Page 34 of Guarded by My Gargoyle

“My, you’re suspicious tonight.”

He waited, and Flora rocked once on her heels, hands tucked into the pockets of the pink sweatshirt. “You needed a landscaper. She’s a landscaper. You share a wall. It wasn’t exactly the Labors of Hercules.”

“You could have sent anyone.”

“But I didn’t.”

“Why?”

She smiled, and he immediately regretted asking.

“Because,” Flora said, “you’ve spent almost two years making that house beautiful enough for people who aren’t there.”

His jaw tightened.

“And Maris,” Flora continued blithely, “has spent the last eight months making a home out of a place everyone else had forgotten.”

“That doesn’t answer the question.”

“Doesn’t it?”

“No.”

“Hm.” She considered him. “Then perhaps you’re not as clever as everyone says.”

Aidan coughed into his beer, and Garrick ignored that too. “You interfered.”

“Of course I interfered. Have we met?”

“You had no way of knowing we’d even like each other.”

“Didn’t I?” Flora’s smile sharpened. “Do you?”

He stared down at her, and she stared back.

“Like her, I mean,” she added helpfully.

“I know what you meant.”

“Well?”

“This conversation is over.”

“Ah.” Flora nodded wisely. “So yes.”

He closed his eyes, and Sam laughed outright.

“And the boy likes you too,” Flora added, and his eyes opened. There was no reason those six words should hit differently from the rest of her words, but they did, and she saw it happen. Of course she did.

“Toby likes everyone,” he said. “He’s very polite.”

“He’s polite to everyone. He doesn’t invite everyone to the tavern because he’s worried they’ll be lonely.”

So he’s not by himself.

“Leave the boy out of this,” he snapped, and Flora went quiet. He knew immediately that he’d made a mistake. Flora wasn’t offended. Flora was almost impossible to offend. This was worse.

“Oh,” she said.