Gannon & Willow's Story Read online

  Chapter Three

  Willow pulled her car down the narrow, paved drive that led back toward Nana’s greenhouse and stopped several yards away from the impressive glass structure. It had been three days since her visit and that morning she had decided that she was no longer able to avoid or deny the feelings that she was having for Gannon. She had woken up with thoughts of him on her mind and the fleeting memory of an indulgent dream that she knew had strongly featured his striking face and the body that was stunning even through his clothes. It was as though the thoughts of him that she had been having since she met him had grown on each other, amplifying and building until they started getting out of control. They felt even less logical than they had when she first became aware of them, and Willow felt as though she had allowed them to become bigger than they really were.

  She felt like she needed to see him again, to look him in the eyes and confront her reaction to him in a controlled and realistic way so that she could prove that these feelings were nothing more than a daydream, nothing more than an overly imaginative mind that had grasped on to these first exciting glimmers of attraction and let them spiral. Her strawberry plants were still struggling and she truly did want Gannon to use the obvious skill that he had to help her figure out what could be wrong with them and start to bring them back. Going to see him was the only way that she would be able to get her emotions under control and set their interaction onto the right path.

  Willow opened her door and then leaned over into the passenger seat to pick up the loaf of banana bread that she had made that morning before climbing out of the car and starting toward the greenhouse. She stepped into the building cautiously and looked around. The space was quiet and peaceful, filled only with the sound of soft streams of water showering down on plants from the timed sprinkler system on one side. She had gone a few steps when she heard a low snipping sound that she soon recognized as the sound of pruning shears cutting through stems. Willow walked toward it and as she turned a corner toward the section of the greenhouse that contained some of Nana’s prized flowers, she saw Gannon. He stood with his back to her and sitting beside him she saw a wide basket. She paused so that she could simply watch him. He moved without hurry, gently touching the plants in front of him and occasionally snipping off leaves that he tossed into a composting bucket at his feet. He cut a flower and rested it into the basket, moving tenderly and carefully as not to disturb the soft pink petals of the bloom.

  Willow felt a shiver ripple through her as she watched Gannon. There was nothing suggestive about what he was doing, and yet she felt her heartbeat flutter and heat ripple down her spine. Her angle allowed her to see his fingertips tracing the petals of the flowers and stroke down their slim stems. The flowers seemed to tremble at his touch, responding to him much how Willow expected that she would respond to the same tender attention.

  As if he could sense that she was standing behind him, Gannon turned and glanced over his shoulder at her. When he saw her, his eyes widened slightly and she saw the faintest hint of a smile touch his lips.

  “Hi,” she said breathlessly, trying to regain control of herself now that he was looking at her.

  “Hello,” he said.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, taking a partial step backwards so that she could leave if he expressed anger that she was there. “I didn’t mean to disrupt you. I can go.”

  “No,” he said, turning the rest of the way toward her. “Please. Don’t go. It’s alright.”

  Willow took a step closer to him, unable to stop the smile that came to her lips as she looked at him. The intense attraction to him was still there, and she struggled to keep an obvious expression off of her face. Even as she did, though, she thought she saw a sparkle in Gannon’s eyes that suggested he might be feeling something for her as well. A few moments later those eyes dropped to the loaf in her hand and she lifted it toward him.

  “Banana bread,” she said. Gannon looked at it quizzically and Willow took another step toward him. “It’s banana nut bread,” she said. “I baked it.”

  He looked up at her and she saw a touch of something soft in his gaze.

  “You did?” he asked.

  Willow nodded, glancing down at the bread in her hand. It looked simple and rustic wrapped unevenly in pink plastic wrap and tied with a piece of twine that she had found tucked into one of the drawers in her kitchen, but Gannon had been looking at it like it was something precious and amazing. She could smell the rich spices and creamy banana coming through the packaging and felt a flicker of pride.

  “It was my grandmother’s recipe,” she told him. “I’ve been baking loaves of it since I was just a little girl. It’s my favorite. Would you like to try a piece?”

  Gannon brushed his hands on his pants as he nodded.

  “Yes,” he said.

  Willow walked up to the counter where he had been working and put the bread down so that she could untie the twine and unwrap the plastic. The scent of the bread became stronger and she drew in a breath of it, filling her lungs with the cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar. Immediately her mind filled with memories of sitting in her grandmother’s kitchen, her legs dangling over the side of the white-and-black checked counter as she stirred the massive ceramic mixing bowl rested in her lap. Her grandmother would move around the kitchen like she was floating, grabbing up the ingredients and tossing them into the batter seemingly without thinking about them. Willow had often thought that Violet didn’t know the measurements of the bread or that she made up the recipe as she went along each time. As she got older, though, she learned to recognize the visual of each of the ingredients, soon realizing that Violet didn’t measure the ingredients as others might, but that she was still precise and accurate with each delectable touch that she added. Willow picked up the skill and by the time that she was too tall to sit on the counter and it was instead Violet who was sitting on a large wooden chair in the corner, she could put together the bread with the same perfection.

