They, along with other community members, had also repainted all the park benches and play structures so now the park shone with fresh coats of color. After her employees had finished planting earlier in the day, they had returned to the garden center and let Kara know they felt the work looked incomplete, so she and Maeve were now here to add a few more trees to the border.

As Kara parked Maeve’s wagon next to the pine saplings Ernie had dropped off earlier, she took a quick peek at her daughter’s sleeping face. She had let her little girl play in the small section of the park that hadn’t been painted that morning and now Mave’s dark lashes swept lightly over her plump, pink cheeks as she snuggled under her favorite blanket, fast asleep. She looked so sweet it was hard to believe she was the same little terror who had thrown a tantrum just a few minutes before.

Now that Maeve was napping, it was an excellent opportunity for Kara to finish some work at the park.

“Do you need some help?” came a familiar low voice, just as Kara had picked up a shovel and made a single stab in the dirt.

“Uh, sure,” Kara replied, looking up into the mesmerizing hazel-green eyes of Scott Davidson. Jogging over to the garden center truck, he fetched another shovel from the back. Working swiftly and silently together, they’d soon dug a hole for the sapling, and when Kara said it looked deep enough, Scott easily picked up the small tree and moved it into place. He held it straight while Kara filled the hole with topsoil then poured in transplanting solution before carefully filling the area around the root ball with dirt. After tamping down the top, she spread some dark mulch around the base and staked it to finish the task. They then repeated the work to plant a second tree before standing back to admire the new tree border.

“That’s better,” announced Kara. “The town only asked for six saplings to be planted at this end of the park, but it didn’t look full enough. Eight is much better.”

Scott nodded. “It looks good,” he said. “Besides, I’m not sure it would be possible to have too many pine trees here.”

Kara laughed. “Oh, it would be possible all right; one thing we don’t have a shortage of in this part of the country is pine trees.”

“How many types are there, anyway?” asked Scott.

“In this part of the world—Larkin Bay, you mean? There are four that are native—Eastern White, Jack, Red, and Pitch,” answered Kara easily. It was a question she was often asked.

“Just four? I thought there’d be more,” Scott replied.

“Well, if you want to get exact, there are actually about one hundred and five different species of pine trees worldwide. Pines are native to most of the Northern Hemisphere and are evergreen, so they’re readily identifiable. The smallest is the Siberian Dwarf Pine, and the tallest is the Sugar Pine. They can grow up to two hundred feet tall; it’s the one that has those huge pinecones that everyone here uses to decorate with at Christmas.”

Scott laughed. “You’re a pine tree expert,” he teased her.

Kara nodded. “We are right smack-dab in the center of Pineland County, so if anyone should know something about pine trees, it would be me,” she answered and, reaching over, caressed the bark on the small pine sapling they had just planted. “Besides, I like them. I’m the original trees-are-our-friends girl in town. I appreciate the smell and color of flowers, but I really like trees—they’re nature’s steady and dependable soldiers.”

As she talked, Kara tidied up her shovels and work gloves, making sure the site was cleaned up and nothing was left lying around. Scott smiled as he watched her work. It was obvious Kara loved what she did, and it was entertaining to hear her talk with such passion.

“Anything else I should know about the trees now that I’m living here?” he asked her.

Kara glanced over at him quickly, trying to judge his interest. “Not really,” she replied. “Just respect them. They live a lot longer than we do, which I think probably makes them wiser.”

Scott helped her pick up the remaining garbage and tools from their work and carried everything back over to the nursery truck while Kara pulled Maeve’s wagon alongside him.

“What did you get volunteered to help with today?” asked Kara curiously. Scott wore a hooded sweatshirt and some well-fitting jeans that showed off his nicely toned backside. Kara assumed the volunteer organizing committee would have roped him into helping in a physically strenuous task of some sort, given how fit he was, but he wasn’t sweaty or disheveled looking.

“Oh, I was assigned to work over at the baseball diamond putting up the new fencing in the outfield. There were lots of people helping, though, so it went quickly. I’ve already been home and showered and changed. I just decided to take a walk around town and see what else the town’s volunteers had done today. It’s amazing what can be accomplished when the whole town pulls together.”

