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Morgan tossed more deadheads in the bright purple tub. “Mom always looks like a model for something you’d callGardening in Style Magazine. That skill missed me entirely. I didn’t know she was working today.”
“Darlie woke up with a stomach bug—which I figure is a euphemism for hangover. She’s a good girl, a good summer hire, and deserves to party now and then.”
“You and Mom are good bosses.” She swiped at some of the August sweat as she looked around. “You know, I’m never going to be satisfied with a tiny yard now. I’m thoroughly spoiled between playing here and at Miles’s house. Nina started it, and we really did make our little yard pretty. But now I’m going to want rock gardens and shade gardens and cutting gardens.”
“And Zen frog fountains.”
“Absolutely. Vermont winters are long, so I want every bloom andblossom I can squeeze in for spring and summer and right through the fall.”
“You’re staying.”
Surprised, Morgan glanced back. “Where would I go?”
“Anywhere you want, my baby’s baby. I can hope it’s here, but that’s for me and your mother. You didn’t have much choice coming here, but you’ve made the best of it. Now you’ve had half a year or so to settle in and get a feel, so staying’s a choice.”
“It is.” Hunkering down, Morgan tugged up a few stray weeds. “I didn’t know what I was going to do when I got here. You made that room for me, you and Mom, and I didn’t know what to do about that. Then I got the job at the resort. It’s not what I planned, all these years. Not my own place, but it’s my place.”
She shrugged, looked up. “I’ve had all these moments, with you, with Mom, at work, alone in this wonderful house. I’ve seen how you and Mom live together, as friends as much as family. And realize I blocked myself off from that because I had something to prove.”
“And did you? Prove it?”
“I did. What happened with Gavin Rozwell was all about him and really nothing about me. I worked hard, and I made a life because I wanted to, because I could. But I was missing this, Gram, this moment right now, because I was so determined to do it all myself, for myself. I was missing really knowing you, really knowing Mom, and that means missing really knowing me, doesn’t it?”
Smiling, Olivia reached down, gripped Morgan’s chin, gave it a gentle wiggle. “You get your good sense from me.”
“Mom’s soft, isn’t she? Softer than you and me?”
“Always has been. The glass is half-full for Audrey, and more, waiting to be filled up the rest of the way. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t have spine.”
“I never saw it in her until I came to stay here.”
“She held me up when your grandfather died.” Olivia looked over toward the woodshop because she could, and always would, picture him there.
“She was my rock when the world fell out from under me. Took over the shop for weeks. I was going to sell the business.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“I couldn’t see past the next minute, much less into tomorrow. The love of my life, gone in a minute, and how could that be? But she wouldn’t let me give up, kept holding me up until I found my feet again. She let you go,” Olivia said gently, “because you needed to go. And that took love and strength.”
Then Olivia sighed. “He fucked her up. Let’s just say it and move on. The Colonel fucked her up good and proper. But she found her feet again. So have you. We’re Nash women, after all.”
“We are, so I’m going to tell you, woman-to-woman, Nash-to-Nash, I’ve thought about leaving because of Rozwell. Because if they don’t catch him and he comes after me again, he’ll come here. You and Mom are here.”
Before Olivia could speak, Morgan held up a hand. “And I know what you’re going to say. The Nash women can handle it, and him.”
“That’s exactly right.” A finger poke into Morgan’s belly emphasized the point.
“And I believe that. I want to stay here, so many reasons why, but I couldn’t if I didn’t believe that.”
“Good.” Straightening, Olivia stretched her back. “Now I’m going to poke in and ask if one of those many reasons is Miles Jameson.”
“He’s definitely in there. It’s one day, or mostly one weekend, at a time, but he’s in there.”
“Is that enough for you? The one weekend at a time?”
“I didn’t expect to have that. That’s on me, too,” Morgan added as they moved around the garden. “I didn’t really make time for dating, much less relationships. I was so focused on the goals.”
“Not a thing wrong with focus or goals.”
