Bad Boys Do (Donovan Brothers Brewery 2)

“Um.” Tessa glanced around, still confused, but then she nodded. “Okay. Sure. I’ve never done much to Mom’s old garden, though. I’m not sure how much help I’ll be.”

“It’s simple. Come on. I’ll show you.”

He found a new spot for the bush, and explained to Tessa how to dig the hole. How deep to make it, how much improved soil to add. He showed her the drip system and explained how it worked with the xeriscaping as he added a small line to the new location.

“Maybe I should have you come over to my place,” she said. “With all those huge bushes, I must be using a ton of water.”

“No, Mom’s garden is established, and those trees are fifty years old. The roots are deep and they don’t need nearly as much water. The grass gets a lot of shade from the mature trees. If you installed all that landscaping today, you use ten times as much water to keep it alive.”

She paused in her digging to wipe a hand across her sweaty forehead. “How do you know all this stuff? Is this from when you mowed lawns that summer in high school?”

“No.”

Tessa rolled her eyes. “No? Just no?”

Jamie stared hard at the narrow black tube he was trimming to just the right size. He cleared his throat. “I taught myself a lot while I was working back here.”

That seemed to satisfy her. She stared out at the garden before beaming a smile in his direction. “This is really neat, Jamie. I can’t believe you have this…” a wave of her hand took in the whole yard “…this secret life I know nothing about. You never said a word. Heck, I didn’t even know you were buying this house until you had to take time off for the closing.”

“Yeah, well…” Blood heated his face at the thought of all the secrets he’d kept. “We all have things we keep private. You certainly do.”

“That’s different. I kept my love life private because you didn’t want to know about it.”

“I never said that.”

“Oh, come on, Jamie. When I was fifteen you told me that any boy who touched me would be thrown in prison for statutory rape! That’s not exactly an opening for honest conversation.”

“I didn’t want to have a conversation! I wanted you to be scared shitless.”

“Yeah, I know. So how could I ever have been honest with you?”

“Maybe when you were older…?” he started, but Tessa was already shaking her head.

“Do you remember that sit-down talk before I started college? You told me if I ever got drunk at a party, I’d be kidnapped and raped and sold into white slavery.”

“Hey, it happens.”

“Does it, Jamie? Does it really?”

He cleared his throat and got back to work. “Parts of it.”

“My point is that I couldn’t talk to you about sex, but I don’t understand why you’d keep things like this to yourself.”

“I don’t know,” he said. Though he tried to think of something more to add, the only thing that popped into his head was the truth. “I don’t know,” he repeated dumbly.

Tessa put down her shovel and eased down to sit on the dirt, seemingly unconcerned about the damage to her shorts. She just put her chin on her knees and watched him work. “I miss you,” she murmured, and Jamie’s heart twisted.

“I’m right here.”

“Jamie, you— Actually, you are here right now. Right at this moment. But usually you’re not. Usually, you’re being charming with customers or you’re busy with the bar. Occasionally you stop by my place for Sunday dinner because I cornered you at work and made you promise. But then…then you’re just gone. You’re busy. You’re off to a life we know nothing about. And I miss you.”

Her words sunk deep, slicing through flesh and bone because they were true. “I’m sorry. You know how tense things are at work.”

“I know it’s tense, but we’re not just your job, Jamie. We’re your family.”

He set down the tube he’d been uselessly clutching for the past minute. He’d squeezed it so hard that his hand ached.

“You know…I sometimes think you were hit hardest by Mom and Dad’s deaths.”