Chapter 19: Fresh Air

Abigail decided there was absolutely no way she was going to get any more work done in the state she was in. At least not in this office. So she gathered up the three files she had been given, and started heading for her room.

She had been walking for five minutes already, when she realized that she’d been heading in entirely the wrong direction. She’d been heading for the garden.

Though the weather today was better than it had been when she’d gone outside the last time in a state of emotion, she didn’t think it was best to take such sensitive information with her. So she headed to her room, deposited the files, and then headed out to the garden.

There was a light breeze, but nothing too damaging, and Abigail decided to walk on the other side of the grounds. Places she hadn’t yet been.

The manicured lands didn’t hold much interest to her, though, and she quickly went past them. Soon, she was in forested area again. She wondered if her father had left the trees at the edge of his property to grow so unchecked intentionally.

Maybe they were just another form of security and protection? Surely no nosy reporters would brave through that thickets just to take a possible picture of the house and whoever may be inside of it.

These unkempt grounds were littered with rocks, huge trees that probably needed forklifts if they needed to be removed.

“Don’t you have a penchant for getting lost in the forests?” Abigail spun around, to see Mark standing just behind her.

He looked much neater today than he had any other day. He still wore a pair of jeans, though it was black, so it hid any of the dirt marks he might have gotten from the sand. And he wore a long sleeved, dark navy sweater, stretching taut over his muscles.

Abigail smiled broadly at him, and then quickly engulfed him in a hug. They had spoken enough times that she felt she could reasonably hug him, and anyway, she was giving in to a bit of self-indulgence with him and his muscles.

Mark clearly felt the same, since he wrapped his arms around her too, pulling her closer to him.

“I think you might just have a knack for tracking me,” Abigail said, pulling slightly back from him, but not out of the embrace just yet. “Checking out this part of the woods today?”

Mark smiled bashfully, ducking his head slightly. “Maybe I do.” Then he glanced at the trees around them. “Yeah, I thought the boulders on the other side was tough, but these trees look like they’re gonna give me hell and a half.”

Abigail giggled slightly, “I take it you’re not the gardener I called you the first time I met you in the other side of the forest, right?”

“No,” Mark told her, smiling lightly. “I did try to correct you then, though. I actually have my own business,” Mark began.

“You own a business?” Abigail asked, her spirits suddenly lifting. “Like, with a business plan and corporate name and everything?”

Mark frowned, looking at her, “Yeah, that’s generally what a standard busines has, I suppose.”

Abigail couldn’t contain her excitement. This was just too perfect. This was the exact solution she needed to her problem, already delivered right to her front door.

“I need help,” Abigail said, speaking quickly. “My dad gave me this assignment, and I think I can do it, but the terms are so very difficult to understand and looking everything up in Google is just confusing and taking so much time. And I really want to do this well, to show him that taking a chance on me wasn’t a mistake and to prove to myself that I can do it. But the thing is, I can’t,” Abigail stressed. “I can’t do this. Not without help. So what I’m asking is, will you please help me?”

Abigail drew in a deep breath once she’d finished, and she glanced at Mark, staring at her with slightly raised eyebrows.

“And you think I would be the right person to ask for help about these things?” Mark asked. “If I may ask, how did you come to that conclusion?”

“Because you have your own business,” Abigail waved her hand around her, at the trees and rocks and just general land. “So that means you know about business terms, you have to. Please,” Abigail begged. “I already asked my mother and she…”

Abigail didn’t feel like getting into it with Mark, she wasn’t sure he would understand this, and she didn’t want to seem ungrateful for her mother to him when he didn’t have one left at all.

“She didn’t agree,” Mark pressed gently.

“No,” Abigail said, deflated. “No, she didn’t. She doesn’t like my being a part of this world. She encouraged me to talk to my father, but she didn’t particularly like me coming to live here, but she understood. This was the best way for us to get some time together. But now with the company, she really doesn’t like it anymore.”

Mark pursed his lips into a thin line, frowning; he seemed to be thinking hard of something. Abigail closed her eyes, preparing for a reprimand on how she should be grateful her mother was this supportive and not push her for more than what she had already given her.

She prepared for him to tell her that she should be grateful for what she already had, and not be selfish and demand more.

“You know,” Mark told her, “It may not be my place to say, but you seem to have given quite a bit to make her happy, to take care of her. And it wasn’t even your responsibility to do so. I’m not saying you shouldn’t have,” Mark told her quickly. “I’m just saying you didn’t have to, and if this is what you want to do, for whatever reason, then I would encourage you to try.” Mark held up a hand, “Without feeling guilty about it.”

Abigail swallowed hard around the lump in her throat. She really felt like she was in an impossible position. She didn’t want to make her mother sad or angry, but she wanted to make her father proud, and those two things were irreconcilable with each other.

So she would do what made herself happy. And what she really wanted to do, was work on this project. For herself. To prove to herself that she could do it.

She also wanted to show up Olivia and Charlotte, but that was something small in and of itself. It barely registered on her radar. The most important thing, the thing she really wanted, was to prove to herself, she could do anything she attempted, that she could belong as part of this world, too.

‘And having Mark help you would be a nice little touch,’ her mind told her traitorously.

Abigail shushed the thought as quickly as she could, but her eyes travelled along his muscles of their own accord.

“I want to do this,” Abigail affirmed, nodding her head vigourously. “And I want to do it for myself.”

Mark smiled, leaning aback against the rock. “Then, Miss Abigail,” Mark said with a mischievous smile. “I would be more than happy to help you.”

“Excellent!” Abigail clapped her hands.

Mark held up his hand to stall her. “For a price.”

Abigail’s smile dropped, even though she could hear the teasing tone in Mark’s voice, she was still apprehensive.

“Your mother was right about one thing,” Mark told her, seriously. “Everything in this world does come with a price. But doesn’t everything in every world?”

Abigail considered very carefully. What could the landscaper reasonably ask from her for this small favor; nothing too much, she assumed.

‘Or would you rather he ask for too much?’ her mind teased her, wondering what the muscles she couldn’t see of him looked like.

“So,” Abigail drew out the word. “What do you want?”

“Lunch, you and me,” Mark told her, a small, bashful smile growing on his face. “There’s a veranda not too far from here, we could have lunch while working on your project?”

A small smile broke out on Abigail’s face, and she pretended to think it over for a moment.

“Hmmm,” she said, wondering. “So in exchange for you helping me with my work, I have to let you buy me lunch?”

“That’s about the long and short of it, Ma’am,” Mark said, smiling.

“Well,” Abigail said. “That hardly seems fair,” she teased. “I mean, I could at least have tea and dessert made.”

Mark smiled broadly, “Then it’s a date,” he said laughing, then seemed to realize what he’d said. “I mean, a work date.”

Abigail’s smile faltered for a moment when he corrected himself, but she managed to not let her disappointment show. She was getting an amazing lot out of this deal, after all.

Abigail smiled, “A work date it is.”