  She didn’t have a knife with her, so Willow took one corner of the bread and broke it off into her hand. She offered it to Gannon with an apologetic look.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t have a plate.”

  “That’s alright,” Gannon said.

  He took the piece from her hand and looked at it for a moment as though he had never seen anything like the bread. Willow took a piece for herself and put it in her mouth, part for the pure pleasure of sampling the favorite treat, and part almost as an example to guide him through his hesitation. Gannon followed and the moment that the bread touched his tongue, she could see how much he enjoyed it. His eyes widened and he chewed eagerly before swallowing and reaching for another piece.

  “Do you like it?” Willow asked with a laugh.

  Gannon nodded.

  “I do,” he said. “It’s delicious. I’ve never tasted anything like it.”

  “I’m glad you like it.” She hesitated for a moment. “Maybe I can bake another for you when you come help me with my plants.”

  She took another piece of the bread to fill the strange silence that formed, hoping that she would look casual enough to push through the awkward moment. She was starting to speak again, to brush away the comment and tell him that she didn’t need his help, when he spoke.

  “I’d like that,” he asked.

  Willow smiled at him.

  “Good,” she said. “I would really appreciate your help. I got a bit of a late start on my strawberries this year and they don’t seem to be responding too well to what I’m doing for them. I’m a little worried that if I don’t get them under control soon they won’t produce this year. You seem to have a special touch with these plants.”

  Gannon glanced down as if bashful.

  “I’d be happy to help you if I can,” he said.

  “Thank you,” she said. She took another bite of the bread. “Why don’t you come to my house Saturday? Nana can give you directions.”

  Gannon hesitated for a moment and
Willow worried that she had crossed some sort of line.

  “I don’t drive,” he said.

  “Oh,” Willow said. “That’s fine. I can come get you.”

  Gannon smiled with relief in his eyes.

  “I’ll see you then.”

  Chapter Four

  Willow drove around to the greenhouse when she arrived at the house Saturday morning, but she didn’t see Gannon inside. She stepped up to the back door and knocked, not surprised when Nana opened the door looking as though she had been awake for hours even though it was still just barely after breakfast. Nana always seemed to be awake and ready for whatever the day was going to bring, even when that meant that the day was already over and she was still going late into the night. It amazed Willow how energetic this woman was even in her older years and she felt a pang for her own grandmother. Though not as busy as Nana tended to be, Violet had still been a vibrant woman when Willow was younger. During her later years, though, illness and heartache had taken some of the sparkle and by the time that she reached the end of her life, she barely resembled the woman Willow had once known. Willow’s adoration for her had never faded, though, and she still held every moment that they had shared close to her heart.

  “Good morning, Willow!” Nana said. “I hear you are here to scoop up Gannon for a day of…gardening.”

  Willow gave a short laugh and stepped into the warmth of the kitchen.

  “There really didn’t need to be that much dramatic pause,” she said. “We really are gardening. He’s going to help me out with my strawberry plants.”

  “I’m sure he is,” Nana said, crossing to the coffee maker and pressing a flashing blue button to dispense a fresh cup.

  “I don’t even know what that is supposed to mean,” Willow said.

  Nana chuckled and set the cup in front of her.

  “Have you eaten?” she asked. “You can’t have a whole day of…gardening…on an empty stomach.”

  “Again,” Willow said, picking up the cup and gratefully swallowing a sip of the black coffee. “Dramatic pause.”

  She lowered the cup to the table and drew in a breath. The smell of a full breakfast still lingered in the air and she felt her stomach grumble. She had eaten a protein bar as she headed out of the house, but that didn’t feel particularly satisfying anymore.

  “Let me make you something,” Nana said. “Gannon is out tending to the horses anyway. He’ll still need to get ready. You have a bit of time.”

  “Horses?” Willow asked. “You have the man taking care of your horses, too?”

  “I don’t have him doing it,” Nana said. “He’s doing it on his own. He saw one of them out in the field one day and followed me out there to see it. He’s been taking care of them since.”

  “To see it?” Willow asked. “What do you mean?”

  She knew she sounded like she was picking apart everything that Nana said, but everything about Gannon was making Willow curious and she wanted to know more. Nana cocked her head at Willow as she stepped up to the stove to cook a pan of eggs and sausage.

  “I mean he wanted to go see the horse. He has a way with them.”

  “The way he does with the plants?”

  “Well, the horses respond to him a little bit more than the flowers do. I don’t know if it’s a personality thing or if the horses are just easy, but they seem more willing to move around when he asks them to.”

  Willow felt a hint of embarrassment and concentrated on sipping her coffee, not wanting to make eye contact with Nana. She didn’t want to get into another conversation with the woman about her attraction to Gannon. She was still trying to navigate it herself and the last thing she needed was Nana trying to decipher it for her.

  She was finishing off the overloaded plate that she never should have eaten all of when Gannon walked through the door and gave a small wave.

  “Good morning,” he said. “Have you been waiting long?”

  He sounded apologetic and Willow shook her head.

