Blue Dahlia, Page 5

Chapter Four

  Everything was perfect. She worked long hours, but much of it was planning at this stage. There was little Stella loved more than planning. Unless it was arranging. She had a vision of things, in her head, of how things could and should be.

  Some might see it as a flaw, this tendency to organize and project, to nudge those visions of things into place even when - maybe particularly when - others didn't quite get the picture.

  But she didn't see it that way.

  Life ran smoother when everything was where it was meant to be.

  Her life had - she'd made certain of it - until Kevin's death. Her childhood had been a maze of contradictions, of confusions and irritations. In a very real way she'd lost her father at the age of three when divorce had divided her family.

  The only thing she clearly remembered about the move from Memphis was crying for her daddy.

  From that point on, it seemed she and her mother had butted heads over everything, from the color of paint on the walls to finances to how to spend holidays and vacations. Everything.

  Those same some people might say that's what happened with two headstrong women living in the same house. But Stella knew different. While she was practical and organized, her mother was scattered and spontaneous. Which accounted for the four marriages and three broken engagements.

  Her mother liked flash and noise and wild romance. Stella preferred quiet and settled and committed.

  Not that she wasn't romantic. She was just sensible about it.

  It had been both sensible and romantic to fall in love with Kevin. He'd been warm and sweet and steady. They'd wanted the same things. Home, family, future. He'd made her happy, made her feel safe and cherished. And God, she missed him.

  She wondered what he'd think about her coming here, starting over this way. He'd have trusted her. He'd always believed in her. They'd believed in each other.

  He'd been her rock, in a very real way. The rock that had given her a solid base to build on after a childhood of upheaval and discontent.

  Then fate had kicked that rock out from under her. She'd lost her base, her love, her most cherished friend, and the only person in the world who could treasure her children as much as she did.

  There had been times, many times, during the first months after Kevin's death when she'd despaired of ever finding her balance again.

  Now she was the rock for her sons, and she would do whatever she had to do to give them a good life.

  With her boys settled down for the night, and a low fire burning - she was definitely having a bedroom fireplace in her next house - she sat on the bed with her laptop.

  It wasn't the most businesslike way to work, but she didn't feel right asking Roz to let her convert one of the bedrooms into a home office.

  Yet.

  She could make do this way for now. In fact, it was cozy and for her, relaxing, to go over the order of business for the next day while tucked into the gorgeous old bed.

  She had the list of phone calls she intended to make to suppliers, the reorganization of garden accessories and the houseplants. Her new color-coordinated pricing system to implement. The new invoicing program to install.

  She had to speak with Roz about the seasonal employees. Who, how many, individual and group responsibilities.

  And she'd yet to corner the landscape designer. You'd think the man could find time in a damn week to return a phone call. She typed in "Logan Kitridge," holding and underlining the name.

  She glanced at the clock, reminded herself that she would put in a better day's work with a good night's sleep.

  She powered down the laptop, then carried it over to the dressing table to set it to charge. She really was going to need that home office.

  She went through her habitual bedtime routine, meticulously creaming off her makeup, studying her naked face in the mirror to see if the Time Bitch had snuck any new lines on it that day. She dabbed on her eye cream, her lip cream, her nighttime moisturizer - all of which were lined, according to point of use, on the counter. After slathering more cream on her hands, she spent a few minutes searching for gray hairs. The Time Bitch could be sneaky.

  She wished she was prettier. Wished her features were more even, her hair straight and a reasonable color. She'd dyed it brown once, and that had been a disaster. So, she'd just have to live with . . .

  She caught herself humming, and frowned at herself in the mirror. What song was that? How strange to have it stuck in her head when she didn't even know what it was.

  Then she realized it wasn't stuck in her head. She heard it. Soft, dreamy singing. From the boys' room.

  Wondering what in the world Roz would be doing singing to the boys at eleven at night, Stella reached for the connecting door.

  When she opened it, the singing stopped. In the subtle glow of the Harry Potter night-light, she could see her sons in their beds.

  "Roz?" she whispered, stepping in.

  She shivered once. Why was it so cold in there? She moved, quickly and quietly to the terrace doors, checked and found them securely closed, as were the windows. And the hall door, she thought with another frown.

  She could have sworn she'd heard something. Felt something. But the chill had already faded, and there was no sound in the room but her sons' steady breathing.

  She tucked up their blankets as she did every night, brushed kisses on both their heads.

  And left the connecting doors open.

  * * *

  By morning she'd brushed it off. Luke couldn't find his lucky shirt, and Gavin got into a wrestling match with Parker on their before-school walk and had to change his. As a result, she barely had time for morning coffee and the muffin David pressed on her.

