Return to You

roads.
    The sun hadn't set completely, so Gran was
probably still working outside. Olivia climbed out of the car,
tugged her skirt down, and followed the path leading alongside the
house.
    Granny Mae's farm was famous. People came
from all over to stay here and study her gardening techniques. Mae
Pembroke's knowledge of plants rivaled any herbalist's, and she
worked magic with vegetables and flowers.
    Olivia quickly walked past the empty
vegetable patch, thinking Gran was probably working in the flower
garden. But no one was there either.
    "Herbs," Olivia decided, knowing Gran never
went inside as long as there was light.
    She stopped at the gate of the herb garden
and looked around. Gran kneeled in a flowerbed, snipping at what
looked like oregano. Mae Pembroke looked just like she did
twenty-four years ago. Her hair was more silver than gold, her face
lined with age, but her brown eyes still sparked and her hands
still worked efficiently.
    Stepping carefully so she wouldn't trip in
her high-heeled Mary Janes, Olivia weaved through the various beds
and sat down on the stone bench closest to her grandmother.
    "I wondered if you'd come out here," Gran
said, dropping the oregano she cut into the straw basket beside
her.
    "Why was that?"
    "Just had a feeling." She looked at the
plant and obviously decided it was cut back enough because she
moved on to the next one.
    She didn't know why she bothered to ask.
Gran always knew things. It was downright creepy. It was too bad
Olivia hadn't inherited that trait. Maybe then she could have
foreseen Michael coming back. "Gran, why'd you take me in?"
    Her grandmother looked up from her work,
pushing the straw hat out of her eyes. "Why do you ask?"
    Because, other than her mom, no one else had
loved her enough to want her. But she said, "It couldn't have been
easy for you to take in a five year old."
    She returned to her plants
with a harrumph .
"Damn right, it wasn't. You were a little hellion."
    "Mom used to call me her angel."
    "You mama had the kindest heart of anyone
I've ever known," she said softly, all the teasing banished from
her voice.
    Olivia swallowed. She wondered if losing a
daughter was worse than losing a mother.
    Clearing her throat, Mae pulled out a weed
and tossed it aside. "Your poor mother is probably turning over in
her grave, what with the way your antics have aged me."
    "Right. Have you ever considered that you've
aged because you're ancient?"
    "I'll have you know I'm not a day over
seventy, you—"
    Cheeky
imp , Olivia mouthed.
    "—cheeky imp. I'd like to see you look this
good when you're pushing your eighth decade."
    Amused, she watched her grandmother mutter
to herself as she finished the bed. Olivia breathed in the fresh
scent of herbs and the knot inside her loosened a little bit.
"Granny Mae, what would I do without you?"
    "Goodness knows." She eyed Olivia's outfit.
"Probably die of pneumonia. Don't you have a wit of sense, girl,
parading around like that?"
    "It is a little nippy out, isn't it?" She
huddled in her coat.
    Without looking up, Gran asked, "So you
going to tell me what's bothering you?"
    Olivia heaved a sigh. "Michael's back. He
said he's shooting a movie here at Pembroke Farms."
    Her grandmother nodded, seemingly engrossed
by the weed she was trying to pull out.
    "That's it? No explanation?"
    "I was offered a tidy sum to have them use
my farm for a couple weeks. I accepted. You're the one always
telling me I should have more of a nest egg, for the future." Gran
gave her a sly look. "It's been a long time. I thought you were
over him."
    Olivia frowned. "I am."
    "Then it doesn't matter if they film here,
does it?"
    Hell yes it mattered. "No."
    "So what's the problem?"
    Just that she'd been sold
out for a tidy sum .
"I guess there is none."
    "Unless you still have feelings for him."
Gran shot her another look. "It'd be understandable. You two were
inseparable for most of your lives."
    "The only thing I feel is indifferent." She
glanced at the sky to make sure she wasn't going to be struck down
by lightning.
    Her grandmother sat back
and stared at her, her hands resting open-palmed in her lap. Olivia
had no trouble interpreting the look in her eyes. Succinctly put,
it said bullshit .
    Olivia finally said, "Maybe I still have the
teensiest of feelings for him."
    Gran snorted.
    "Okay, so I'm still a little pissed. I
thought I was over him," she said, dejected.
    "It's natural to still feel something,
epecially when you loved him so