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“You know, watermelon and basil can go together with a little feta cheese. Have you ever tried it?”
“No. Sounds too sophisticated for someone like me. Have you?”
“I had it once with Vig—someone I used to hang out with. It’s good. I think that’s enough herbs to get us started. Maybe we should look at the flowers next.”
“Okay.”
She started to push the shopping cart, but he stopped her with a hand covering hers. “I got it. You lead and I’ll follow.”
Luna made note of his cheekbones again. They were sharp enough to cut right through her bullshit and she liked that.
As they passed an endcap, she grabbed a small bubblegum pink pot holding a miniature rose bush blooming with dozens of sunrise-orange buds. She placed it in the cart with the herbs. A single brow raised on Sam’s forehead.
“For you to give to your mom,” she said before continuing to shop.
Chapter Fifteen
With Schnell RidgeApartments having a nicer patio, Sam spent some of his downtime there. He liked chatting with Nicholas, who enjoyed having a place to sit. He originally worried the plants would die under his care, as his father predicted, or he’d forget to water them. Instead, he grew to enjoy taking care of the little garden and checking the tomato plants for new growth and buds. Nicholas, a proficient cook, assured him that summer garden tomatoes were the best thing on earth. The older man even mentioned picking up a small grill for an outdoor cookout. Sam wondered why he didn’t do all this sooner and thought maybe he’d take an interest in cooking as well.
When Sam went to his mother’s house to do work on the house, he presented her with the small pot of miniature roses chosen by Luna. For a moment, her eyes became the bright, glittering pieces of silver again instead of heavy rain clouds.
“You got this for me, Sammy?” She hugged the plant to her chest and brought the buds to her nose. It hadn’t been easy riding his motorcycle with the pot wedged between his thighs, moving slow enough to prevent the wind from snapping the delicate branches or whipping off all the petals, but it had been worth it to see his mom smile for once when greeting him.
“You seem different today,” his mother said as he took out tools and gloves from the storage compartment on the back of his bike. “You’re doing good?”
“Yeah, I’m doing okay.” He raked his hands through his hair before putting on his baseball hat, feeling optimistic for once.
“You still need a haircut.” She clucked her tongue in disapproval.
He walked with her up the porch toward the front door of her house. “You ever done any gardening?” Sam never remembered her doing it, but maybe she’d surprise him.
His mother’s expression reflected confusion. “Gardening? One plant isn’t going to make me a master gardener, Sam. I’m pretty sure I don’t have a green thumb.”
“I brought out the old patio set, you know, the one with the red and yellow flowers. We put plants in the barrels, like herbs and tomatoes. If you’re ever out by the apartments, maybe you can stop by sometime to see.”
The patio setup wasn’t much to get excited about but at least it was different. He didn’t realize how much he craved something new until after it happened. It would also be nice to visit with his mom on the little patio and she could see what he’d done. Perhaps Nicholas would come out to chat and Luna might—
Okay, he was getting ahead of himself. One patio set and a few plants didn’t make a block party. It was just…maybe Luna had been right about some things. Making small, seemingly surface beauty changes, while it didn’t fix everything, did make things less grim, warmer, like her. These were fixes that were manageable instead of frustrating or overwhelming.
He wanted to be with Luna more. Would it be weird if he bought more barrel planters? She’d likely see through his scheme. Or he could wait until she approached him for another apartment improvement project. Her brain appeared to always be buzzing with ideas so it wouldn’t be too long.
While he had assumed Luna would be a prissy sort of person, she surprised him by being a woman who didn’t mind getting her hands dirty in order to accomplish her goal, whether it be painting cabinets, helping Zabe rearrange her bedroom, or sitting beside him on the patio and using bare hands to sift through soil. If Luna was a flower, she wouldn’t be any of the carefully cultured ones found at the nursery. Instead, she’d be like the pretty, untamed wildflowers scattering across the slopes along the California mountain highways. She was fearless, confident, as though there wasn’t any part of her she’d allowed to be contained. He didn’t even mind when she teased him by tipping the bill of his hat downward, blocking his face. With the sun highlighting her hair and warming her skin, there wasn’t any part of her he didn’t find mesmerizing.
“I’m sure it all looks very nice, Sammy,” his mother said, interrupting his thoughts.
“The tenants seem to like it.”
His mom studied him. “The new tenant is working out okay? I believe you said she was a young lady living by herself.”
“Yeah. She settled in okay.”Settledwas putting it mildly compared to the truth of what Luna had done to her apartment, but he wasn’t about to reveal the whole thing. His mother wouldn’t care since she had removed herself from property business, but Sam wasn’t willing to take any chances of word getting to his dad.
“What’s her name?”
“Luna.”
“Is she pretty?”
He shook his head. “Mom. She’s a tenant. That seems like asking for trouble.” Doing anything with Luna would be asking for trouble whether she was a tenant or not.
