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“Just make sure you remove the strap and open the entrance for the bees once you move it into place. You’re using it near the coral vine?” Hailey had visited Windy Meadows Wildflowers numerous times over the past few years to purchase wildflowers for her own garden.
She’d been a good customer. While she wasn’t exactly a friend, she’d always been supportive of the business and kind to Keely’s father.
“I am. I’ve got anise hyssop and Gregg’s mistflower that could use the extra pollinators too.” They were all flowers that worked well in the local soil, and Keely had sold Hailey some for beds around the front of the farmhouse.
“Just make sure the hives go in an area where you won’t need to work every day—” Hailey paused mid sentence, peering around Keely and lifting a hand to shade her eyes. “Looks like we have a latecomer to the party.”
The tone of her voice should have been a warning. When Keely turned around, she saw Nate heading toward them with his long-legged stride. The yellow Labs thumped their tails as he walked past them, but didn’t rise. The fluffball white dog, however, trotted over to circle Nate’s boots a couple of times. He bent down to give the animal a scratch before continuing on his way.
Keely hadn’t seen him in a week, but somehow it seemed like her susceptibility to him had multiplied. Awareness swirled through her like ripples in a stream, each wave bigger than the next. A humming grew in her ears and she didn’t think it had anything to do with the bees.
“I forgot to bring the stakes for the tomato plants,” he announced, his gaze settling on Keely in a way that stirred her insides. “Good thing I did, or I might have missed you.”
The hat on her head suddenly felt hot and itchy. Or maybe it was being caught avoiding him that made her feel that way. She’d been the one to suggest they recreate the past, after all.
“Good thing,” she murmured, peeling off the hat before she overheated. “I was just going to bring my van around so I could take a hive with me.”
Hailey spoke up then, before Keely could dart past him.
“This is perfect, Keely.” Nate’s mom stepped forward to stand next to her, sliding an arm through hers. Almost as if she guessed that Keely was ready to bolt. “Nate can take the hive for you in his truck, and that way I won’t have to worry about you getting stung.”
She squeezed Keely’s arm affectionately.
Or was it a squeeze to bolster her courage while Keely tried to navigate her feelings for the woman’s hot son?
“Okay.” It was easiest to cave, partly because she was nervous about moving the bees in the first place. Partly because she couldn’t dodge Nate forever. She met his amused look. “I could get the stakes for you, if you want?”
But before Nate could reply, Hailey answered.
“Sweetheart, I admire your can-do attitude, but I think it’s okay to let the big, strapping man in our midst do it all while I show you my wildflowers.” Nate’s mom tugged her toward the house, where beds along the foundations were full of flowers that Keely knew well since she’d made numerous recommendations for them over the years.
Behind them, Nate whistled to himself as he went to work prepping the hive, the sound calling up a hundred old memories. The past was killing her today.
“Okay, it’s just us girls now.” Hailey glanced back once, the brim of her wide hat brushing Keely’s shoulder before she let go of her arm. “Can you tell me what’s going on between you two or is it none of my business? Because Nate is my most easygoing son, and I can’t imagine how he’d make one of the strongest women I know uneasy.”
Her unexpected words touched Keely’s heart. It was a motherly thing to say, and Keely’s life had lacked motherly encouragement. Her eyes burned for a moment, and she needed to blink.
“Thank you for that.” She stopped beside a small stone wall where bushes full of tubular red flowers hosted two tiny hummingbirds. “Your flame acanthus looks amazing.”
“Flowers are far simpler than people.” Hailey dropped down to sit on a wooden bench tucked near the house and patted the space beside her.
“Don’t I know it.” Keely took the seat, unsure how much to share with Nate’s well-meaning mother. “And Nate hasn’t done anything to make me uneasy.” Other than tempt her into resurrecting a relationship she hadn’t handled well the first time. “I’m just not sure what I want to happen next when I know he won’t—” She took a deep breath. “I mean, obviously he’s only in town temporarily. And I don’t think of myself as a temporary kind of woman.”
Then again, she’d never liked a guy the way she liked Nate Ramsey.
Hailey plucked her hat off her head and set it on her lap now that they were in the shade. She toyed with a loose piece of straw as she spoke. “I admire that you put so much thought into it, Keely. I really do. But I think sometimes we can work so hard on defining what we think a relationship ought to be, and figuring out how it should look, that we don’t recognize the amazing potential of the ones we have right in front of us.”
She looked so deep in thought that Keely wondered if she’d wrestled with some of that herself. With her ex-husband, she wondered? Or someone else?
Not that it was any of Keely’s business. She understood the message.
“You think I ought to just enjoy the moment.” Keely remembered she’d been on the verge of doing just that the night they’d danced under the stars at Hickory Hall.
But then she’d second-guessed herself to the point where she’d been dodging Nate.
“I’m not suggesting I have the answers, or that I know what you should do.” She reached over to squeeze Keely’s forearm, her brown hair slipping forward on her shoulder. “But I think sometimes in life we can regret the chances we don’t take a whole lot more than the missteps we make along the way.”
Is that what she was doing? Hiding from life by not taking chances?