  "Will you tell Roz I went in early? I want to have the lobby area done before we open at ten. "

  "She left an hour ago. "

  "An hour ago?" Stella looked at her watch. Keeping up with Roz had become Stella's personal mission - and so far she was failing. "Does she sleep?"

  "With her, the early bird doesn't just catch the worm, but has time to saute it with a nice plum sauce for breakfast. "

  "Excuse me, but eeuw. Gotta run. " She dashed for the doorway, then stopped. "David, everything's going okay with the kids? You'd tell me otherwise, right?"

  "Absolutely. We're having nothing but fun. Today, after school, we're going to practice running with scissors, then find how many things we can roughhouse with that can poke our eyes out. After that, we've moving on to flammables. "

  "Thanks. I feel very reassured. " She bent down to give Parker a last pat. "Keep an eye on this guy," she told him.

  * * *

  Logan Kitridge was pressed for time. Rain had delayed his personal project to the point where he was going to have to postpone some of the fine points - again - to meet professional commitments.

  He didn't mind so much. He considered landscaping a perpetual work in progress. It was never finished. It should never be finished. And when you worked with Nature, Nature was the boss. She was fickle and tricky, and endlessly fascinating.

  A man had to be continually on his toes, be ready to flex, be willing to compromise and swing with her moods. Planning in absolutes was an exercise in frustration, and to his mind there were enough other things to be frustrated about.

  Since Nature had deigned to give him a good, clear day, he was taking it to deal with his personal project. It meant he had to work alone - he liked that better in any case - and carve out time to swing by the job site and check on his two-man crew.

  It meant he had to get over to Roz's place, pick up the trees he'd earmarked for his own use, haul them back to his place, and get them in the ground before noon.

  Or one. Two at the latest.

  Well, he'd see how it went.

  The one thing he couldn't afford to carve out time for was this new manager Roz had taken on. He couldn't figure out why Roz had hir
ed a manager in the first place, and for God's sake a Yankee. It seemed to him that Rosalind Harper knew how to run her business just fine and didn't need some fast-talking stranger screwing with the system.

  He liked working with Roz. She was a woman who got things done, and who didn't poke her nose into his end of things any more than was reasonable. She loved the work, just as he did, had an instinct for it. So when she did make a suggestion, you tended to listen and weigh it in.

  She paid well and didn't hassle a man over every detail.

  He could tell, just tell, that this manager was going to be nothing but bumps and ruts in his road.

  Wasn't she already leaving messages for him in that cool Yankee voice about time management, invoice systems, and equipment inventory?

  He didn't give a shit about that sort of thing, and he wasn't going to start giving one now.

  He and Roz had a system, damn it. One that got the job done and made the client happy.

  Why mess with success?

  He drove his full-size pickup through the parking area, wove through the piles of mulch and sand, the landscape timbers, and around the side loading area.

  He'd already eyeballed and tagged what he wanted - but before he loaded them up, he'd take one more look around. Plus there were some young evergreens in the field and a couple of hemlocks in the balled and burlapped area that he thought he could use.

  Harper had grafted him a couple of willows and a hedgerow of peonies. They'd be ready to dig in this spring, along with the various pots of cuttings and layered plants Roz had helped him with.

  He moved through the rows of trees, then turned around and backtracked.

  This wasn't right, he thought. Everything was out of place, changed around. Where were his dogwoods? Where the hell were the rhododendrons, the mountain laurels he'd tagged? Where was his goddamn frigging magnolia?

  He scowled at a pussy willow, then began a careful, step-by-step search through the section.

  It was all different. Trees and shrubs were no longer in what he'd considered an interesting, eclectic mix of type and species, but lined up like army recruits, he decided. Alphabetized, for Christ's sweet sake. In frigging Latin.

  Shrubs were segregated, and organized in the same anal fashion.

  He found his trees and, stewing, carted them to his truck. Muttering to himself, he decided to head into the field, dig up the trees he wanted there. They'd be safer at his place. Obviously.

  Bur first he was going to hunt up Roz and get this mess straightened out.

  * * *

  Standing on a stepladder, armed with a bucket of soapy water and a rag, Stella attacked the top of the shelf she'd cleared off. A good cleaning, she decided, and it would be ready for her newly planned display. She envisioned it filled with color-coordinated decorative pots, some mixed plantings scattered among them. Add other accessories, like raffia twine, decorative watering spikes, florist stones and marbles, and so on, and you'd have something.

  At point of purchase, it would generate impulse sales.

