Love by the Yard (2 page)

Thinking of what Harry said made Brendan remember his childhood in painful detail. Brendan knew what it was like to need help, watching his world crumble around him, praying and hoping for something good to happen. His gut churned, knowing the same thing was happening to Shanna and her little family.

Brendan's father had died when Brendan was a young boy. Like Shanna, his mother struggled to support them when he was too young to understand the big picture and all the hardships. Only by the grace of God and the goodness and generosity of the people in their church had they come out relatively unscathed. Through it all, his mother had taught him two important lessons: The first was to trust in God, no matter what. The second was that God's way to return a favor was to pass it on.

The way things were going, by the time he finished, his profit margin would be so slim that landscaping Shanna McPherson's yard would indeed be a favor. All he could do was chalk it up to the Lord's work and finish cheerfully.

He sighed, then returned to his task, which he now could do uninterrupted—at least until Shanna brought her son home from school. Then the boy would want to help. Today, though, Brendan could give the boy something genuinely useful to do. Matthew could fill in the hole the dog had made.

Instead of dwelling on everything that had gone wrong, Brendan rolled up his sleeves and set to work on digging up more rocks and boulders, then painstakingly moving them to their designated locations. He intended to use them to make rock gardens, which, according to their agreed plans, would be on top of two boulders in the yard that jutted out above ground level. When the house was originally constructed, the contractor had left them where they were in the backyard, not quite buried. Without the proper equipment, which was very expensive to hire in, Brendan couldn't dig them out and remove them. Nor could he dig underneath them to bury them all the way. All he could do was put more rocks on top and grow something in the pile to make it look like he'd done it on purpose.

After he rolled one more boulder into place, he smiled with self-satisfaction, mentally picturing what it was going to look like once he packed in some good soil, planted flowers in it, then surrounded his artwork with ground cover shrubs. He had big plans for this yard, regardless of the price he was doing it for.

He was going to do a good job, despite “helpful” kids and a digging dog.

Halfway through digging up another boulder, the door opened. Shanna and Ashley walked out with Boffo on a leash, obediently staying beside Shanna. It was the only time he ever saw the dog behave, which was a good thing, because the dog probably outweighed her.

Shanna smiled and handed him a glass of iced tea. “I had a feeling you'd be thirsty.”

He accepted it with a smile. “You're right; I am thirsty. Thank you, Mrs. McPherson.”

She smiled back. “You're welcome, Mr. Gafferty. We'll be back in about fifteen minutes with Matthew.”

Brendan rested one fist on his hip and watched them until they disappeared around the corner of the house, headed in the direction of the school.

With any new job, Brendan always initially addressed clients by their last name; because, after all, this was business. However, his clients always insisted that things be more casual and that they talk with Brendan on a first-name basis.

Shanna McPherson was the only one who didn't. It unnerved him, maybe because it had never happened to him before, especially with a woman, married or single. He didn't like the formality, which was another reason he would be glad when this job was over and he could move on to his next contract.

As happened every day, Shanna, her children, and her dog returned right on schedule. As usual, Shanna tried to coax the kids to go into the house, and they weren't cooperating.

“It's okay, Mrs. McPherson. I can give them something to do. I don't mind.”

Her expression was a mixture of a question and relief, which made the extra work worthwhile.

The second she went inside, Brendan handed a small bag to Ashley. “I need you to go pick the weeds out from underneath the fence over there.”

Ashley didn't move. She just looked up at him, her brown eyes big and wide, exactly like her mother's.

He looked down. All of Ashley's features were a very close resemblance—like looking at Shanna in miniature form. It made him wonder what Shanna was like as a girl, then older, before the weight of all the responsibility settled onto her shoulders. He had to guess that Shanna was probably about the same age as himself, in her late twenties, even though signs of stress were already starting to show in a face that was much too young for such things. It made him wonder if there was anything he could do about it, besides fixing up her yard.

The thought startled Brendan. He shouldn't have been thinking about Shanna's history or her troubles.

He cleared his throat. “Yes, Ashley?”

She continued to look up, and he couldn't look away. The first thought that crossed his mind was that since Shanna needed more money, she should sign Ashley up for television commercials. Maybe even Shanna herself, too. Shanna wasn't exactly movie-star beautiful, but she was pretty and had a wholesome, honest face. He wondered if it was hard for adults to break into being photographed for magazine ads. He would certainly be drawn to an ad with a photo of Shanna featuring a product, especially if it had anything to do with gardening.

“What does a weed look like?”

