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She bristled. “Don’t dismiss me because I don’t have the design degree.”

“Get off your high horse, Jessie, and talk to a mere mortal. The tea was good.”

“Huh?” When did he start dropping riddles?

“Miss Millie wanted to share your citrus tea blend. Said you were cultivating tea up here and had plans to start a nursery.”

As he spoke, she didn’t dare look at him. She felt like she’d been stripped bare—her dreams on display—so she tugged and gripped and strained, wondering what tool she should use to clean out the pond. She knew how to grow, graft, nurture and transplant plants, but she’d never had to excavate such a massive site. She’d figured she’d take a small area at a time and clean it out back to the bones so she’d get a vision, not only for a beautiful garden for people to enjoy, perhaps hosting small events, but also a nursery. But now with Chloe’s party, she had to not only kick the cleanup into high gear, she’d also need to do a lot of planting. Good thing she had the greenhouses upgraded and repaired after years of disuse.

He probably thought it sounded stupid. Girly. Too niche.

“Pretty impressive, Jay.”

Jay. The memory shot through her brain and clogged her throat. Her eyes weirdly burned. She blinked and tugged harder, not willing to come up empty-handed. She was getting closer and still had hours to do. Her grip slipped, and she tipped over, sitting down hard.

Her startled cry cut off as the brackish water closed over her head, and icy water that felt dense and slimy filled her waders.

Gross.

Jessica stood up quickly, eyes scrunched shut as tightly as her mouth.

Gross. Gross. Gross. It was probably the grossest thing that had ever happened to her. She wanted to scream but was terrified that she’d get a taste of the water and she’d be poisoned. As it was, she felt slippery, chilled to the bone and too heavy to walk, much less heave herself out of the water.

“Here.” Storm took her hand, tugged her forward a couple of awkward steps and then she felt his hands on the sides of her breasts, and as she slapped at him, he lifted her out of the pond, like she was a child. Water streamed off her and the stink wafted around like an evil spirit.

Storm wiped off her face with a soft cloth. “For a small fee, I won’t post this picture.”

She heard the teasing laughter in his voice. She blinked up at him. He had a blue bandana in his hand that he used to carefully wipe her lips.

“Did you swallow any?”

Mutely she shook her head. That was one small mercy in this humiliating disaster.

“Go take a shower.” He propelled her toward the house. “Then we’ll talk.”

“About what?”

“Got blueprints?”

Her hands fisted. Of course she didn’t have blueprints, and naturally that would be the first detail he’d poke at. “I knew you’d be bossy.”

“It’s good you’re prepared along with being mulish. Some things never change. Go wash up; we’ll talk after.”

They had nothing to talk about. Nothing, especially now. He’d never be able to take her seriously. He had the degree. The knowledge. She only had the dream, and when she’d been fully prepared, he’d always jumped in, took over, oozing confidence and charm, and everyone had looked to him to make it all work out.

No thanks.

Now he’d think he had the upper hand because she had a tight timeline and he’d be able to tease her about looking and smelling like a drowned rat.

“I don’t have anything to say,” she said proving his point that yes, she was still resistant to advice as well as stubborn. Her sisters had every right to interfere. This was now all of their property. But she could do this. She could.

“Good. You can listen.”

Chapter Five

Jessica lingered inthe shower. Why wouldn’t she? She was cold. Filthy. Stinky. Total yuck. But she was also avoiding Storm. Brent. Why couldn’t she just think of him as Brent? A professional landscape architect she didn’t want to work with. She knew she had to face him.

She admitted it. She’d crossed into coward territory.