(Book 3) Roadhouse Garden

Part 39

After dinner, we tidy up after ourselves, I insist on loading what we had used into the dishwasher after I see him set everything into the sink.  He watches in disbelief as I place the items into the racks, explaining that Ray prefers that he leave anything that he uses in the sink.  "Well, leaving things in the sink is a pet peeve of mine.  Tell him I did it." 

"I will." he says matter of factually, but I have an idea that Ray will know immediately that it wasn't Prince who placed the items.   With everything tidied up, I let him know that I really need to head home, my delivery from the flower shop has been waiting in our driveway for over 24 hours now. 

"Ah, yes, the trees," a kiss gets planted on my cheek, "I have few things I need to take care of here, but I won't be too long."

He heads into his office and I jog back upstairs to get my purse.  When I come back down, I walk into his office to let him know I'm leaving.  "Is everyone gone?" I question as I walk in, the building has a deserted feel.

He looks up from his computer, and nods once, "Yes."  He reaches over and pulls something out of the top drawer, "Here," he slides a card toward me on the desk. 

"What's this?"  It appears to be a credit card and I make no move to take it as I stand in front of his desk. 

"Your card."

"For what?"

I still make no attempt to pick it up, so he stands, picking the card up and walking around to stand in front of me.  It's offered again between his index and middle finger, "For anything you need, or want."

I don't know why this seems like a big deal, but I tentatively take the card from  between his fingers and look at it before I slip it into my purse, my name is clearly embossed on the front.  "Thank you," I whisper, he smiles and pulls me in for a hug. 

"You're welcome.  It's yours, don't be afraid to use it," he pulls away and scans my eyes.  "You better go take care of your trees."

"Our trees," I remind him, this time his eyes sparkle when he smiles and nods before returning to his chair. 

*******

I arrive home just as dusk is setting in, and as I pull up to the garage I'm pleasantly surprised by the grouping of trees and plants sitting by the gate.  I had chosen how many and which kinds of plants and trees I had wanted for the area as Margaret had wrote up the invoice.  She must have been the one to select them for delivery, too, they are all larger than I expected, and each one of them look like perfect specimens from what I can tell from the car.