Read the book: «The Second Promise»

CHAPTER ONE

MAEVE ARDEN CONSIDERED a big part of her job as a garden designer was noticing things about her prospective clients. With Will Beaumont the first thing she noticed was his eyes. They were cobalt blue, logical and assessing, but with a hint of humor in their depths.

“Hi,” she greeted Will, who’d just opened his front door to her. “I’m Maeve.”

“Ah, Art Hodgins’s daughter. He talks about you a lot.”

“Art talks a lot, period,” she said cheerfully. “But I wouldn’t have him any other way.”

Her father spoke frequently of Will’s sterling qualities as a boss but had somehow neglected to mention his good looks. Will’s brown hair was damp, his feet bare beneath freshly pressed chinos, and he wore a Hawaiian shirt. Not exactly Maeve’s image of the head of a company, but she liked the incongruity. It made him, and therefore her job, more interesting. “Nice shirt.”

With a half smile, Will Beaumont fingered the hem of dark swirling blues and fluorescent pinks and greens. “I wear it to annoy my accountant.”

Maeve, who dressed for more practical purposes in work boots, khaki cargo pants and a white muslin shirt buttoned over a black crop top, grinned. She removed her hat to fan her face. Wisps of long dark hair blew up with each pass of the broad brim. It was only seven-thirty on a January morning and already the day was a scorcher.

Will slipped his feet into the leather thongs sitting beside the welcome mat. “Come. I’ll show you the garden.”

“I’ve already seen that it’ll be a big job.” The front yard was choked with weeds and overgrown shrubbery, and dried stalks drooped from stone urns flanking the steps. The large two-story art deco house done in cream and pale gold was beautiful; the garden, a mess.

Will led the way around the three-car garage, past a bungalow, to the back of the house. Maeve flipped open her clipboard and paused to do a rough sketch of the existing garden. The property was bounded by high walls and hedges, and sloped to a breathtaking view of Port Phillip Bay, with Melbourne in the distance.

“I understand you’re friends with other clients of mine, Alex and Ginger White,” she said, drawing in the Monterey Bay fig tree that dominated the south side of the terraced lawn.

“They raved about you,” Will said, watching over her shoulder. “Claimed you’re some kind of magician. I was very impressed with what you did with their place.”

“Thank you.” If Alex and Ginger thought she was a magician, it was because she’d done her homework. She’d made note of their clothes and furnishings, their car, even their choice of pets. She’d asked a million questions about their lifestyle, what they expected from their garden and how they planned to use it. Then she’d used her artistic and botanical skills to create a green space uniquely suited to them.

“This place has fantastic potential,” she said, flipping to a new page. “What exactly did you have in mind for your garden?”

He frowned over her question. “Low maintenance is the main thing,” he said briskly. “Maybe a few flowers…”

She sighed at his response. “Do you entertain business associates, friends…?”

“Yes, of course. I have a built-in barbecue up by the patio. And then there’s the pool.” He led her down stone steps to the second terrace, where blue water shimmered beneath the dazzling sun. Bordered by roses and hibiscus, the pool stretched about forty feet in length, with a marble sheen finish and blue mosaic tiling around the edge. Maeve noticed damp patches on the concrete surrounding the pool and drying footprints on the path leading up to the patio. She glanced at Will’s hair, drying on top to reveal gold streaks among the brown. He spent plenty of time in the water. Or on it.

“Very nice,” she said of the pool; then, fingering a badly blighted leaf, she added, “Pity about the roses.”

“Will they have to go?”

Hearing disappointment, she asked, “What is it you particularly like about them?”

He thought for a moment, hands deep in his pockets. “The scent, I suppose.”

“I know some wonderfully scented roses. Or I could plant gardenias. They have a beautiful fragrance.” She pulled a tape measure from the pocket of her cargo pants. “Hold this, please,” she said, giving the end to Will. She walked the length of the pool, wrote down the measurement on her clipboard and walked back, reeling the tape in until she was standing in front of him. “White flowers are lovely by moonlight. Do you swim at night?”

“Sure, when it’s warm enough.” His frank gaze washed over her, intimate and humorous. “Do you?”

“When the opportunity arises.” Maeve tugged, and the tape snapped back into its case. Those eyes.

She tipped back her hat to gaze up at the house, imagining it from the bay, with the cream stucco repeating the pale-gold sand at the base of the cliff and the sky reflecting blue in the plate-glass windows. Projecting, she saw it surrounded by lush healthy vegetation.

“It’s a wonderful house,” she said. “Awfully big for one person, though.” She glanced at him, eyebrows raised. “Or are you married?”

The humor faded from his expression. A tendon in his jaw twitched. “Is that relevant?”

“If I’m going to design your garden I’ll need to know something about you. I want to make the outdoor living space uniquely yours.”

“It’s not meant to be a work of art. Just needs a little pruning and weeding here and there.”

“Are you married?” Maeve asked again, reminding him of the question. And reminding herself that patience was a virtue.

“No.” He was massively indifferent.

“Fiancé?”

He frowned. “No.”