  “Oh, no. It’s fine. I’ve just been sitting here letting Nana feed me way more than I should first thing in the morning. No rush.”

  He offered the slight smile that she had learned was the most positive emotion that she could really expect from him and started across the kitchen.

  “I just need to get ready. I’ll be down in a few minutes.

  Willow sipped her way through another cup of coffee while waiting and was just settling her cup into the sink when he came back into the room. They both said goodbye to Nana and headed out of the house, climbing into her car in silence. As they traveled down the road, she watched him out of the corner of her eye. He seemed almost enthralled by the experience of being in the car, as if he wasn’t accustomed to it. She knew that he didn’t drive, but the way that he was acting made it seem as though he hadn’t spent much time just riding in a car, either. It was another question, another detail that made him even more intriguing.

  When they arrived at her house, Willow showed him inside first rather than bringing him directly around to the greenhouse. She felt the need to reassure him, as if she didn’t want him to think that he was only there to take care of her plants, though that was exactly what she had asked him to come do.

  “Would you like me to show you around?” she asked.

  Gannon nodded.

  “Yes.”

  Willow brought him through the entryway into the living room and then around through the kitchen and dining room. They climbed the stairs and she showed him the office, tiny guest room that she had turned into a library, and balcony. She hesitated at the final closed door. Without opening it, she pointed at it.

  “That’s my bedroom,” she said.

  She felt a weightiness in her belly when she said it, but Gannon didn’t seem to have the same reaction and she guided him back toward the stairs, swallowing the response and trying to force her thoughts away and focus back on the reason that she had brought him there in the first place. As they crossed through the living room again, she noticed Gannon slowing and looking around the space with interest. She paused and waited until he noticed that she was looking at him.

  “Do you live here alone?” he asked.

  Willow let out a sigh and nodded.

  “I do now,” she said. Gannon looked at her quizzically and she looked around as he had. “I used to live here with someone. A relationship that lasted for several years. We were actually planning on getting married.”

  “But you never did?” he asked.

  She shook her head.

  “No,” she said. “Something happened. It actually wasn’t too long after we moved in here. This was our dream home and I thought that it was going to be where we were going to spend our lives. We settled in here and had lived here for around a year when he started changing. It was pretty gradual at first, and I thought that maybe it was just because of his new job. It was a major change and I knew that he was going through a lot of stress. I hoped that he would get into the rhythm and that everything would just go back to normal, but it never did. One day, he left. He got up in the morning like he always did, got dressed for work, and walked out of the door. He never came back.”

  “What do you mean he changed?” Gannon asked.

  Heat stretched across Willow’s cheekbones and she heard herself stammer for a few seconds.

  “Um,” she said. “I don’t really know how to explain it. He just…changed. It was like he was a different person.” She gestured toward the back door. “Do you want to see the greenhouse? We can get started on those strawberry plants.”

  Gannon nodded and she gratefully turned away from him. She was embarrassed that she had let herself go that far in her explanation of her relationship with Gavin. Though it had been quite some time since their relationship had disintegrated and he had walked away from her, it was still painful talking about him. She really hadn’t wanted to delve too deeply into it, especially with Gannon. Her attraction toward him made it feel uncomfortable to mention Gavin, much
less detail how long they were together and the seriousness of their relationship. At the same time, though, Gannon felt so easy to talk to and she already felt herself beginning to trust and open up to him in a way that she hadn’t in longer than she could remember.

  Chapter Five

  Gannon followed Willow out of the house and down a path of paving stones toward the greenhouse. He looked down at the stones as he walked across them and noticed that every few stones were embellished with pieces of vibrantly colored glass or the outlines of leaves and other plants. He wondered if she had crafted them herself and suddenly thought of the banana bread that she had brought to the house a few days before. It had been one of the most delicious things that he had ever put in his mouth, but what had impacted him the most about it was that he knew that she had made it with her own hands. Knowing that she had baked that bread, carefully selecting each ingredient, stirring them together, and pulling it out of the oven at the perfect moment before bringing it to Nana’s house and giving him a bite filled him with a sense of fulfillment unlike anything that he could describe. Even the delicate pink plastic lovingly wrapped around the loaf of bread was like a glimpse into her and another bit of the personality that he wanted so much to learn.

  They walked into a greenhouse that was much smaller than the one at Nana’s house and he glanced around it, taking in the sight of the plants that she had chosen. They were another hint of who she was, telling him about her preferences and many of her characteristics without her ever having to say a word. His love of plants had been something that he had gotten to indulge only a small amount in his life. When he was younger he had been assigned to the farm that produced food for those who lived within Ryan’s facilities. Even when he was going through his training, he would spend hours each day caring for the fields and harvesting crops. The plants seemed to respond to his care and he was always able to nurture larger, more bountiful harvests for the crops to which he was assigned than the other hybrid farmers. Despite his success in the fields, however, as he got older Ryan saw more in his physical size and strength than he did in his ability to farm and chose to remove him from the fields so that he could focus fully on training for warfare.