Wife by Design. Tara Taylor Quinn
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Название: Wife by Design
Автор: Tara Taylor Quinn
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Контркультура
Серия: Where Secrets are Safe
isbn: 9781472055279
isbn:
“That way women can have alone time if they need to find renewal from within, or have more personal one-on-one conversations if they’re there with someone else.”
She stared at him. He’d only been there a week. And he understood.
“I never liked the gazebo,” she said. But it had been donated. And there before she’d arrived.
“I think it would be put to better use in the park area,” he said. “That’s a more public gathering place. Unless I’ve misunderstood. But the garden area, it seems to be more of a place to find peace, quiet. Not to gather socially.”
“That’s right.”
He started toward the area visible across the grassy commons. She walked with him—and noticed the perusal he gave her. Which she then told herself she’d imagined.
She spent the next five minutes listening as he talked about a large rock fountain in the center of the garden in place of the gazebo. About flowering shrubs and blooms that would appear at different times throughout the year, giving the garden a sense of new life year-round. Endings and new beginnings, no matter what time of year it was.
She was trying not to think about a new beginning for herself. With him in the picture somewhere.
“What?” He was smiling at her again, but it was a more personal smile.
“What, what?”
“I don’t know. You just looked like you had something to say.”
They weren’t talking about flowers. And she wasn’t imagining anything.
“I appreciate what you’re doing here,” she said, opting for what she knew to be true, not hoping for what couldn’t be. “You’ve captured the essence of what we’re trying to create and devised a plan that would bring it to life much better than anything we’ve accomplished so far.”
He paused, watched her for a moment and then said, “It’s my business.”
“Our agreement only requires you to keep up the premises, not enhance it.”
“Do you always only give what’s expected of you? What you’re required to give?”
They weren’t talking about landscaping. Or jobs.
“Of course not.”
“I didn’t think so.” His expression serious, he moved farther into the garden, with occasional glances back toward where they’d come.
“You can go get him,” Lynn said, understanding the burden of being solely responsible for the welfare of another human being—the senses that had to be tuned in every hour of every day, whether you were physically with that person or not.
Grant shook his head. “No, as much as I’d like to, I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“For the first time in longer than I can remember, Darin reached out for freedom today. It makes me nervous, but from what I’m told, he has to form some kind of life for himself or risk falling into a depression that could eventually kill him.”
And she only had to watch over Kara while she grew up and could take responsibility for herself....
“He moved his arm a little bit ago.” Grant’s tone reminded her of Brandon when he’d called her in between her university classes to tell her he’d seen Kara take her first step. “He’s only had six days of therapy and already there’s improvement.”
“That’s great!” she said, meaning it. “I expected it to take a couple of weeks, at least, before there was any noticeable change.”
“Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t much. Just an inch or so. But I saw it with my own eyes. He moved his arm.”
“I’m not surprised, Grant,” she said when he started to sound defensive. “Darin’s determined. And the damage the surgery did was to a portion of the brain that is retrainable, as you know. I’m just surprised at the speed with which we’ve seen progress!”
“That’s my brother for you. Once he’s made his mind up about something, there’s no going back.”
The way he was looking at her seemed to be sending some kind of personal message—beyond the perfectly circumspect conversation they were having. Had Grant made up his mind about something, too?
Something to do with her?
And him?
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