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

The temptation might have proven too great if not for two things. First, being the need to sort through his father’s things. Gaze drifting over the boxes in the room, a single thought plagued his mind—thiswas the reward of procrastination. Course, he’d been grieving and putting it off got easier than facing the problem. What with the increased workload, he’d struggled with his day-to-day chores, too exhausted to think about searching through his father’s belongings. Father and mother both, of course—his father hadn’t thrown a thing of hers away.


When his father became too ill to get up the stairs, they’d brought him and everything precious to him into this room. As his health deteriorated and he needed more than a little oxygen, Ethan had arranged the nursing home. William had gone, pained more to leave his son and this lot behind than by illness. No, Ethan could not abandon any box. If the contents were something he didn’t want, he must find a good home for them.


Chapter 63