin up and her completed hours sitting on a clipboard in my shed.
Fletcher noticed her clothes, the dirt on her knees, and then the way I stood close enough that my arm almost brushed hers.
His mouth tightened. "So that's what this is."
"No," I said. "This is you using my land in a packet after I told you no."
"I didn't use your land. I identified a potential route."
"You identified property you don't own."
"I identified a solution."
"You identified my fence, my lake access, and my no, then made it look like all three were negotiable."
Fletcher glanced toward the pepper bed, where Birdie had suddenly become very interested in a basket that wasn't fooling anybody.
"Do you want to do this here?" he asked.