Brendan gathered his thoughts. “If it's not grass, it's a weed, Ashley. I need everything that isn't grass pulled out so we can put the new grass on top.”

Ashley nodded and walked across the yard to begin her appointed task.

Brendan handed Matthew his smallest shovel. “And you, young man, would you like to fill in the hole Boffo made?” He pointed to the dog's handiwork.

The boy didn't move.

Matthew looked up at him. His eyes were green, different than his mother's. Brendan could see some of Shanna's features in the boy, but also some that obviously came from his father, which made him wonder what Matthew's father was like.

Brendan gritted his teeth. The children's parentage was of no concern to him.

“Do you have a question, Matthew?”

“Will fixing up the yard make my mom happy?”

“I suppose so. That's why I'm here.”

“What if it doesn't? I saw on TV that ladies get happy when they go out on a date. I want my mom to be happy. Can you tell me how to take her on a date?”

Brendan's mind went blank for a second. “How old are you, Matthew?”

Matthew stiffened to his full height, which in Brendan's opinion, wasn't much. “Six. But I'm almost seven.”

Brendan lowered himself until one knee touched the ground, hoping it would make their conversation feel more man-to-man. “I have an idea. I think your mom needs to go on a date with a grown-up. I know your church is really small, but my church is really big. We have a group of men and women about the same age as your mom who do things together. Would you like me to ask your mom if she wants to go there, and maybe one of the other grown-ups will ask her on a date?”

Brendan didn't attend the singles' group, but he knew many single mothers who were regular participants. He wasn't personally interested in Shanna, but as long as it was clear it wasn't a date, Brendan wouldn't mind taking Shanna and introducing her around. He could even consider it an outreach ministry.

Not that he was closed off to the idea of dating—he actually looked forward to settling down and getting married one day. But when that day came, he wasn't going to hook up with a single mother. Yes, he wanted children—he already had plans for his children. He'd carefully calculated that, at his present income level, he could raise two children to have the college education he had been denied. If he could only do it for two, then those two children were going to be from his own genetic pool, not another man's children.

Some might have thought him shallow for thinking that way, but he knew what it was like to spread an income too thin. After his father died, even though his mother had tried hard to hide it, he'd seen how she struggled to make ends meet. Even though he'd been much too young, he'd helped earn the money needed for his family to pay the bills, even if it was only a family of two. He didn't want his children to face those same struggles and insecurities about not having enough money. His children would have all they needed, including the college education he didn't have. And that meant exactly two.

Matthew nodded. “Yes. I would like it if you took my mom to that place.”

Brendan stood. “Okay, Matthew, that's settled. Now it's time to get back to work.”

Two

Shanna's heart pumped with excitement. The work on her yard wasn't nearly completed, but already she'd received a result from one of her queries. “Yes, I'm still taking new clients,” she said to the man on the phone.

She could hear the smile in the man's voice. “Good. I've checked your references and gone over what you sent me. What you're offering looks exactly like what I need. I know it's short notice, but can we set up a meeting at your office in about an hour or so?”

The excitement turned into a lump of cardboard in her stomach. She needed the deposit on this contract or she couldn't make her next mortgage payment. But she couldn't afford for this new potential client to see the mess, or the same thing would happen as when the last potential clients went through.

Shanna stiffened in her chair. “I'm going to be honest with you, Bill. I'm in the middle of renovation to my office, which is in my home. The work on my office is complete, so it has a separate entrance from my residence, but I still have someone working on the outside. Things are still noisy and a bit distracting out there.”

She watched as Matthew threw Boffo's ball into the air, then whacked it with the small shovel like a baseball bat, sending the ball flying across the yard with Boffo in pursuit.

“I wondered about that, from your address. That's
interesting. I also run my business out of my home. I started it with just me and my wife, and then we renovated, like you, so it was set apart from the rest of the house. We felt it was important to separate it at that point. Since then, we've grown so much that we've got ten employees now. We've expanded again and now need a real accountant instead of my wife doing the bookkeeping. She can't keep up, and she doesn't know how to do all the new government stuff. Also, since we incorporated, we need an accountant to do our corporate income tax returns.”

“That's what I do. Perhaps I could come down to your office?” If she could find a sitter.

Shanna glanced into the backyard, where Brendan was lining up some bricks in the back corner. Since he'd started working for her, both Matthew and Ashley spent most of their time outside with him. Shanna was almost sure he wouldn't mind if she had to run out for a few hours, although to leave him in charge of the children in her absence surely made him the highest-priced babysitter in Seattle. It wasn't something she wanted to do, but she didn't have any other options on short notice.

