Page 24 of A Secret In The Garden

“I’m sorry, I’m not following. What do you mean would I prefer if you did the weeding?”

Sowerby had a fittingly sour expression that showed his distaste of the situation. “Mr. Blackwood has placed me at your disposal, miss. I am to be your assistant in the gardens for as long as you require it.”

What?

“Jasper asked you to help me?” I muttered, hardly able to believe what I was hearing.

“Yes, miss, Mr. Blackwood did, and though I’d rather pull thorns from my skin, I will do as he asks.”

I could hardly believe what I was hearing. In the kitchen last night, Jasper had heard me breaking down about the lack of progress, and now he was giving me extra hands.

The letters from his mother seemed to prove his side of the story—he didn’t kill his family. What happened between them, I didn’t know, but in his eyes, they were obviously still alive.

I looked down and fought the smile off my face, but it refused to leave me. Jasper’s kind gesture seemed to hit more places inside me than if a firework had gone off in my stomach. It felt like maybe there was a light at the end of the tunnel, though I still needed to make sense of it.

I paused again as I looked at Sowerby’s dour face. “I can’t possibly ask you to do work in the weeds and dirt knowing you’ll absolutely hate it. You seem like the type to wisely avoid that type of labor. Besides, you’ll get your fine clothes all dirty.” A nice way of saying you’re going to be a complete dick and take it out on me if you have to get dirt on your nice clothes.

His chest puffed out a bit as we continued to walk.

“Nonsense, I’m admittedly reluctant to work in the conservatory again, but I’m not afraid of dirt,” he said as if I’d truly offended him.

“Again?” I asked, a tingle of nervousness tickling at the back of my mind.

“Yes,” he said as we finally got to the hallway that led to the conservatory. “Ages ago, I was the head gardener for Mrs. Blackwood before she…left us. I was the only one she trusted to work alongside her in the conservatory.”

Something in his words felt eerie.

The conservatory door opened abruptly, and Jasper pushed through them, soaked from head to toe, sopping wet with streaks of water trickling down the lines of muscle that rippled over his chest and stomach, wearing nothing but a pair of thin, slate-gray shorts.

“The pond is fixed!” he declared triumphantly.

I clamped my mouth closed before too much drool fell out.

Oh my god.

Ohmigod. Look at his chest…

OHMIGOD. “Sorry? You fixed the pond? But…that was going to take me weeks. Sowerby and I couldn’t quite figure it out!” I said in shock.

“Not anymore, my friend. It will be ready for fish as soon as the water parameters are in order,” he said with a bright, handsome grin as he pushed the wet locks of brown hair off his forehead. It bunched up in loose curls, more unkempt than normal. He looked so rugged and undone—such a stark contrast to his normal tidy appearance.

The pond was fixed.

I wanted to lick him.

The pond was fixed. That just shaved two weeks of work off my timeline not having to send its custom pumps out for repair.

He’d called me friend. It felt like a good thing, so why did it twist my gut?

“You’re kidding!” I screamed excitedly. I tightened my mouth to keep my untrustworthy tongue inside and moved to shake his hand or pat him on the back or… I wasn’t actually sure what I was planning to do, but my body went rogue, my arms wrapped around his neck and squeezed in a loose but very friendly hug. “That is amazing! You’re the best!”

Jasper’s warm brown eyes softened at my words.

Before my arms had the chance to drop back down to my sides, his were around my waist, pulling me tightly against him. As if it was the most natural movement I’d ever made in all my life, my arms tightened at the back of his neck, causing the front of my body to press into his naked, wet chest. His broad shoulders and bare arms curled around the edges of my body, funneling me into a spot that felt like I’d been built to fill. Every worry and concern I’d had in the last two weeks floated out and away from my tired body, and my eyes closed of their own accord as my chin rested on the top of his (very solid) shoulder. I felt a similar heavy sigh to the one that wanted to leave me leave Jasper’s chest. It was the first time I’d ever experienced a hug that seemed to actually alter the chemicals of my body. And what was even more astounding was that somehow there was nothing sexual about it.

In that hug, it was like I felt a part of my soul push against his and suddenly everything was different.

Realizing time wasn’t actually standing still for us even though it felt like it, we both pulled back, our eyes locked, and our arms dropped away from the embrace. But our gazes seemed to be in their own entanglement and didn’t want to break away.