Her brain shut down.
Her body vibrated with pain.
Don’t be stupid, Sophia.
You’re so stupid.
Why do I have to have such a stupid child?
They’re just words, breathe.
Sticks and stones, Soph.
So why did she f
eel like her heart was being ripped from her chest?
You don’t always need a plan. Sometimes you just need to breathe, trust, let go, and see what happens.
“Ma.” Lennox Hogan couldn’t believe she’d dragged him and his two brothers, Levi and Lochlan, out for this. Building a garden two months too early. “It’s not gonna work, Ma.”
“Don’t you ‘Ma’ me, young man. I want this garden done, and I want it done today. When I told you boys I was going to do it, you refused to let me. This,” she swept her arm across the hole they’d dug, “was all your idea.”
He really hated when she was right. They did refuse to let her do it, not wanting her to hurt her hip again after just losing her walking cane after her last fall. Her previous brilliant idea had been to paint the ceiling. His mother, the amazing woman who’d birthed him and his two younger brothers, a woman he respected more than anyone, decided to climb up a ladder, by herself, to paint a vaulted ceiling that even with the extension didn’t mean she could reach the thirty feet needed. She’d fallen six feet to the ground, thus breaking her hip. He shuddered to think of what could have happened had she been at the top.
Now she had crates of roses in varying colors off to the side, anticipating planting them all that day. Leaving Nox and his brothers no choice but to finish digging the fucking hole and building the outer box and small path she wanted going straight through.
“C’mon, Ma, you can’t be serious?” his youngest brother Lochlan groaned. At twenty-two years old, he was pretty sure the other man would rather be out at some park chasing tail on such a nice day. Not in his mother’s garden.
Arching her brow, she sipped her sweet tea, pointedly putting her feet up as if to say, get to it, before grabbing the book she’d been reading. Some new romance she insisted she needed since she didn’t have their father anymore. He passed four years ago from lung cancer.
When he’d first been diagnosed, his mother had been inconsolable, but within only a matter of hours, she knew they had to make the time they had left as amazing as they could. His father’s cancer could have been manageable, but his quality of life would have been shit. Finding it at stage four, they knew they were going to lose him. It took nearly eight months for him to deteriorate right before their eyes. In that time, Nox and his brothers had sent them on the Alaskan cruise they had always planned to go on when they were older.
It was a memory their mother looked upon fondly now. She had taken as many pictures of him as she could. If someone came to her house, she was sure to show you them all whether you’d seen them a thousand times before or not.
Lennox grew up watching the love his parents had for one another, and from an early age, he always knew that would be his biggest goal in life. To love so hard that when your other half was gone, you could still live. Live to be the you they always knew you were.
He was a rough around the edges kind of guy, and at twenty-seven, he was aware that he still had time to find the right girl for him. His dad had always told him he’d know who she was because when he laid eyes on her, his palms would sweat and his heart would race so fast and hard it would feel like it was about to pound out of his chest. Plus, he’d say the dumbest thing he could. If that scared her away, then he’d have to work harder for her. If it didn’t, then he’d be golden and know she would be perfect.
The brothers spent the afternoon digging and rototilling the sixteen by sixteen foot rose garden to be planted. Blood, sweat, and tears would be tossed in that sucker by each of them. Levi had blisters on all but four fingers, Loch had cried in relief when the rain started for about four point six seconds of relief, and he’d been sweating like a pig for hours. Owning the only specialty mechanics shop in town, you would think he should be used to working with the heat. Except in his garage, he had air conditioning. If his men saw him now, they’d be calling him all kinds of names.
“Sophia!” he heard his mother call happily.
Wiping his brow, he ignored her and her friend, wanting to just finish what they were doing. It wasn’t until he noticed his brothers weren’t working that he realized they were damn near drooling at something behind him.
Turning, the sun blinded him for a fraction of a second. Blinking away the spots in his eyes, he felt sucker-punched when he saw the beauty standing before him, cheerily chatting with his mother.
Whoa. She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Long blonde hair wind-blown into a messy style that looked like it took her hours to do, light green eyes that stood out with her natural red-tinted lips, topped off by a cupid’s bow top lip. The fullness in her bottom lip made him want to nibble on it and see how long it would take to plump up to a bee-stung look.
She had an hourglass figure with wide hips meant for a man’s hands to hold onto while he loved her from behind. Her cinched waist led to perky breasts perfect to fit in his palms. Not too big, and not too small. Her light yellow sundress drew his eyes to her in such a way that they couldn’t focus on any one spot.
“Nox.” Loch elbowed him just as the girls turned to them.
Checking for drool, Nox straightened his stance and dropped his shovel. He wasn’t prepared for the impact her soft voice would have on him. “Umm, hi, I’m Sophia Bennett.” She held out her hand, waiting for him to shake it, but all he could do was stare.
The prolonged silence had her fidgeting and slowly lowering her hand again, when one of his brothers coughed loudly in his ear, knocking him from his state of stupidity. “Sophia Bennett, as in Rebecca Bennett’s daughter?” More stupidity spewed from his lips. He knew Mrs. Bennett because she had been bringing in her Mercedes sedan every other week with one fake problem or another. Lately, she had gotten handsier than he liked, so he was trying to avoid her like the plague.
The moment her mother’s name came out of his mouth, though, Sophia paled and seemed to draw into herself. His mom caught it right away, knowing the trouble he’d been getting from her mother. She gave him a dirty look.