I looked up at the sound of Gabriella’s voice. “Hey. What are you doing out here?”

“I’m bored.” She leaned against the doorframe and looked longingly around the greenhouse. “Wow. That’s a lot of plants.”

“It’s a very big garden,” I joked. “Don’t you have one of your own to be working on?”

“No. The soil has been turned over and the patio is getting laid tomorrow. I have nothing to do now that I’ve cleared out all my emails and answered a ton of questions from random people.”

“What?”

“Nothing.” She shook her head. “Adelaide is writing, and Eva is at work, so I’m bored. I was hoping you might have something to amuse me.”

“Why are you hovering in the doorway?”

“I’m not allowed in the greenhouse.” She pouted. “So I’m not coming in.”

My lips twitched. “You can come in the greenhouse, princess.”

Her face lit up like a child’s, and the happiness that flashed across her eyes made my heart flip.

Fuck.

“Really? You’ll let me come in?”

“You can come in,” I repeated, grinning.

“Ooh!” She made a series of little squeaky, excited noises as she carefully stepped over the threshold. “Oh, wow. So many plants.”

“Don’t—” Ah. “Don’t touch anything. Please.”

“Oh.” She brought her hands back into her body. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s just that everything is organised in a system, and if stuff gets moved now it’s going to make my job a whole lot harder, that’s all.”

“I understand. What’s in here? It’s like Christmas.” She spoke with such glee that I couldn’t stop bloody smiling at her.

“It’s just a greenhouse, Gabriella.”

“Yes, but nobody is allowed in here. But I’m in here. Hee-hee.” She squealed the last noise.

“Yes, but there’s a difference between you and everyone else.”

“What’s that?”

“I like you.”

She looked up, lips parted, and blushed. She looked as though she was about to say something when something caught her eye and she gasped. “What’s that? It’s pretty!”

“That is a rogue dahlia,” I replied, looking at gorgeous bloom that was white with a wine-red centre. “It was supposed to be planted out already, but someone messed up my winter storage system and it ended up in here, and now there’s no room for it in the dahlia bed.”

“It’s beautiful. I haven’t seen that colour before.” She leaned down, still clasping her hands to her stomach.

She reminded me of a child in a toy store, desperately trying not to touch all the things they want.

“That’s why I’m annoyed. It was a new addition,” I said wryly. “It is lovely.”

“So lovely,” she echoed. “Smells good, too.”

I paused after putting one tomato plant in the trailer. She was besotted with it, that much was clear.

“What if I can’t make her happy?” … “You never know unless you give it a bloody good go.”

Grandpa’s words flitted through my brain as I looked at her.

“Do you want it?”

She jerked upright. “What do you mean?”