“All of those. But mainly vegetables.”
“Can I see?”
“Of course.” Letting go of one hand, Felix tugs me with the other. “This way.”
I’m ridiculously excited about seeing plants and I know it, but Aunt Bethany never allowed me to have any. In the yard or the house. Nothing but the existing trees and bushes that I had to care for with nothing to show for my efforts, not one flower, not one vegetable or fruit.
The one time a random tomato plant popped up near the side fence in the backyard, she made me rip it out. I hated doing it. Especially when it already had buds on it that would eventually have become tomatoes.
“I’m not the best gardener, but I do what I can.” Felix leads me around the back of the cabin and there, sitting right out in the middle of the clearing is a glass house. “Mom built it from old windows she found at the dump. Showed me what to plant and when before…”
He hasn’t mentioned a parent yet. And with the way he trailed off and the look on his face, it saddens him to talk about her. “I love it.”
“Yeah?” He looks down at me as we keep walking but I can’t take my eyes off the sight before me.
“It’s perfect. I love that she used things other people threw away. Proves not everything tossed out is trash.” I let him open the door and usher me inside the warm space. “It’s so light inhere, even with the clouds and snow falling. Oh! Look at the snow melting on the roof!”
“The plants generate their own heat and I light the wood stove for an hour once a day most days.” He points to the blackened stove in the corner, placed safely away from the plants. “Do you like gardening?”
His question surprises me. “No. Why?”
“Your face is lit up like a Christmas tree. And the grin on your lips is ear to ear.”
“Oh, well, I like theideaof gardening. I was never allowed to though. Cutting back branches and bushes, mowing the lawn, and raking up leaves doesn’t count.”
“Do you want me to show you how to check the vegetables to see if they’re ready and harvest them?”
“Yes! Would you?”
“Sure. We can see what we’ve got and take it inside. I don’t think we’ll be able to get back out here for a few days.”
“I read your note. Is it really going to be that bad?”
“Maybe. Hard to tell this early in the season. Sometimes they hit hard, sometimes they look like they’re going to and we barely get a couple of inches on the ground. Other times, nothing sticks at all and we end up with a lot of dirty slush.”
“So we should grab anything that’s ready or almost ready?”
“Depends on what it is. Some crops continue to ripen after they’re picked, others don’t. And others can stay on the plant until they’re almost overripe.”
“Okay. Tell me what to pick and what to leave.” I wish I had a notebook so I could write down everything Felix tells me, then when I finally have my own place I can plant a vegetable garden. Maybe build my own greenhouse.
For the next fifteen minutes Felix leads me along the rows of plants, showing me what’s ripe and what’s not. We collect all theproduce ready for eating in a basket and he puts a small log on the hot coals in the wood stove.
“That should hold them over until we can get back out here,” he says as he stands and brushes his hands off on his butt.
Like the rest of him, his backside is big. Not too big though. And it has a nice shape. I’d be able to grab him with my hands and?—
I suck in a breath.
I’m ogling Felix.
I’m checking him out like one of the vegetables we’ve just been looking at.
Heat blooms in my chest. Bursts up and fills my face. Blazes down and swirls in my belly, making me clench my legs together.
I might be a virgin but I know what desire is even if I’ve never experienced it this intensely.
There was a boy in school, every girl liked him. Me too. I remember thinking there was something wrong with me because every time he walked past, I got hot and fidgety and my heart raced. I spent a whole study period in the library looking up what was wrong with me.
