Page 57
“A bleeding heart.”
She tilted her head. By the tone of his voice, Wade thought he was being charming and quick-witted. That wasn’t how she was receiving this conversation. “Are you looking for a label to stick on me? You said that like it’s a disease.”
“Nah, it’s just I haven’t met anyone like you. Can you show me around?” He tipped his head back. “It looks like each floor has two apartments, so what, eight units total?”
“My dad used one on the ground floor for storage, and the lady living in the right-hand apartment died.”
He smiled at her. “Ghosts?”
“Not that I’ve noticed. She died in the hospital. Anyway, during COVID, the apartments felt tight, and I decided that when we were able to be around people again, I’d convert the downstairs apartments into communal space.”
“Can I see?” He rocked back on his heels with a big expectant grin, puppy dog vibes.
Piper looked up the road toward the park. “Don’t we have to get to the picnic?”
“Vivian asked me to stall for fifteen minutes. That’s hard to do chatting with a stranger.” His grin softened into a nervous smile. “Maybe I could see inside?”
Piper walked up the stone steps to the wooden door on the nineteen-twenties building and swung it wide. If he was asking her to see her apartment, that would be an easy no. But this was the communal space, and it felt public enough.
Wade walked in behind her and looked around.
“So we eat brunch together on the weekends and come down from our individual places to watch movies or play games in the evenings if we feel like it. Even the introverts can go sit in a corner, do a puzzle, and be alone but still have companionship. I think it’s really important for mental health. Mine. I feel less isolated having this space, and people I’ve grown to care about.” Piper looked around with a sense of satisfaction. “And then when I need calm and quiet, I go to my apartment.”
“Which floor are you on?” Wade asked from the bottom of the stairs.
Piper didn’t love that. “Come out this way through the kitchen, and I’ll show you the edible landscaping.” Piper walked out the back and stood on the porch with its swing and willow furniture. “The bushes are raspberry, blackberry, and blueberry. They’re about to flower.” She pointed. “We have the fruit trees out front. In order to get a good variety that produces from spring to fall, I had a friend of mine, who teaches botany, graft different varieties onto each of six trunks. So imagine one tree might produce five different apples or three different plums. Each variety comes out at different times of the growing season. Will, I should say. We have a few more years until we can depend on them.”
“That seems to excite you.”
“It’ll be convenient at least. And science—” she held up jazz hands. “Along this little alley between houses,” she pointed. “I put up trellises.”
Wade went to the edge of the house and looked around the side.
“Beans, cucumbers, tomatoes. Our peas are just about done. But we have spinach at the bottom.”
“It’s an alley. How are they going to get enough light?”
“I have mirrors on my roof that reflect the sun downward.”
“Clever.” He straightened and walked back over to Piper with the look men get when they think things are going well, winning the ladies.
“Thank you. But it wasn’t my doing. I was dating an agrologist at the time, and he came up with my designs.”
“Had you dated the botanist, too?”
“Yes, actually.”
“So you use your boyfriends for their expertise? Do you go on dating apps thinking, I have a plumbing job that needs doing.”
Piper looked at him sideways. “I think you’re teasing me.”
“What happened between you and the agrologist?”
“My dad died, and my grief was a drag.” In her mind, she was counting down the fifteen minutes that Wade was stalling; once she was around Vivian and Jay, more people would be involved in the conversation, and maybe that would make it seem less … Yeah, less.
Wade shoved his hands deep in his pockets. “So let’s pretend for a second you and I end up hitting it off. If we did get together, you’d be dating me for my mad skills?”
“Potentially.” Piper backed up and settled her hips against the porch rail. “What do you bring to the table?”