“I don't think that will be necessary. You were highly recommended, and hearing that you've invested in your office the same way I did tells me that you plan to be around for a long time. How about if you e-mail me your rates and a proposal, and that will probably be enough to get started.”

“That would be great,” she said, trying to make it sound like she made this kind of agreement all the time. She was so excited she could barely keep from shouting for joy. The last few weeks she'd been so discouraged that she'd begun to wonder if she'd made a mistake—that Brendan's work, and her investment, weren't going to make a difference. Instead, God's timing was perfect, and for the first time in a long time, she felt encouraged.

Shanna picked up a pen and paper. “Just let me write down your e-mail address, and I can have something prepared for you by the end of the day. When can you send your deposit?”

She held her breath. The cost to renovate the office to include installing the outside door had been more expensive than the estimate. But she couldn't leave the project half finished or it meant nothing. In faith, she'd contracted Brendan's services to do the yard when she really didn't have the money. Pastor Harry had told her that she needed to trust in God, and that was exactly what she was doing.

Of course, it helped that Pastor Harry had promised that Brendan's work was excellent, and his rates were more than reasonable.

“I just need a day to go over your proposal, but I'm pretty sure everything will be fine. Good day, Shanna.”

Shanna hung up the phone, barely able to restrain a squeal of excitement.

This was it—her largest corporate client so far. The kind she needed to make a success of her business and support her family without having to worry about where the next penny was coming from.

But before she could finish the proposal, she had a three o'clock deadline for another client's project that she had to complete first. It wasn't ethical to break a promise, no matter how important this was.

Shanna started to press the key to complete her current reconciliation when Ashley's shriek sliced through the air.

Shanna fumbled her transaction on the keyboard.

She scrambled to her feet and leaned as far over her desk as she could, frantically searching out the window to see what was wrong.

In the back of the yard, beside what was left of Shanna's fence, Ashley stood, pointing with her entire arm extended, screaming words that Shanna couldn't understand. As Ashley's arm moved, her gaze followed a moving target that Shanna couldn't see.

Not far from Ashley, in the corner, Matthew stood
facing the same moving target, his shovel frozen in midair. His mouth hung wide open, just like a character in a bad cartoon.

Shanna pressed her palms to the window, leaning so close that the tip of her nose brushed the cool glass.

Suddenly, a blur of red plaid and faded blue flashed past the window.

Shanna lurched backward. Before she could catch herself, she tripped on the wheeled leg of her office chair. She felt herself falling backward, but instead of landing on the hard floor, she fell into the seat and rolled backward a few inches.

Not caring that she would knock over her client's papers, Shanna launched herself out of the chair and scrambled up onto the desktop on her hands and knees to watch yet another fiasco unfurling.

This time, something green and pink hung from Boffo's mouth as Brendan chased Boffo in a circle around the backyard. Still in the corner, Matthew snapped his mouth shut and threw down the shovel. He ran into Boffo's path, extending his arms fully on both sides to block the dog.

Boffo could have dodged the child, with or without Brendan closing in from behind. Instead, Boffo dropped his prize at Matthew's feet.

His chest heaving, Brendan skidded to a halt behind the dog, nearly falling in the loose dirt. All was silent as he stared down at the soggy green and pink lump at Boffo's feet. Shanna recognized it as one of the miniature carnations Brendan had given Matthew to plant in the flower bed under construction in the corner of the backyard.

Brendan squatted to scoop up the bedraggled plant, saying something she couldn't hear to the dog as he picked it up. In response, Boffo lunged forward, thrusting his large, muddy paws onto Brendan's shoulders.

Brendan tumbled backward. His arms flailed, but he couldn't regain his balance with Boffo's weight pressing into him. Brendan's legs shot out from under him, and down he went, along with Boffo. The plant flew up out of his hand and landed on Matthew's head at the same time Brendan's back thumped to the ground. He exhaled with an “oof” as Boffo bounced on his chest.

Brendan struggled for breath with the huge dog sprawled on top of him. Brendan was trapped. Nothing would move Boffo if Boffo didn't want to be moved.

Ashley squealed with glee, then giggled. The shrill sound
prompted Boffo into high gear. His tongue flashed out
toward Brendan's face.

“No!” Brendan gasped, calling out as he raised his arms, but he was too late to protect himself from the onslaught of Boffo's sloppy doggy kisses.

Ashley appeared beside them. “Him loves you!” she sang as she danced in a circle, waving her arms above her head and spinning around on her toes.