“Girlfriend?”

“Now, I know that’s not relevant.” He sounded exasperated, and slightly defensive, almost angry.

She waited silently. Sometimes people needed a couple of sessions to open up. Sometimes they talked so much she couldn’t get past the verbiage to their real selves. What she wanted was a glimpse of the real Will Beaumont, something she could translate into a garden that would provide him inner peace. After the turmoil in her life, she was a great believer in inner peace.

“Oh, all right,” he said at last. “Lately I’ve been thinking it’s time I settled down.” He shrugged off the admission with a disarming grin. “What can I say? My biological clock is ticking.”

Maeve pictured a white pavilion and elegantly dressed guests mingling, champagne glasses in hand, among the flowers. “The second terrace would be a wonderful place to have the wedding ceremony,” she said, enthusiastic. “You and your bride could stand here overlooking the bay, with your guests over there—”

“Are you a wedding planner or a gardener?”

Maeve’s cheeks grew warm. “Sorry.”

But she was getting somewhere at last. Women. Love. Marriage. Touchy subjects of some significance to Will.

Relevant? Definitely.

She set off along the wall that separated the first terrace from the second, feeling the heat emanating from the stones. Crickets shrilled in the dry undergrowth, and the scent of tea-tree from the cliffs below hung on the salt-laden air. Methodically, she cataloged the plants and shrubs that needed pulling or pruning or treating for disease, and those that could remain. Will followed a discreet three feet away.

“Pity the place was allowed to go so wild,” she commented as they came to an overgrown stand of rhododendrons. “Once weeds gain a foothold they’re hard to get out.”

Will snapped off a leaf and twirled the stem between his fingers. “I’ve been preoccupied with my business lately, and the garden kind of got away from me.”

Maeve took the leaf from his hand, inspected the underside and shook her head at the evidence of spider mite infestation.

“Is it serious?” he asked.

A faint groove curved around his lips. Under favorable conditions, she thought, a dimple might grow in that spot. “Nothing’s so serious it can’t be fixed.”

As she circled the bungalow, she examined a young gum tree that had sprung up next to the small brick building. Cracks spread through the concrete base where the tree’s roots burrowed underneath. “I’d recommend taking this tree out. Do you use the bungalow?”

“It’s my workshop.” Will opened the door and flicked on the light.

Maeve stepped into the room. The wide wooden benches lining the walls were scattered with voltmeters, coiled wire, batteries and plastic casings, plus odds and ends she couldn’t identify. “You don’t get enough of electronics at your factory?”

“I like to tinker.”

Turning to go, Maeve saw propped against the back wall behind the door a bright-yellow surfboard. A wet suit hung from a hook next to it. She had a sudden image of sun-sparkled water and Will riding the crest of a wave in a perfectly balanced crouch, his lean-muscled body sleek against a brilliant blue sky. “Do you do much surfing?”

Will ran a loving hand along the top curve of the surfboard. “When I was younger I almost turned pro.”

“Really? What made you choose engineering, instead?”

“I quit school when I was sixteen. Spent my nights working in a convenience store and my days at the beach. I’d sit out there for hours every day, waiting for the perfect wave, and all the while my mind would be ticking over, thinking about things.”

“Hopes? Dreams?” she asked. “Relationships?”

He flashed her a bemused glance. “Practical things. Physical things. How things work, like the thermostat in a cooling system or the electronics of a car. I had ideas for inventions, things I could build myself.” He made a sweeping gesture that took in his workshop and the projects under way. “With my limited knowledge I could only get so far…so I went back to high school and then on to university.”

She had to admire someone with that much drive and ambition. “It’s wonderful to be able to work at something you love.”

“Yeah… It’s good, but the business side of it…I don’t know. More headaches than it’s worth sometimes.” He broke off with a shake of his head. “You’re not interested in all this.”

“Yes, I am,” she said seriously. “I’m interested in everything about you.” She blushed, realizing how he might take that remark. “I mean—”

“Please don’t spoil it by explaining.” He smiled widely.

Bingo. One dimple, on the right side of his mouth. Great grin, warm and teasing. Some woman was going to be very lucky….

Maeve moved across to the Monterey Bay fig tree. Its broad limbs and glossy dark leaves gave welcome shade to that half of the yard. Stepping over the high, ridged roots, she ran a hand caressingly over a thick smooth limb. “This would be a perfect place for a swing,” she suggested idly, pulling her pencil from behind her ear to make a note on her clipboard.

“Or a tree fort.” His gaze was lost in the soaring tangle of greenery. She couldn’t see his expression, but she heard the wistful note in his voice.

Every once in a while clients came along who subconsciously communicated an inner need or a desire for something more from their garden than simply a place to relax and entertain. Such clients, and the gardens Maeve created as an expression of their inner selves, demanded her greatest intuitive and interpretative skills. Yet they were also the most rewarding.

Looking at Will Beaumont, successful owner of his own electronics manufacturing company, she wouldn’t have thought him the type to need her special gifts. But the tingling in her nerve endings as her gaze went from the neglected grounds to his pensive blue eyes suggested Will might be just such a client.