  She was moving the soil additives, fertilizers, and animal repellents to the side wall. Those were basics, not impulse. Customers would walk back there for items of that nature, and pass the wind chimes she was going to hang, the bench and concrete planter she intended to haul in. With the other changes, it would all tie together, and with the flow, draw customers into the houseplant section, across to the patio pots, the garden furniture, all before they moved through to the bedding plants.

  With an hour and a half until they opened, and if she could shanghai Harper into helping her with the heavy stuff, she'd have it done.

  She heard footsteps coming through from the back, blew her hair out of her eyes. "Making progress," she began. "I know it doesn't look like it yet, but. . . "

  She broke off when she saw him.

  Even standing on the ladder, she felt dwarfed. He had to be six-five. All tough and rangy and fit in faded jeans with bleach stains splattered over one thigh. He wore a flannel shirt jacket-style over a white T-shirt and a pair of boots so dinged and scored she wondered he didn't take pity and give them a decent burial.

  His long, wavy, unkempt hair was the color she'd been shooting for the one time she'd dyed her own.

  She wouldn't have called him handsome - everything about him seemed rough and rugged. The hard mouth, the hollowed cheeks, the sharp nose, the expression in his eyes. They were green, but not like Kevin's had been. These were moody and deep, and seemed somehow hot under the strong line of brows.

  No, she wouldn't have said handsome, but arresting, in a big and tough sort of way. The sort of tough that looked like a bunched fist would bounce right off him, doing a lot more damage to the puncher than the punchee.

  She smiled, though she wondered where Roz was, or Harper. Or somebody.

  "I'm sorry. We're not open yet this morning. Is there something I can do for you?"

  Oh, he knew that voice. That crisp, cool voice that had left him annoying messages about functional organizational plans and production goals.

  He'd expected her to look like she'd sounded - a usual mistake, he supposed. There wasn't much cool and crisp about that wild red hair she was trying to control with that stupid-looking kerchief, or the wariness in those big blue eyes.

  "You moved my damn trees. "

  "I'm sorry?"

  "Well, you ought to be. Don't do it again. "

  "I don't know what you're talking about. " She kept a grip on the bucket - just in case - and stepped down the ladder. "Did you order some trees? If I could have your name, I'll see if I can find your order. We're implementing a new system, so - "

  "I don't have to order anything, and I don't like your new system. And what the hell are you doing in here? Where is everything?"

  His voice sounded local to her, with a definite edge of nasty impatience. "I think it would be best if you came back when we're open. Winter hours start at ten a. m. If you'd leave me your name. . . " She edged toward the counter and the phone.

  "It's Kitridge, and you ought to know since you've been nagging me brainless for damn near a week. "

  "I don't know . . . oh. Kitridge. " She relaxed, fractionally. "The landscape designer. And I haven't been nagging," she said with more heat when her brain caught up. "I've been trying to contact you so we could schedule a meeting. You haven't had the courtesy to return my calls. I certainly hope you're not as rude with clients as you are with coworkers. "

  "Rude? Sister, you haven't seen rude. "

  "I have two sons," she snapped back. "I've seen plenty of rude. Roz hired me to put some order into her business, to take some of the systemic load off her shoulders, to - "

  "Systemic?" His gaze rose to the ceiling like a man sending out a prayer. "Jesus, are you always going to talk like that?"

  She took a calming breath. "Mr. Kitridge, I have a job to do. Part of that job is dealing with the landscaping arm of this business. It happens to be a very important and profitable arm. "

  "Damn right. And it's my frigging arm. "

  "It also happens to be ridiculously disorganized and apparently run like a circus. I've been finding little scraps of paper and hand-scribbled orders and invoices - if you can call them that - all week. "

  "So?"

  "So, if you'd bothered to return my calls and arrange for a meeting, I could have explained to you how this arm of the business will now function. "

  "Oh, is that right?" That west Tennessee tone took on a soft and dangerous hue. "You're going to explain it to me. "

  "That's exactly right. The system I'm implementing will, in the end, save you considerable time and effort with computerized invoices and inventory, client lists and designs, with - "

  He was sizing her up. He figured he had about a foot on her in height, probably a good hundred pounds in bulk. But the woman had a mouth on her. It was what his mother would have called bee stung - pretty - and apparently i
t never stopped flapping.

  "How the hell is having to spend half my time on a computer going to save me anything?"

  "Once the data is inputted, it will. At this point, you seem to be carrying most of this information in some pocket, or inside your head. "

  "So? If it's in a pocket, I can find it. If it's in my head, I can find it there, too. Nothing wrong with my memory. "

  "Maybe not. But tomorrow you may be run over by a truck and spend the next five years in a coma. " That pretty mouth smiled, icily. "Then where will we be?"