Still atop the desk, with her elbows fixed on the hard surface, Shanna leaned forward and buried her face in her palms.

The man was never going to get her landscaping done. Either that or he was going to quit, and it would be all her fault.

She didn't want him to leave. Not just for the job he was doing, and not for herself. Despite the havoc, her children hadn't had such fun with a man since. . .Shanna couldn't remember.

An ache formed in the depths of her soul. When their father was alive, the children hadn't had as much fun with him as they did with this patient stranger. Roger had refused to have anything to do with his children—something Shanna hadn't seen coming in their marriage. Roger had promised that he'd wanted to have children, yet he'd probably changed only one diaper in all the time he was a father. That was when Shanna had the flu and had locked herself in the bathroom, throwing up. Roger never played with the children, claiming he didn't know what to do with them. Actually, Roger simply couldn't be bothered. He made no effort to hide it when either she or the children annoyed him, which was most of the time.

Brendan Gafferty, a stranger, had spent more time with Matthew and Ashley in the last week than their father had in the whole year prior to his death. He was also being a good sport about their antics and Boffo's behavior, something Roger never would have been.

However, as beneficial as it was for her children to have a good relationship with a male figure, she couldn't allow the hired help to do anything more than the job he was hired
for. There was still too much to do. She didn't know if
it was just luck or the grace of God that she got a new
client before everything was finished. She certainly wouldn't test God to provide more before everything was ready.

Shanna slowly lowered her feet to the floor and walked outside. She couldn't afford the distraction, but she had to take Boffo and the children into the house and let Brendan get back to his work. Maybe, since the children had been so busy with him, they might go to bed early tonight. Then she could get some work done in peace and quiet and still get a few hours of sleep before she had to wake Matthew for school the next day.

By the time she reached them, Brendan had the situation back under control. Matthew recovered the plant Boffo had stolen and was diligently patting the dirt down around it, even though it looked rather bedraggled compared
to the rest. Ashley sang to herself, completely off-key,
as she picked rocks out of the mud and piled them into Brendan's wheelbarrow. Even Boffo was doing something constructive. Shanna didn't know how he did it, but somehow Brendan had manipulated the dog into digging a hole where she knew he planned to plant an apple tree when the other yard work was completed.

She cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. “Matthew, Ashley, how would you like to come into the house for some cookies and juice? Mr. Gafferty, could I offer you a cup of coffee?” Shanna knew she could certainly use a good cup of strong coffee. Maybe even a whole pot.

“Does we have to go into the house?” Ashley muttered. “I was having fun helping Mr. Brendan.”

“Coffee?” Brendan's eyebrows arched. “Uh. . . Actually, if you still have some of that iced tea you gave me earlier, that would be real nice of you.”

“Certainly.” Shanna reached down to take Ashley's hand. “Come on, Ashley. We have to let—” She stopped moving and looked up.
“
Mr. Brendan
?”

Brendan shrugged his shoulders. “I'm not used to all this Mr. and Mrs. stuff all the time. But if that's what you want the kids to do, I'm okay with that. I just thought this would be a good compromise. Besides, my father was Mr. Gafferty. I'm just Brendan.”

Shanna stared at him. Part of her reason for the way both she and the children addressed him was a sign of respect, because he deserved it. Brendan Gafferty was a hard worker and kept his word, unlike their father. But there was another reason she addressed him so formally. She wanted to keep a professional distance. She knew she should have trusted him; after all, he was a close friend of her pastor. Yet she didn't feel comfortable with him. If she kept their relationship formal, she felt safe. Being his employer—and only his employer—was the way to accomplish that.

However, she had to consider her children first. Brendan Gafferty was setting a good example for them, acting the way a good man should behave toward children, the way their father should have behaved.

She cleared her throat and stiffened her posture, but he still towered over her, negating her efforts to look like an authority figure. “Fine, then. Come on, Matthew, Ashley. We should let Mr. Brendan get back to his work. He has a lot to do. Boffo, come.”

“You really don't have to take the kids; they were okay. Of course, I don't mind you taking the dog.”

Shanna sighed. “I'm so sorry about Boffo. I know he's not very well behaved, but he's very friendly, and we love him a lot.” He was also big. Even though he didn't have a vicious bone in his body, Boffo at least had the potential to look like a watchdog to those who didn't know him.

Ashley nodded so fast her bangs bounced on her forehead. “And him loves us lots, too.”

Brendan crossed his arms over his chest. “I'm sure he does.”

Shanna glanced back and forth between her children and the dog, then at her wristwatch. Maybe Boffo would sleep. . . .