"Then we may have a reprieve on towel offers for awhile." Trimming hedges could occupy the gardener for a long time, leaving Joanna free to focus on other parts of the landscaping.

Aware of the girl in the tree, Joanna went back to clearing leaves and random bits of trash mostly from a bed of Bee's Bliss, a faint scent of sage rising up where her hands brushed over the plants. "It's been a long time since I gardened with a young woman watching from a tree branch," she mused after a little while.