“Yes, Volunteer Day has been an annual event in Larkin Bay for almost a hundred years now. I read somewhere that it’s how the original elementary school got built; all the farmers came to town for a weekend and built it for the children. Now, of course, we do simpler tasks, but it keeps the town looking good and helps our property taxes stay lower, so it’s a pretty popular event.”

A movement from the wagon caught both of their attention as Maeve struggled to sit up.

“Hello, beautiful,” Kara cooed to her daughter. “I see you’ve returned to the land of the awake. Welcome back.”

Maeve sat up and rubbed her eyes sleepily at her mother, then turned her attention to Scott. “Gott!” she shouted and held out both hands toward him while beaming from ear to ear.

“Maeve!” Scott shouted back, in a considerably quieter voice but with no less enthusiasm, as he reached down to scoop the little girl up and out of the wagon. He swung the giggling youngster around in a circle before setting her on her feet and settling back on his haunches so they could easily admire each other.

Kara stared at them both, stunned for a minute at how comfortable they were together and how sweet Maeve looked standing beside this handsome man.

“You have to be a dad one day,” Kara said to Scott. “Maeve adores you, and you seem so comfortable with her. Does Candy want children?”

Scott looked stunned at the question. “I don’t know,” he finally stammered out. “I guess…we’ve never really talked about it.”

“Well, you should,” Kara stated, “because you’re terrific with kids.”

He looked at her steadily for a long moment. “Well, that doesn’t really matter all that much anymore. Candy and I are not together and will never be, no matter how much she seems to be trying to make that happen.”

“Oh?” Kara’s eyes widened as she reached over and lifted a protesting Maeve up so she could buckle her into her booster seat. She carefully kept her face turned away so Scott couldn’t see how her lips had involuntarily curved into a broad smile at his words.

“Are you going to the volunteer potluck dinner at the recreation center tonight?” Kara asked after he’d helped her load Maeve’s wagon and all the planting tools into the back of the truck. “I’m going home to clean up, get Maeve settled, and then I’ll head over there for something to eat.”

“Um, I wasn’t planning on it, but maybe,” Scott replied.

“Well, then I’ll possibly see you there,” Kara said over her shoulder.

Scott watched Kara open her truck’s driver side door. “Oh, I have something interesting to share too,” he said, equally happy to share his news as he was being able to draw out their time together.

“What’s that?” Kara asked, glancing quickly at Maeve and nodding when she saw the little girl was securely fastened in her car seat and had picked up a book.

“I heard from the agent who represented me when I played baseball, and he told me there’s a sports station that wants me to consider commentating some games for them.”

“Really?” Kara’s eyes widened. “That’s great, Scott! How exciting for you. You would be great on TV or radio.”

He felt his cheeks color. “Thanks,” he replied. “Nothing’s been decided yet. I have to go do some testing and interviews, but it could be an exciting opportunity.”

“You’ll be wonderful,” Kara replied firmly. “They’d be lucky to have you.”

“Well I’m not so sure about that,” he replied, trying to ignore how his stomach was rolling happily at her praise.

He looked down at her and saw that a curl had escaped from her braid and was brushing her temple. Her cheeks were glowing from the soft spring winds and her full lips were parted and rosy as she smiled back at him.

“Kara?” he asked, stepping closer to her as his breath caught in his throat.

“Yes?” She blinked as she looked at him, a question in her eyes.

Instead of answering her, Scott took another half step toward her, pulled Kara into his arms and then kissed her.

It only took a few seconds before he realized that not only was he kissing her but she was kissing him back.

When he pulled away, he looked down into her glazed eyes and reached out his hands to encircle her waist. He smiled when he saw she was unsteady.

“I will definitely see you later, Kara,” he whispered.

She nodded and he could feel her watching him as he left the park, striding away purposefully and trying to hide the fact that he was a little breathless and more than a little off-balance.

Chapter Twenty-Three