  "Being as I'd be in a coma, I wouldn't be worried about it. Come out here. "

  He grabbed her hand, pulled her toward the door. "Hey!" she managed. Then, "Hey!"

  "This is business. " He yanked open the door and kept pulling her along. "I'm not dragging you off to a cave. "

  "Then let go. " His hands were hard as rock, and just as rough. And his legs, she realized, as he strode away from the building, ate up ground in long, hurried bites and forced her into an undignified trot.

  "Just a minute. Look at that. "

  He gestured toward the tree and shrub area while she struggled to get her breath back. "What about it?"

  "It's messed up. "

  "It certainly isn't. I spent nearly an entire day on this area. " And had the aching muscles to prove it. "It's cohesively arranged so if a customer is looking for an ornamental tree, he - or a member of the staff - can find the one that suits. If the customer is looking for a spring-blooming shrub or - "

  "They're all lined up. What did you use, a carpenter's level? People come in here now, how can they get a picture of how different specimens might work together?"

  "That's your job and the staff's. We're here to help and direct the customer to possibilities as well as their more definite wants. If they're wandering around trying to find a damn hydrangea - "

  "They might just spot a spirea or camellia they'd like to have, too. "

  He had a point, and she'd considered it. She wasn't an idiot. "Or they may leave empty-handed because they couldn't easily find what they'd come for in the first place. Attentive and well-trained staff should be able to direct and explore with the customer. Either way has its pros and cons, but I happen to like this way better. And it's my call.

  "Now. " She stepped back. "If you have the time, we need to - "

  "I don't. " He stalked off toward his truck.

  "Just wait. " She jogged after him. "We need to talk about the new purchase orders and invoicing system. "

  "Send me a frigging memo. Sounds like your speed. "

  "I don't want to send you a frigging memo, and what are you doing with those trees?"

  'Taking them home. " He pulled open the truck door, climbed in.

  "What do you mean you're taking them home? I don't have any paperwork on these. "

  "Hey, me neither. " After slamming the door, he rolled the window down a stingy inch. "Step back, Red. Wouldn't want to run over your toes. "

  "Look. You can't just take off with stock whenever you feel like it. "

  "Take it up with Roz. If she's still the boss. Otherwise, better call the cops. " He gunned the engine, and when she stumbled back, zipped into reverse. And left her staring after him.

  Cheeks pink with temper, Stella marched back toward the building. Serve him right, she thought, just serve him right if she did call the police. She snapped her head up, eyes hot, as Roz opened the door.

  "Was that Logan's truck?"

  "Does he work with clients?"

  "Sure. Why?"

  "You're lucky you haven't been sued. He storms in, nothing but complaints. Bitch, bitch, bitch," Stella muttered as she swung past Roz and inside. "He doesn't like this, doesn't like that, doesn't like any damn thing as far as I can tell. Then he drives off with a truckload of trees and shrubs. "

  Roz rubbed her earlobe thoughtfully. "He does have his moods. "

  "Moods? I only saw one, and I didn't like it. " She yanked off the kerchief, tossed it on the counter.

  "Pissed you off, did he?"

  "In spades. I'm trying to do what you hired me to do, Roz. "

  "I know. And so far I don't believe I've made any comments or complaints that could qualify as bitch, bitch, bitch. "

  Stella sent her a horrified look. "No! Of course not. I didn't mean - God. "

  "We're in what I'd call an adjustment period. Some don't adjust as smoothly as others. I like most of your ideas, and others I'm willing to give a chance. Logan's used to doing things his own way, and that's been fine with me. It works for us. "

  "He took stock. How can I maintain inventory if I don't know what he took, or what it's for? I need paperwork, Roz. "

  "I imagine he took the specimens he'd tagged for his personal use. If he took others, he'll let me know. Which is not the way you do things," she continued before Stella could speak. "I'll talk to him, Stella, but you might have to do some adjusting yourself. You're not in Michigan anymore. I'm going to let you get back to work here. "

  And she was going back to her plants. They generally gave her less trouble than people.

  "Roz? I know I can be an awful pain in the ass, but I really do want to help you grow your business. "

  "I figured out both those things already. "

  Alone, Stella sulked for a minute. Then she got her bucket and climbed up the ladder again. The unscheduled meeting had thrown her off schedule.

