Page 29 of Where You're Planted

“So I might wait here and catch Kai in a minute then, when art club ends.”

“Makes sense,” Jack said.

“You should come, too.”

“Ah.” Jack crossed his arms to keep from swatting at an errant bee drifting near his face. “Nah, I’m good.”

“You got other plans?”

Jack had plansnotto go out to some crowded bar and make awkward small talk over loud music, only to go home overstimulated and exhausted.

“Come on,” Ian pressed gently. “You never come out. Might be nice, what with Greta leaving and all, to make everyone feel better about things changing around here. Half of them are afraid of you, and the other half—” He cut himself off, scratching his forehead.

“The other half what?” Jack demanded. He knew a few of the girls filmed him around the grounds but wasn’t sure what to make of it.

“I just think it would boost morale.”

“If you’re hoping to boost morale, I’m not the guy you want.”

Ian shook his head and then frowned, “I mean, is there, like, a policy against it?”

“Against what?”

“Upper management and the rest of the staff…fraternizing or whatever.” He glanced furtively into the courtyard again.

“No. No policy.” Which meant Jack sounded like an asshole who just didn’t want anything to do with his staff. “Look, I’m thirty-seven. I can’t go out late and recover like I used to. I need a full eight hours of sleep to function.”

Ian laughed. “That’s it, huh? You’re too old? Greta came out last month.”

“She did?”

“Yep.”

Jack shook his head. He was going to have to say it. “I prefer to keep things uncomplicated, you know? Separation of church and state. Don’t shit where you eat. All that. Clear boundaries. Hell, I’m the guy they’re probably complainingabout over those drinks anyway, right? I don’t needrelationshipswith them, and they don’t really want that from me anyway. We don’t need some deep emotional bond here.”

Margie interrupted, drawling, “Theeeere she is,” her voice low and silky, just as footsteps scuffed up the walk behind Jack and Ian.

Jack turned and came nearly face-to-face with Tansy, whose slipper shoes were stealthy-quiet on the pavers. She was wearing a lavender dress with bright orange piping and a pinched, annoyed expression. Already mad at him. He immediately wondered how much of his speech she’d heard and just how dickish he’d sounded. Maybe this was just her default setting when it came to him.

“Come on out, babygirl,” Margie purred. “Don’t be coy.” And Jack realized now that she hadn’t been weirdly announcing Tansy’s arrival. She’d found the queen.

“Hey, Tansy,” Ian offered affably.

She was briefly distracted by the spectacle of Margie flirting with bees but soon turned a genuine smile on him. “Hello, Ian. Nice to see you.”

A long, deliberate pause pulsed around them as she intentionally didn’t acknowledge Jack. Then, she continued into the courtyard.

The breeze danced with her skirt, reminding Jack yet again how good her thigh had felt in his grip last Friday. She’dlaughed, too, and that had done something unsettling to him. He’d liked it far too much.

He’d read far too much into it as well, he guessed, because she was right back to her usual mode with him—annoyed and vaguely hostile.

Movement snagged Jack’s attention back from her retreating form. A bee danced in front of Ian’s face, and he lurchedsideways, stumbling to his hands and knees and then throwing his arms protectively around his head. With an embarrassed huff, he came back up, his pale cheeks blushing fiercely, glasses skewed, and explained, “I’m actually super allergic to bees.”

“Then what the fuck are you doing here?”

A dopey smile stretched across his face before he cleared his throat and said, his voice deeper than usual, “Yeah, so, I’m gonna…” He hitched his thumb after Tansy then jogged to catch up to her and Kai.

“How much longer is this gonna take?” Jack asked Margie.