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“Interesting.” Her arm brushed against mine as she looked over. “What tomatoes are they?”
“San Marzano. Plum tomatoes. Good for making sauces with.”
“Mm. Yummy.”
She still didn’t move.
I looked down at her. “Do you really have nothing else to do?”
“Sadly, I do not. That’s why I’m in college. So I can get a job and not be so bloody bored all the time.”
“You could get a job now.”
“There’s a problem with that.”
“Which is?”
“All the available ones involve other people, and I’m not really a fan of those.”
I choked back a laugh. “Would you like to help me?”
“You let me in your greenhouse and you’re letting me help you?” She leaned back. “Who are you, and what have you done with the real Miles? And can I keep this one?”
I grabbed a tomato plant. “Be quiet and do as you’re told.”
“Yes, sir.” She grinned at me cheekily, and her brown eyes literally shone with happiness when she took the plant from me. “This is fun.”
I kept an eye on her as she pinched out the suckers and broke off the lower leaves at my direction. She was genuinely enjoying herself, and every now and then she looked up at me and smiled.
Shit. I was a goner.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO – GABRIELLA
He was looking at me.
All the time.
I could see him.
I had no idea why I’d come down here. After our last conversation in my secret garden, I’d honestly wanted to hide away and not see him for a while.
Unfortunately, I was an adult, and that wasn’t an option.
I knew he was struggling with whatever was going on between us. It felt like an age since the goats had escaped and he’d been rude to me, yet at the same time, it felt as though it was just yesterday.
Our relationship had changed so much without really changing at all.
That was how it felt to me, at least.
I didn’t do well with uncertainty. The strength of my feelings for Miles scared me, but I also wasn’t going to wait around for him to decide if he could get over himself or not.
I lied. I knew why I was here.
It was to tell him that. To tell him to make a choice because I wasn’t a bloody blanket on a shelf at the shop, and he couldn’t pick me up and put me down as he pleased.
It wasn’t enough for him to reciprocate my feelings. He had to believe there was something between us that could work.
And I was going to say all that.
I was. I swear.
And then… I saw him.
Like a freaking baby, I saw him, and I couldn’t do it. I could only smile at him like a stupid little girl because he was smiling at me and he let me in his greenhouse.
Why did he let me in here?
Why did he give me that dahlia?
Why was he letting play with his tomato plants?
All those questions rolled on the tip of my tongue, but none of them would escape.
Was there any point? I didn’t think he would give me any answers anyway.
I’d always thought my crush on him was futile.
Now that I was here, with real feelings, it seemed like I’d been right all along.
I took the lower leaves off the last tomato plant that would fit in the trailer and handed it to Miles. He put it in and looked back at me.
“Are you coming?” he asked, motioning to the quad bike.
“Oh, no, it’s fine.” I smiled and stepped back. “I’ve bugged you enough.”
“I wouldn’t have asked if I wasn’t okay with it.”
“No, I’ll just slow you down. Plus, I need to find a home for my new friend over there.” I cocked my thumb in the direction of the dahlia then turned to get it. I picked up the pot and stopped.
I was going to ask him.
I had to know.
“Miles?”
“Yeah?”
I met his eyes, hugging the dahlia pot to my body. “This isn’t going to happen, is it? You and I.”
He stared at me.
There was no answer.
That, in itself, was one.
“Okay. It’s fine.” I forced a smile and backed out of the greenhouse, hitting the side of some staging on the way and quickly stopping a tray of small pots from falling. “I just needed to know.”
I barely waited three feet before I picked up the pace and speed-walked away from the greenhouse, clutching my flowerpot like it was grounding me. In all honesty, I just desperately needed something to hold onto and it was all I had right now.
I knew.
I knew this would be how it went.
I wished he’d walked away from me at the party. That we would have gone back to how it was before all this happened, where he was rude ,and I was annoyed, and whatever I felt for him had no reason to go past a simple crush.
Anything but this.