  * * *

  "I don't like her. " Logan sat in Roz's parlor with a beer in one hand and a boatload of resentment in the other. "She's bossy, rigid, smug, and shrill. " At Roz's raised brows, he shrugged. "Okay, not shrill - so far - but I stand by the rest. "

  "I do like her. I like her energy and her enthusiasm. And I need someone to handle the details, Logan. I've outgrown myself. I'm just asking that the two of you try to meet somewhere in the middle of things. "

  "I don't think she has any middle. She's extreme. I don't trust extreme women. "

  "You trust me. "

  He brooded into his beer. That was true enough. If he hadn't trusted Roz, he wouldn't have come to work for her, no matter what salary and perks she'd dangled under his nose. "She's going to have us filling out forms in triplicate and documenting how many inches we prune off a damn bush. "

  "I don't think it'll come to that. " Roz propped her feet comfortably on the coffee table and sipped her

  own beer.

  "If you had to go and hire some sort of manager, Roz, why the hell didn't you hire local? Get somebody in who understands how things work around here. "

  "Because I didn't want a local. I wanted her. When she comes down, we're going to have a nice civilized drink followed by a nice civilized meal. I don't care if the two of you don't like each other, but you will learn how to get along. "

  "You're the boss. "

  "That's a fact. " She gave him a companionable pat on the thigh. "Harper's coming over, too. I browbeat him into it. "

  Logan brooded a minute longer. "You really like her?"

  "I really do. And I've missed the company of women. Women who aren't silly and annoying, anyway. She's neither. She had a tough break, Logan, losing her man at such a young age. I know what that's like. She hasn't broken under it, or gone brittle. So yes, I like her. "

  "Then I'll tolerate her, but only for you. "

  "Sweet talker. " With a laugh, Roz leaned over to kiss his cheek.

  "Only because I'm crazy about you. "

  Stella came to the door in time to see Logan take Roz's hand in his, and thought, Oh, shit.

  She'd gone head-to-head, argued with, insulted, and complained about her boss's lover.

  With a sick dread in her stomach, she nudged her boys forward. She stepped inside, plastered on a smile. "Hope we're not late," she said cheerily. "There was a small homework crisis. Hello, Mr. Kitridge. I'd like you to meet my sons. This is Gavin, and this is Luke. "

  "How's it going?" They
looked like normal kids to him rather than the pod-children he'd expected someone like Stella to produce.

  "I have a loose tooth," Luke told him.

  "Yeah? Let's have a look, then. " Logan set down his beer to take a serious study of the tooth Luke wiggled with his tongue. "Cool. You know, I've got me some pliers in my toolbox. One yank and we'd have that out of there. "

  At the small horrified sound from behind him, Logan turned to smile thinly at Stella.

  "Mr. Kitridge is just joking," Stella told a fascinated Luke. "Your tooth will come out when it's ready. "

  "When it does, the Tooth Fairy comes, and I get a buck. "

  Logan pursed his lips. "A buck, huh? Good deal. "

  "It makes blood when it comes out, but I'm not scared. "

  "Miss Roz? Can we go see David in the kitchen?" Gavin shot a look at his mother. "Mom said we had to ask you. "

  "Sure. You go right on. "

  "No sweets," Stella called out as they dashed out.

  "Logan, why don't you pour Stella a glass of wine?"

  "I'll get it. Don't get up," Stella told him.

  He didn't look quite as much like an overbearing jerk, she decided. He cleaned up well enough, and she could see why Roz was attracted. If you went for the ubervirile sort.

  "Did you say Harper was coming?" Stella asked her.

  "He'll be along. " Roz gestured with her beer. "Let's see if we can all play nice. Let's get this business out of the way so we can have an enjoyable meal without ruining our digestion. Stella's in charge of sales and production, of managing the day-to-day business. She and I will, for now anyway, share personnel management while Harper and I head up propagation. "

  She sipped her beer, waited, though she knew her own power and didn't expect an interruption. "Logan leads the landscaping design, both on- and off-site. As such, he has first choice of stock and is authorized to put in for special orders, or arrange trades or purchases or rentals of necessary equipment, material or specimens for outside designs. The changes Stella has already implemented or proposed - and which have been approved by me - will stay or be put in place. Until such time as I decide they don't work. Or if I just don't like them. Clear so far?"

  "Perfectly," Stella said coolly.

  Logan shrugged.

  "Which means you'll cooperate with each other, do what's necessary to work together in such a way for both of you to function in the areas you oversee. I built In the Garden from the ground up, and I can run it myself if I have to. But I don't choose to. I choose to have the two of you, and Harper, shoulder the responsibilities you've been given. Squabble all you want. I don't mind squabbles. But get the job done. "

  She finished off her beer. "Questions? Comments?" After a beat of silence, she rose. "Well, then, let's eat. "