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“I’ll be right there.”
“Thank you.”
I disconnected the call and looked toward the sky, counting to ten to calm myself. This was going to be fine. They’d figure it out. Problems always had solutions, so we just needed to find the right one. It only looked bad to me because this wasn’t my area of expertise. I’d hand it off to Trevor, have him promise to make it right in time for showtime, and I’d go on with the next item on my to-do list.
Two minutes later, I saw the door to the groundskeeper’s workshop open. It was an unimposing green building tucked back into the trees, a blanket of vines and Spanish moss acting to further camouflage it so it blended in with the scenery.
Relief flooded me, knowing that his coming out put me one step closer to moving on with the day. But when he turned to face me, my breath caught in my throat. Well,hello, Trevor.
The new head groundskeeper was not at all like the last one. That guy had been in his mid-fifties with a beer belly so round it told me everything I needed to know about his life when he wasn’t at work.
But Trevor? Trevor didn’t look like thatat all. He was tall, definitely over six feet, with long jet-black hair tied up in a masculine man-bun on top of his head. He was practically built like Jason Momoa—because no one was actually built like him, though they might come close—and had the tattoos and light brown skin to go along with the look.
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t even see his tattoos since the groundskeepers wear olive-green coveralls while they worked around the property, but not Trevor. Trevor wore his coveralls with the top part hanging down behind him and nothing but a white tank top covering his broad chest.
When he reached me, he gave me a smile that I swear had one of those flashy little stars attached to his brilliantly white, perfect teeth. Did anyone else hear thatding? Just me? Good.
“Hi,” he said, extending his large hand for me to shake. “I’m Trevor. You must be Aria.”
I placed my hand in his, almost gasping when I saw how little it looked as he wrapped his large fingers around it. “I am. Aria. That’s me.”
He chuckled. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“You too.”
There was a pause, then he looked over at the stripe of green running through my pebbled path. “Ah, yeah. I can see the problem.”
“The problem?” I asked, still starstruck by this male model posing as a groundskeeper.
Trevor jerked his head toward the pond. “The clippings.”
Shaking my head, I blushed. “Sorry, right. Yes. What happened here?”
“Well, I wasn’t the only new hire this week, so I have a feeling one of the other new guys had something to do with this. I bet most of the guys who’ve been around for a while would know better.”
“Uh, yeah,” I replied, totally recovered now. “That path is definitely not a road for the lawnmowers. It’s for strolling around the pond or riding in a horse-drawn carriage.”
“Horse-drawn carriage, huh?”
“This couple is a little extra,” I said in the understatement of the year.
They were a lot more than alittleextra, and the cost of their wedding would prove it. Personally, I found it all to be a little much. If I ever got to plan my own wedding, it was going to be the polar opposite of this one. So simple. So tasteful. So understated. The biggest show of the night would be the love shared between me and my groom, not the horse-drawn carriage and flapping doves. But hey, it wasn’t my job to judge. It was my job to accommodate. Besides, the man who’d been the object of my secret wedding day fantasies since I was five didn’t look at me like that, so I probably shouldn’t even think about it.
“Well, it’s no problem, Aria,” Trevor said, winking at me. “I’ll take care of this right now. And I’ll figure out how it happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Sound good?”
I bit my lip. “I mean, it does sound good, but do you mind if I ask how you’re going to take care of it? I don’t see how you’ll be able to remove the grass clippings without removing the pebbles, and I really want this section of the path to look as perfectly raked as the rest of it.”
Trevor flashed me a grin that momentarily blinded me. “You let me worry about that. I’ll have it looking like it never happened. I’m sure you have plenty of other things on your plate today.”
He wasn’t wrong. I had so much on my plate that my plate was the size of Antarctica. With a nod, I returned his smile and decided to put my trust in him. I might not know who he is, but he probably wasn’t hired as the head groundskeeper for no reason. For all I knew, the guy was a miracle worker, and he’d make the whole thing go away before I knew it.
“Okay, thank you, Trevor. I really appreciate it.”
“Anytime. And hey, I’m sorry it happened. I take full responsibility for my guys, and I swear I’ll make sure nothing like this happens on event day again.”
“Thank you,” I said again, internally swooning just a tad.
Trevor and I said our goodbyes, and I took off toward the main house, ready to get to work on the next items for the day. I was sure the events team was already in the basement getting ready to bring up the tables and chairs, and I wanted to make sure they put them in the right places.
But as I walked away, a startling realization hit me like a ton of bricks. For the first time in, well, ever, I made it through an entire interaction with a handsome man without once thinking about Will. I hadn’t compared them. I hadn’t held myself back because the man before me wasn’t him. And I hadn’t wished that the flirtatious look in his eye had come from my brother’s best friend instead.
Hmm. Maybe there was hope for me yet. Oh, wait. Was that guilt that I felt inking its way toward my heart? Okay, maybe not, then.
