Page 21

*

Kelly sat atthe small glass table on the covered back patio. The night insects were singing a tune.

She scooped up some potato salad and shoved it in her mouth. Mom would admonish her for not waiting for Tate to sit down, but she needed to do something. For a few minutes as he’d held her and kissed her, she’d forgotten all about what they were going to talk about. In some ways, she wished the conversation wouldn’t happen. Didn’t want to face that she’d been so quick to judge based on circumstantial evidence. But what else was she supposed to think given his reputation as a player and the fact he was buying flowers every week? Making assumptions without the facts was the worst way to act. Facing her shortcomings and hearing Tate out was the least she could do.

Her mom told her to look for the signs, but was this a sign Tate was the man she could kick her heels up with? The man who could help her seize the fun her life had been lacking for so long.

“You forgot your wine.” Tate set the glass down before taking the seat opposite her. She noticed he didn’t have his own glass. Did that mean he thought she’d need some alcohol to fortify her during the conversation? Given she was going to have to admit she’d been wrong, maybe wine wasn’t such a bad idea.

No, drinking too much would do Tate a disservice. She needed to relax and listen to him. Yes, she’d told him she liked him and he’d responded in kind. But liking didn’t mean white picket fences. Liking meant seeing where it would go. Living in the moment and throwing caution to the wind.

“I can see a million thoughts running through your mind, Kel.”

“How do you know I’m thinking a lot of things?” she asked.

Tate reached across the table and brushed the flesh between her eyebrows. “Because you have two little lines here. I noticed them when you were thinking about the festival when we were at dinner.”

“Oh.” Tate noticed that about her? What else had he noticed? She forked more potato salad into her mouth. Normally, she savored Betty Lou’s salad, but tonight, it could’ve been full of chilies and she wouldn’t have noticed the heat.

“To understand why I keep getting flowers, I need to start the story just before my dad had his stroke.” He took a bit of his chicken and swallowed. “I’m well aware that the town thinks I’m a player, and I’ll admit I did date an awful lot. I was having fun, and the girls I dated were looking for the same thing.”

Tell me something I didn’t already know.But she didn’t voice her thoughts. Her plan was to listen, absorb, and then decide what she was going to do.

He smiled ruefully, as if he could totally read her mind again. “But like all things, my so-called reputation has been exaggerated. It’s been a few months since I’ve had a date. Even before Dad had his stroke, I turned my attention to the farm, making it a success and carrying on my family’s legacy is my passion. Yet the stories still circulated. Could be because I went out of town a few weekends to take some workshops on the latest techniques in organic farming.

“Then Dad had his stroke and everything changed. In a blink of an eye, I saw my strong dad become almost a shell of himself. We found him too late for a tPA to help him with a faster recovery. We’ve had no choice but to put him in a rehab center and hope that he would get back to as near normal as possible. He will never be like he was before the stroke.”

Kelly brushed her fingers across the top of his hand. Immediately, he turned and closed his fingers around hers. He looked up and smiled, but sadness tinged the edges of it.

It hit her then how much of a burden had been placed on his shoulders. Trey, his oldest brother, the one who, in society’s eyes, should take the farm over simply because of birth order, was off playing baseball all over the country. Tyler—well, she’d seen with her own eyes that his focus was on his vines and nothing else. Which left Tate being the main caregiver while making sure the farm continued running without any hitches.

She had to face the fact she’d misjudged him and had believed the town gossip when she shouldn’t have.

“I’m sorry about your dad. I’m sure once he gets back home he’ll improve even more. Do you know when that will be?”

“The rehab center is helping him a lot. He’s got more movement than they expected he would, but he still has periods where he has trouble forming what he wants to say. As for when he’ll be home, they’re not sure, but I hope it’s soon. I miss him. The house is really lonely without him.”

While her father never had to go to a rehab center, Kelly could imagine that they weren’t a party place. “That’s why Mom sold the house I grew up in when Dad died, and she moved to a smaller place closer to town. I guess you don’t have that luxury.”

Tate chuckled. “Yeah, that’s not really an option. Can’t run the farm from a little house in town.”

“I suppose that would be rather difficult to do.” She took a deep breath. “You said the flowers are for the center. Are they for the nurses?”

“No, but they certainly deserve to have something pretty to look at. As you can imagine, the center isn’t always a barrel of laughs. People are there for a reason—to recover. Some are going to be there for months. Others not for long at all. But, as I walked past the residents’ rooms to see my dad, I noticed how dull and lifeless every single one was. It was depressing. After the third visit I knew I wanted to do something, but I wasn’t sure what.” He pushed his plate to the center of the table, most of the food untouched.

The man in front of her continued to blow her misconceptions about him out the window. Her mom told her there was more to Tate than met the eye, and she was right.

“The flowers,” she said into the quiet that had settled around them.

“Yeah. I had just gone to the diner and had some breakfast. I had a meeting with the doctor to go over Dad’s treatment plan. As I was walking back to my car, I passed your shop. I smiled at the beautiful arrangements. I kept walking for a little bit but then stopped and went back. If they could make me smile, they could make anyone smile. So I went in and bought the arrangement. When I got to the center, I handed it to the girls at reception and said they were for a resident. Any resident. They could choose whoever they wanted to give them to. When I left, one of the girls stopped me and said the recipient cried. In all this patient’s time at the center, no one had ever done something like that for her.”

He shrugged as if it weren’t a big deal. Kelly knew differently. His simple action had brought someone so much joy. And to know that it was her arrangement that helped warmed her heart. Flowers were a universal giver of joy, and she loved being a part of it.

“After that you decided to do it every time you visit your dad,” she surmised.

“Yep. I never know who gets them and the staff doesn’t tell the residents that it’s me who’s bringing the flowers. I overhead a resident the other day saying that he’d been visited by the Flower Magician. I liked knowing that even men enjoy receiving flowers.”

“Oh, Tate, that’s so awesome, and I love the name Flower Magician. Flowers are magical.” Her heart swelled at the humbleness of the man in front of her. “Thank you for telling me. And I’m sorry for accusing you of using the flowers as a kiss-off gift. That was wrong of me. I’ve made assumptions when I really shouldn’t have.”