“Do you plan on having kids?” she asked, suppressing the inevitable ache she felt when she talked about children. Ordinarily, she didn’t initiate such conversations, but she had a job to do.

His eyes lit. “Absolutely. I love kids.”

Maeve walked on quickly. From her perspective, his enthusiasm seemed painfully innocent.

“Do you have children?” he asked, falling into step.

She shook her head, stumbling on a tuft of grass. Not anymore. Never again. She said nothing. Any answer she gave would only lead to questions she’d spent the past five years avoiding.

They’d come full circle, and once again stood where the grass ended at the asphalt driveway. “If you’re going to have kids, you’ll want to fence off the backyard,” Maeve suggested briskly.

“True,” Will agreed, watching her. “Do you want some water? You look a little pale.”

“I’m fine,” she said. “Really.” She flipped through her clipboard to a plastic sheet encasing business cards, extracted one and handed it to him. “This fellow does specialty wrought-iron fencing for me. Since a wedding is in your future plans, we could do something appropriate for the occasion—a kissing gate. I know they’re a little old-fashioned, but they’re very romantic.”

“A kissing gate? I’ve never heard of that.” His dimple reappeared. “You’ll have to show me how to use it.”

She plucked the card from his fingers and slid it back into its slot. “That will be a job for the future Mrs. Beaumont.”

“The position is vacant,” he teased. “All comers considered.”

For Maeve, flirting was more bittersweet than fun when there could be no future in it. She smiled and changed the subject. “Shall I draw up a plan and prepare a price estimate to rejuvenate your garden?”

His humorous gaze turned assessing. Then, abruptly, he started toward the patio. “Come inside. I’ll give you my card with a number where you can contact me during the day.”

Shade cloth and bougainvillea cooled the slate-floored patio. Cushioned chairs were set around a redgum table. Nice spot, Maeve thought. Add a few large pot plants, maybe a staghorn fern hanging from the wall, and it would be even more inviting.

She followed him through a terra-cotta-tiled family room adjoining the kitchen, to a study off the dining room. His briefcase sat open on a chair, and business documents were spread out on the desk, along with his wallet and car keys.

Maeve’s gaze automatically gravitated to the papers he’d been working on. She just had time to notice a financial consultant’s report on Aussie Electronics before Will shuffled the documents together, placed them inside the briefcase and shut the lid.

“Top secret, huh?” she said, wondering at the sudden frown that flattened the arch in his eyebrows.

“Just business.” He snapped the locks shut and spun the dials. Then he handed her a card from his wallet. “You can reach me on this number during the day and on my cell phone anytime.”

Maeve slipped the card into one of the pockets of her cargo pants. In turn, she gave him one of her own.

“‘Maeve Arden,”’ he read. “Your last name is different from Art’s. Are you married?”

“I was. I divorced five years ago.” Her split-up with Graham had been less rancorous than sad. Grief over Kristy had overwhelmed other disappointments and left Maeve with a lingering sense of unfinished business.

“Dad will be pleased to know I’m working for you,” she said. “If you decide to use my services, that is.” Already she wanted this job; Will’s garden was ripe with possibilities and rife with unfulfilled dreams. She didn’t know exactly how she knew that; she simply accepted that she did. She’d learned not to analyze the source of her intuition, for fear of stifling the flow.

“If I weren’t so busy at work I’d have gotten several quotes, but personal recommendations go a long way with me. If I like what you propose, I’ll probably go with that.”

She met his eyes. “You won’t regret it.”

“If you’re your father’s daughter, I’m sure I won’t. Art is the best foreman I’ve ever had.” He led the way back through the house to the front steps. “I look forward to seeing your design. When can you have something ready?”

At this time of year she was working flat-out, but for someone her father admired as much as Will Beaumont, she would put aside some of her nonessential tasks. “I’ll do up a preliminary plan in the next few days. Before I finalize it I’d like to come back for a more thorough look over the grounds and to ask you a few more questions.”

“Fine. Say Thursday, around six?”

She wrote down the time and day, then tucked her clipboard under her arm. She’d noted many details today, but the most important information she’d gleaned was imprinted not on the pad’s lined pages but on her brain. Not facts and figures, but the suppressed longing in a man’s voice when he spoke of a child’s tree fort.

Maeve climbed into her truck and poked her head out the window. “I’ll see you Thursday.”

Will leaned on the roof above her window. “Afterward we could grab a bite to eat in Sorrento,” he suggested casually. “There’s this great seafood restaurant down by the water—”

Tempted despite herself, she searched her mind for an excuse. He’d be fun to go out with, but encouraging him wouldn’t be fair. She heard a faint ringing from inside the house. “Is that your phone?”

He glanced over his shoulder and straightened away from the ute. “I suppose it is.”

Maeve put the truck in gear. “Catch you later.”

In the rearview mirror, she saw him shake his head, his smile bemused, clearly in no rush to answer his phone. She laughed to herself. This job could be interesting. And challenging.

The biggest challenge of all would be restraining her attraction to Will Beaumont.