Paradise Encounter

  Andy Gable grabbed the jangling phone on his way past the vacant front counter. Where the hell was Tiffany? It was only eleven o’clock, way too early for her lunch break.

  “Good morning,” he said into the mouthpiece. “Paradise Nursery.”

  “Is that you, Andy? Thank God!”

  He recognized the woman’s husky voice immediately, and a warm sensation curled through his groin. “Maya! What can I do for you?”

  “I’m in deep trouble. You know the big order of landscaping stuff you guys delivered to our home show site yesterday morning? I totally screwed up and ordered eight Japanese maples and three arborvitae. It should have been the other way around. Plus we need six more big bags of the same type of mulch.”

  “No problem. We can certainly swap those shrubs for you, and we’ve always got plenty of mulch.” This kind of crisis was common as the annual Unforgettable Homes Show approached. He’d talked to two other contractors this morning who were scrambling to finish landscaping their model homes for the prestigious event.

  “Here’s the thing,” she went on, an edge of panic in her voice, “everything needs to be at the site as soon as possible this afternoon. Has your delivery truck already gone out?”

  “Afraid so.” He’d loaded the last of the potted shrubs himself a half hour ago and watched the truck disappear through the back gate. There were three deliveries scheduled in different parts of town. The truck probably wouldn’t be back before five.

  “Oh, God. Junior is going to kill me. The show opens Saturday morning. Damn it!”

  Andy winced. It wasn’t like Maya Thomas to lose her cool. In the year his nursery had been doing business with Wilson Superior Homes, she’d always been efficient, in control, the consummate professional. Compared to staff he dealt with at other construction companies, Maya was usually way ahead of the game.

  But she was probably right about her boss. Junior Wilson had a reputation for being hot headed.

  He dropped his voice into a soothing tone. “I don’t have any way to deliver those shrubs today, but I can have them out there first thing tomorrow, and pick up the maples you need to return. Are they still at the site?”

  “No. Actually they’re here at the office, in the back of one of our big pickups. The site had to be cleared, so the guys brought them back here last night.”

  “Perfect! Just have one of your men drive your truck over here. I’ll swap out the trees, load up the mulch, and he can take the stuff to the site this afternoon in your own truck.” It pleased him to be able to solve her problem so easily. He could picture her full red lips next to the phone, curving into a grateful smile.

  But instead there was a long beat of silence from her end.

  “That would be great,” she finally said, “but all the guys are out at the site this afternoon. This place is deserted except for me and the receptionist.”

  “How about you, Maya? Can you drive the truck over?”

  Holy shit! What had he just done?

  Another pause, then her hesitant voice. “Well, I guess so. I used to drive my cousin’s half ton. How different can this be?”

  “Great! You know our address, right? Just come around to the back gate and someone will let you in. And stop worrying. We’ll make this happen.”

  “Oh, that’s fantastic.” She gave that throaty laugh he was most used to hearing. “I’m so not dressed for manual labor. But I’ll make it work. You’re the best, Andy!”

  The phone went dead in his hand. He placed it back in the cradle just as Tiffany came around the corner, cell phone in hand as usual. He scowled at her and she stuck out her tongue as she slid into her chair and went back to texting. God, sometimes he hated working with family. Normally he’d have called his niece on her lax attitude, but right now he had more important things crowding his mind.

  Like the fact that he was about to meet Maya Thomas.

  In the flesh.

  Finally.

  He pushed through the double glass doors to the nursery yard, wiping his suddenly damp palms on his jeans. A delicious apprehension spun through him like a summer dust devil. He was ready for this, right? It was just a business transaction after all. If he kept that in mind, he could probably handle things without making a complete ass of himself over the woman.

  It would take her a good half hour to get here. Plenty of time for him to get his shit together. Meanwhile, he could get her order ready to load near the back gate. As he walked he took the walkie-talkie from his belt and keyed the call button. His brother Jim’s voice crackled back from the nursery’s office on the building’s second floor.

