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“Wow. I love tulips. So cheerful, don’t you think so, girls,” she said.
Jo’s sisters, who eyed me when they thought I wasn’t looking, put on an energetic show as they cut food on Sesame Street plates for their kids. “Yes. I love the purple ones. What are those called?” her sister, Loretta, asked. Taller and leaner than Jo, her hair was dark and wavy like their mother’s.
“The names can vary by farm. We call ours Purple Baby. Purple can mean royalty or rebirth. So, the name fits. We also grow a lavender variety that’s actually my favorite.”
“How many kinds do you grow?” Jo’s sister Ellen asked, cutting the peeled tomato on her daughter’s plate. Unlike the other Patree women, she wore her hair blonde and straight. She was curvy like my Jo but taller.
“We have about thirty different varieties planted on three hundred acres.”
“Dude, that’s a lot of flowers,” Scott said.
“Yeah, it is, and we have about a hundred acres of daffodils each year as well.”
Jo’s father leaned forward, elbows on the table. “Jo said your business is tech.”
“That’s right. I was a software engineer for several years and then consulting, but I’m making a change.” I turned toward Jo. “I’m moving back to Perry Harbor to help run the farm business and open a small coding firm there.”
“You’re moving back to Perry Harbor?” Her voice was slightly above a whisper.
My focus stayed on her face. “I missed you, Jo. I don’t want that job in Seattle or any job that takes me away from you.”
“You won’t get bored and decide you want the action, the million-dollar deals?” Her voice was a little stronger.
I shook my head. “You changed me. I knew it the first day back in Seattle.” I leaned closer. “Plus, Finn says he needs me on the farm. I want to keep helping there. I’m not leaving tech if I start my own little shop on the side and no one in Seattle makes food the way you do. I lost ten pounds in a month because everything tasted like cardboard. Even when I cooked your recipes, it only made me miss you more.”
Jo looked around the table, suddenly aware that all eyes were on us.
“Well, that’s great, but I don’t have a job in Perry Harbor. I do have some feelers out for jobs in Seattle. So …”
“Wait, you were moving to Seattle, not back here?”
“This morning, I planned to move here, then realized I needed to be near you and wanted to cook with you. So, I turned down the local job and got a lead on one in Seattle. It’s been a big day.”
My pulse jumped. “You were moving back to be with me?”
“Turns out, you’re my dream.”
“You. Are. Mine, Sweetness.” My lips were on hers before I even realized what I was doing in front of her entire family.
“They’re making a baby. Look, Mommy, they’re making a baby,” the little girl’s voice finally registered as laughter erupted.
“Sorry,” Ellen said. “She sees Billy and me kissing sometimes, and we tell her, well, it doesn’t matter.”
Billy and Scott,the trucker hat dudes, were putting their kids to bed while I helped clean up the kitchen. I finished drying the last pot and yawned. Turns out, it was a big day for me too. Jo was coming back to me.
“Thank you for dinner, Mrs. Patree,” I said.
“You’re so welcome, Lucas. We’re happy to have you. Jo, the girls and I can finish here. Why don’t you show Lucas the guestroom in the basement so he can get settled for the night?”
“Oh no, I can go to a hotel.”
She glared at me over the top of her glasses. “In the South? Visiting someone with a perfectly good guest room? Not on my watch mister.”
The basement was mostly a long, carpeted room stretching the entire footprint of the house with a few support poles down the middle. There was a large sectional sofa that was clearly well-loved, an older model TV, and a pile of colorful toys stacked in the corner. A full bathroom was on my right and a small bedroom on my left.
I pulled Jo in with my duffel bag. “What are the chances I can see more of you later?”
“Slim to none, unfortunately. We’re not married or engaged or even living together. There is no argument Mom can give Daddy that makes him okay with you having your way with his little girl. And I doubt you want to sit in church with the family tomorrow if we’re caught sneakin’ around.”
