***
I followed behind Daryl as he walked the stone path toward the gardens behind the house. Our Wal-Mart trip had been a success, but my color changing contacts wouldn’t be in for up to a week, so I questioned whether his whole grand plan was going to fall apart the minute I was introduced to Nina.
Slowing down to walk next to me, he whispered, “No matter what she says, do not take off those glasses. Just let me handle everything. Remember, you’re deaf and dumb.”
I made the OK sign with my hands, which were hidden inside gloves. That I was already wearing gloves before I began the job seemed even odder than the sunglasses, but I was afraid she’d suspect something if she saw my hands.
“Is that supposed to be something I know?” he asked, staring at my fingers.
“It means OK,” I whispered out of the side of my mouth.
“No talking. You want to be able to see her every day or not?”
He knew the answer to that. Just being on the grounds again filled me with anticipation. My stomach flipped when I thought about finally seeing her after all these months. Even if she didn’t know who I was, I’d finally be able to be close to her.
Then I saw her. In the distance, she appeared angry as she stormed down the pathway toward us, and I recognized that look of unhappiness on her face. All at once, I knew the story Daryl had told me about her reaming him out was no exaggeration, but even angry she looked beautiful. She wore her long hair up in a ponytail and had no makeup on. But it didn’t matter. She was still the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.
“Nina, how are you today?” Daryl asked as we all met at a bend in the path.
“I’m fine, Daryl. I don’t really know why you needed me out here for this, but I’m fine,” she said sourly.
“I felt you should meet the new gardener since I had to fire the old one.”
“I liked Chip, Daryl. He was a nice guy. I feel bad that you fired him. To be honest, I can’t imagine he’d be involved with anyone bad.”
“Not to worry. This is Ethan and he’s going to be fine.”
Nina looked me up and down and then looked back at Daryl. “Ethan?”
“Yeah. He doesn’t speak because he’s deaf and dumb, but he knows his way around a shrub.”
She looked me up and down once more and turned her back toward me to speak to Daryl. “Are you two brothers at the Water Buffalo Lodge or something and you owe him a favor? He looks oddly like you. And deaf and mute? How is he going to do this?”
“He’s got a disability, but we can’t hold that against him. As for the beard, it’s not as nice as mine, but you have to give him points for trying. Don’t worry. He’s perfect for this.”
She turned around, and I saw her expression soften. After studying me for a few moments, she extended her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Ethan. I hope you’ll be happy here.” I shook her hand, wishing I wasn’t wearing gloves so I could feel her skin against mine. I wanted to take her in my arms and fill my nose with the familiar scent of lavender her shampoo left in her hair. I wanted to hold her against me and tell her I was there with her.
Turning toward Daryl, she continued, “I think Chip was working on fixing up the garden so it would be ready for the summer. I’d told him I wanted to plant some vegetables, so have Ethan pick up where Chip left off.”
“Got it.”
“Anything else, Daryl?”
Smiling, he shook his head. “No. I’m glad to see you’re in a better mood today.”
“You can thank Gage for that,” she said with a chuckle before she turned on her heels and walked away.
In that second, my chest felt like someone hit it with a sledgehammer. I’d never been so jealous in my life and unable to do a thing about it. All I could do was stand there pretending like I hadn’t heard her just imply she’d slept with her bodyguard.
Daryl’s hand clamped down on my forearm and he whispered, “Relax. She didn’t mean anything by it. Remember, they’re pretending to be together. I’ve got an idea on Cordovex to check out, so get to trimming the hedges or whatever and I’ll check in with you tonight back at your place.”
I barely heard him over the sound of my heartbeat pounding in my ears.
By the time I got back to the apartment that night, I’d nearly gone out of my mind with jealousy. From where I was standing as I raked and hoed to prepare the space Nina wanted to use for her vegetable garden, I was able to watch the inside of the lower level of the house. Varo looked quite at home as he swam in my pool in the middle of the day, joined by Nina at one point who didn’t swim but sat and watched for a few minutes as he did.
Sat and watched as his ridiculously muscular body swam back and forth in front of her while she kept her eyes fixed on him.
I spent a half hour filling in the hole I accidentally dug with the spade as I watched the two of them together. He was lucky I was committed to this plan of Daryl’s because if I wasn’t, I would have used that spade for another far more satisfying purpose that would have required me to dig a much deeper hole.
While one of the bodyguards I hired to protect Nina was busy taking his job far too literally, the other seemed intently interested in me. West watched me pantomime gardening for nearly an hour before he approached me, tapping me on the shoulder none too lightly after I ignored his efforts to say hello three times. When I said nothing in return even after acknowledging his presence, he left frustrated and spent the next hour spying on me, his enormous frame obvious from his hiding spots behind trees and bushes.
Maybe I wasn’t fooling anyone. He didn’t even make an effort to be sly as he watched me muddle through cleaning out twigs and weeds from the garden area. By the time I finished, I’d decided that once I was back West was gone. If he was this clumsy watching me, I couldn’t imagine how bad he was at protecting Nina. Of course, that meant I had to be thankful for Varo’s presence around her, which was the last thing I wanted to admit.
I needed a drink.
Sitting down in front of the TV Daryl had been nice enough to include in my new place, I tried to get lost in some sitcom and scotch with little success. There I was, sitting in some hole in the wall apartment while Nina and Varo were enjoying my house, probably my liquor, and…
I couldn’t bring myself to think about them enjoying my bed, but somewhere in the back of my mind a tiny, insidious voice whispered again and again, “They’re together.” I’d never been good at handling jealousy, and my paranoia about Nina sleeping with Varo quickly mushroomed in my brain, leaving me with the choice of blowing Daryl’s plan by storming over to the house to reunite with the woman I loved and in the process putting her in danger or getting stone drunk.