  “Yeah?”

  “Hey Jim. Can you look up an order for me from yesterday’s deliveries?”

  “Sure. Which one are you looking for?”

  “Wilson Homes needs to return five Japanese maples and pick up five more of the same arborvitae. Can you tell me which variety to pull?”

  “Hold on.” Andy could hear the rapid click of computer keys in the back ground. “That would be Emeralds.”

  “Thanks. Maya’s bringing back the maples today. You want to go ahead and credit their account? Oh, and add in six more number forty bags of mulch.”

  “Wait. Did you say Maya’s bringing them?”

  Andy held the phone away from his ear to keep from being deafened by Jim’s joyful whoop. His brother’s next comment was easily audible from a foot away. “It’s finally happening for you, bro.”

  Andy grinned. There was no way he was going to get away without some good-natured ribbing from his older brother. He might as well get it over with.

  “Yep.”

  “Well, it’s about time you finally get to meet the girl of your dreams face-to-face. You’ve been haunting her Facebook page for months now,” Jim went on.

  “There’s no harm in looking, is there? Just get the damn invoice ready, okay? And by the way, your daughter was on the bathroom break from hell earlier. Can you talk to her about that please?” Irritation and anxiety gripped his gut as Andy stuck his walkie-talkie back on his belt.

  The late June sunshine fell across his shoulders, warming him as he crossed the yard. He zigzagged between rows of flowering azaleas and rhodies, glancing around him, making sure all customers had a staff member attending them. Then he grabbed the handle of a flatbed cart and steered it toward the materials area near the back fence.

  As he began to heft and stack forty-pound bags of landscaping mulch onto the cart, he finally allowed himself to think ahead to what was about to happen. His pulse spiked as the realization began to sink in: sometime in the next hour Maya Thomas would come driving through the back gate. Somehow, he’d have to keep his cool and not act like a pimply-faced high school sophomore meeting the homecoming queen. It would be tough. She was beyond gorgeous.

  And Jim wasn’t far off the mark. He was already halfway in love with her.

  From the first time she had called in a materials order last spring, he’d felt drawn to her like steel to a magnet. Her upbeat, friendly phone demeanor was a welcome change from the run-of-the-mill gruff contractors he was used to dealing with. Wilson Superior Homes was the Portland area’s largest and best known custom homebuilder, and they were Paradise Nursery’s biggest account. During the dryer months he and Maya spoke at least a couple of times a week. Before long their calls had turned into something more social as they also began to chat a little about how their weekends had gone or plans they had for a Friday evening or the book one of them was currently reading.

  It hit him hard one day how much he looked forward to talking with her. So much so that curiosity overcame him and he used the company Facebook page to look her up. Seeing her profile picture had sealed his fate. Though he hated to admit it to Jim, who had cau
ght him once with her Facebook page open, he did indeed have the crush to end all crushes on Maya Thomas.

  What he liked best was her smile. Every photo in her Facebook albums showed the same unselfconscious grin. The sparkly white teeth, with that one bicuspid that stuck out every so slightly. Her luxuriant, rose-colored lips. Caramel colored skin. Big eyes he would call a mossy shade of green. My God! Just picturing her now made his cock twitch.

  And even though none of the profile shots were full length, he could see enough to know her body must be lush and curvy. Most of the women he’d dated – and his ex-finance, Danielle – were on the slim side. Considering how badly things had ended up with Danielle last year, he was ready for something different. He was certain all those sexy curves would look perfect on Maya.

  And feel perfect under his hands.

  Whoa, Gable! Get a grip! This was gonna be just another business transaction, nothing more.

  He sighed and added the last bag of mulch to the cart. Initially her status had said she was “in a relationship”. She’d also mentioned the guy a time or two when they chatted. The lucky man appeared in one of the pictures with her. He was a big, handsome black guy, Derek Something-or-Other, a professional basketball player. They looked happy together, and yet the last time he’d checked, her status had been changed back to “single”. He had to admit that had made his whole day.

