A warm-hearted rich man's son, Richard Gardener needs to overcome three obstacles: find a way the family business can run without him, help his mother cope with grief, and stop butting heads -- and other parts of his anatomy -- with the gardener.<br><br>Ethan Fields has worked for the Gardener family for many years. He’s struggling with debt and the desire to leave, and has loved Richard far longer than the man would believe. Ethan can cope with most things, but his anger with Richard’s mother won’t fade. Until that and his feelings for Richard are resolved, he feels trapped and, alas, the idea that sex will get Richard out of his system isn’t working.<br><br>To make the situation worse, both men assume too much and don’t say the right words, and Ethan’s offer of ‘just sex’ grows more complicated by the day. Can Richard and Ethan stop getting their wires crossed before their paths diverge?

Flowers for the Gardener

When he at last pulled up in front, got out, and walked into the house, he discovered a bounce in his step and felt like whistling. He managed to tune up with a couple of notes…which slivered away on a hiss. Sapphire’s bags stood in the hallway, her arrival a little earlier than he expected. Without himthere to act as a bulwark there was no knowing—


“I’m not gonna stay where I’m not wanted.”


“Sapphire, get back here this instant!”


A door banged overhead. Sapphire came clattering along the gallery, head high, making the old-fashioned elegance of the dark wood a surreal contrast to the bright shirt she wore and her violet hair. The style sat piled high on her head in a semi-elegant tousled manner, twisted with ribbons. She might have looked like some eccentric mental patient if she weren’t…well, Saffie. Sapphire carried her confidence as a physical aura, and her pixie-like features made the hairstyle adorable.


Chapter 48