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

She turned and at last he saw her face. Her lower lip quivered and she looked uncertain. She was suddenly an old woman grieving for the man she loved, and Ethan knew too much about grief.


“I know what you’re feeling too well. I don’t wish that on you. And for one reason…no, two. Maybe I wouldn’t be so big-hearted if I didn’t know my father would disapprove. He’d have harboured you no ill-will but I couldn’t tell him you denied him help.”


“Because Richard loves you.” Maybe Richard didn’t always like his mother but in too many relationships the two emotions didn’t always manage to go hand in hand. “He wouldn’t want me to feel that way. He wouldn’t want it to haunt me.”


Ethan wasn’t going to spend his days letting the pain of what this woman had done fester and turn him bitter. “I’ve let it go. I suggest you do the same.”


“You told Richard.” She sounded scared rather than accusing.


Chapter 74