  Not that it mattered. Getting personally involved with her was out of the question. If anything went wrong between them, Maya, as office manager, could decide to take the lucrative Wilson Homes commercial account elsewhere. The last thing he needed to do today was commit business suicide.

  * * * *

  Maya was pleasantly surprised at how easy the oversized pickup was to drive. She tried not to think about all the dirt that had been ground into the torn seat-covers over the years. The little spring dress she wore could always be sent to the cleaners. Soiling a dress while learning to wrangle one of the company pickups was a small price to pay for keeping Junior Wilson happy. She was lucky he was at a lunch meeting today and wouldn’t be back until late afternoon. Maya hoped she could get the trees and mulch delivered to the job site before her boss realized she had blundered.

  Thank God for Handy Andy.

  He certainly had earned his nickname today!

  She had begun to think of him by that name some months ago. Every time she phoned in an order of shrubs or gravel or bark dust, he bent over backward to be helpful. She’d come into the job a year ago with only a sketchy knowledge of landscaping materials. Since then, he’d patiently tutored her in the finer points: how a yard of soil was measured, how river rock was graded for size, or why different shrubs might not work for a particular location or soil type. He seemed to know everything there was to know about planting and gardening in the Pacific Northwest.

  Sometimes it felt as if Andy anticipated her needs before she even knew herself what she required. His recommendations were always spot-on and his advice never failed. Over time, she had come to put her complete trust in what he told her.

  How different was he from Derek?

  Surprised that her ex-boyfriend, the self-centered control freak, had suddenly popped into her head, Maya rolled her window down and let a blast of fresh air into the truck’s stuffy cab. Breaking up with Derek had been one of the smartest things she’d ever done. The longer they were together, the more he’d attempted to manipulate and manage her, until she felt like she couldn’t take a step out of her apartment without his permission. Being a professional athlete, he was often on the road. When he got back to town, he’d quickly slip into the role of the Grand Inquisitor. He even made jealous comments about her posts on Facebook and Twitter. Thank God she’d seen the light when she had! They’d said goodbye three months ago and she could honestly say she hadn’t missed him.

  Her thoughts flicked back to Andy, and not for the first time, she tried to imagine what he might look like. Over the months, a mental picture of a short, pale guy with pinched features and thick glasses had formed in her mind. He’d be bookish, no doubt, considering all he knew about horticulture. The picture seemed to fit the nickname she’d given him, and she imagined him that way whenever they talked: her phone buddy, Handy Andy.

  She hadn’t been able to find a page for him on Facebook. The Paradise Nursery website didn’t show photos of their employees either.

  Well, her curiosity was about to be satisfied.

  Ahead of her she spotted the sign for the large commercial nursery. As Andy had instructed, she turned left and went around the block to the truck entrance. All she could see of the place were high concrete walls with tree foliage peeking over. Then, as if by magic, there was a big wooden gate rolling open and a tall man with dark hair and big shoulders waving her into a parking spot. It was just like Andy to be super thoughtful and have someone come out to greet her, she thought as she pulled into the parking spot and cut the engine. Surrounding her on three sides were rows of immature trees, their root balls bagged in burlap, and potted ornamental shrubs in various pastel shades of riotous bloom.

  She sat for a second in the cab, gathering the pair of work gloves she’d remembered to bring and stowing her purse under the seat for safe keeping. Too bad she’d chosen to wear sandals with three-inch heels today. But what else would you expect a girl to pair with a strappy little sundress the last week of June? This morning when she’d put on her clothes, she’d had no idea she would be tromping around the back lot of an urban jungle.

  She was just reaching for the door handle when the door seemed to open by itself. A warm breeze swooped in. She turned, startled, and there was the dark haired man, standing with his big hand extended. The truck cab was a few feet off the ground, so they were just about eye-to-eye. His were a dark gray-blue, and they were regarding her with an air of frank familiarity that could only mean one thing.

