Kaylee was in awe of the terraced plots that adorned the hillsides surrounding the house, separated by narrow roads to make movement easy. Every now and then Jillian would stop the golf-cart-size garden mobile and pick some fruits or veggies and throw them in the back of her little truck. There was everything from apples to tiny potatoes; there were several rows of grapes with only a few still on the vine. She pulled up a few honeydew and cantaloupe from their vines and added them to her catch.
“The pumpkins will be ready for Halloween,” she said.
When they got back to the house, Jillian showed her around, and by far the biggest treat was the second-floor sunroom where Colin had his studio. His wildlife paintings circled the large room, and he was at work on a huge painting of a buffalo. “God, that’s breathtaking,” she said. “Do you sell them in a gallery?”
“Most of them go to a small gallery in Sedona, Arizona, owned by an artist who has become a good friend. I do some special orders and sell some from my website. It’s keeping me out of trouble,” he said.
There was a third floor that had a couple of guest rooms and to Kaylee’s surprise, a staircase to the roof and a widow’s walk. “We don’t know where the idea for a widow’s walk came from, but you can see all of Jilly Farms and beyond from up here. The first year I was here, I came up here all the time. I would call Kelly; we didn’t have a satellite connection yet and it was the only place I could get really good reception. And I would watch over my little farm.”
When they went back downstairs, Kelly had some snacks prepared for them. They talked for a while about their various artistic pursuits from Kaylee’s writing to Kelly’s culinary skills. And when Kaylee was finally leaving, Jillian handed her a large plastic laundry basket full of the things she’d picked on their tour of the gardens.
All of them made sure she knew she’d be welcome back anytime. “I can’t wait to come back,” she said.
She drove directly home from there, and as she pulled in she saw Landry was sitting on his porch steps, holding a bottled water. When she parked in front of her house, he wandered over. She lifted the hatch. “I’ve been to Jilly Farms. And look what I got!”
“Awesome,” he said, looking through the fruits and veggies.
“I’m going to have a veggie dinner.”
“Do you have a ham hock to go in the beans?” he asked.
“No, of course not—I wasn’t expecting this.”
“I do. I’ll get it for you. You can’t have a pot of green beans without pork of some kind.”
“Then you have to join me for dinner!”
And there was that grin. “That would be great. I’ll make sure Otis stays home.”
5
KAYLEE’S FIRST DINNER with her landlord was so easy, she felt as though she’d known him for years. He helped her clean up the kitchen, accepted an after-dinner cup of coffee, didn’t stay too late and thanked her profusely. She and Kitty—erm, Tux—wrote eight pages, staying up till almost midnight.
The very next day when she was returning from her afternoon walk he waved to her from his porch and shouted, “What are your plans for dinner?” She gestured that she didn’t know, just shrugging her shoulders. He told Otis to stay on the porch and walked down the path to the road. “I thawed some ground sirloin for hamburgers. Care to join me?”
She glanced at Otis. “If you cook them on your grill and bring them over, I’ll slice tomatoes and make deviled eggs. And there are leftover beans.”
“That sounds perfect,” he said. “I’ll get a shower and do some grilling. How about six?”
“I look forward to it.”
She had her own shower and did a little primping, wondering if he’d notice. Then she wondered why she bothered.
She bothered because he was handsome, pleasant and quite good company. They talked about anything and everything. He gave her the background on a lot of her new friends.
“The story on Jillian and Colin is she was fired from a big executive job and came up here from San Jose to try to get her head together. Colin came to Virgin River because his brother Luke lives here, though why he did that is a mystery. They can’t get along at least half the time. I take that back—they’re either best friends or enemies. Jilly found the house and its neglected garden and started digging and planting. Colin is an ex-military Blackhawk pilot. He was recovering from a crash and painting was his therapy. He didn’t quite know he was any good.”