  This had to be Andy.

  Lord. Have. Mercy!

  “Hi there, Maya. Let me help you down.”

  She put her hand into his – it pretty much swallowed hers – and somehow just kind of floated to the running board step and then onto the pavement.

  “Andy?” How could she not stare? He was so completely different from the man she’d pictured all these months. Just look at all that silky, coffee-colored hair, the little cleft in that squared chin, his long, black lashes. And check out the tan on those muscled forearms. He wore a dark green, polo-style shirt with the name of the nursery on the left chest. And what a chest it was. Maya could easily imagine resting her head on that broad, firm surface.

  Whoa.

  “That’s me.” Now he smiled, and the force of it just about knocked her over. Again. Lord have mercy! “Welcome to my little nursery. I’ve got your materials all ready to load.”

  “You own Paradise Nursery?”

  He nodded as he started around to the back of the truck. “Yep. My brother Jim and I.”

  She trailed behind him, feeling as if she had been the butt of a long-standing practical joke. And speaking of butts, how perfect was Andy’s? Taut and rounded, in just the right proportion for a man his height. What was he? Six-two maybe? The perfect height for kissing if she stood on tip-toe.

  God. She needed a reality check, stat! This was Handy Andy, after all, the friendly, down-to-earth guy who’d been a pal to her over the phone all this time. She had felt close to him, like she knew him, but she’d been dead wrong about his appearance and about him being just an employee at the nursery.

  What else didn’t she know about him? Was he married? He’d never mentioned a wife, but then she’d never bothered to ask if he had one. Her gaze flew to his left hand. No ring. That didn’t mean anything. Men who worked with their hands often avoided wearing a wedding ring.

  The jumble of thoughts swirled through Maya’s head as Andy pulled on a pair of leather work gloves. He opened the tailgate and hopped up into the bed of the truck. As if it weighed nothing, he grabbed one of the potted maples and shoved it from the f
ront of the truck bed to the rear, his impressive biceps bunching and flexing. Then he jumped down, hefted the pot, and swung it off to the side in one smooth motion. Maya gasped softly. All those hunky muscles weren’t just for show. Not that she was a stranger to powerfully built men – Derek was a professional athlete after all – but it was somehow different, more earthy, to watch Andy at work.

  He repeated the maneuver with the other four maples, grouping them together on the pavement like a miniature forest. Then he straightened, dusted his gloved hands and grinned. Her girl parts went all soft and damp.

  “Piece of cake,” he said. Only a faint sheen at his hairline attested to his exertion and the heat of the day.

  She laughed. “Maybe for you. That would have taken me all day and I wouldn’t be able to walk afterwards.”

  “Then I guess it’s a good thing you’ve got me to do it for you.”

  His face turned serious all of a sudden and their gazes locked. She braced her feet as the world tilted slightly. Even in the sunshine, his pupils expanded as he stared. She swallowed, trying to make room in her chest for some air.

  “You’re definitely my hero today, Andy,” she said.

  * * * *

  Andy turned away and walked the few feet to where the flatbed cart with the bags of mulch waited. He lifted the top bag and repositioned it, pretending to realign the stack. He really just needed a few seconds away from the brilliant glow of Maya’s physical presence. Needed to get his heart back into a normal rhythm and his breathing less erratic. He chuckled to himself. Facebook should come with a warning on those album pages: “Subjects are several times hotter than they appear.”

  And there was no way he could have been prepared for the way she smelled either, all warm and sweet, wrapped around exotic notes of floral and spice. Like honeysuckle and roses might smell if they bloomed along the Nile River. The little blue dress she wore only hinted at cleavage, but he was pretty sure that was where the enchanting scent was coming from. He could imagine burying his nose in that heavenly valley and taking his last breath. Talk about dying a happy man.