“Yard boys at your service!” Nick, Ben and Jack stood on Solana’s porch, muscles flexed, equipment in hand, smiles on their faces. They looked like pros. The only problem was…

…the tools were child-sized. Ben held onto a Fischer Price wheel barrow while Jack and Nick carried small, plastic hand tools. Nick even had somehow tied a miniature gardening apron around his waist. It had lovely daisies decorating its pockets. Darling.

“¡Ah mi Dios! You boys…get in here. Leave your toys on the porch.”

Giggling, they dumped the hand tools into the wheel barrow and went inside, leaving Nick to fidget with the knot at his back. And fidget. And…still…fidget.

“You having problems, ch2ica?”

“Oh hush…Ben knotted it, the putz.”

Seeing that the boys were quickly occupied with Rosalie, she stepped out, shaking her head at their silliness. “Turn around…you didn’t have to do this, Nick…”

“I know. Just thought Rosalie might wanna help.”

“She’ll love it.” Still messing with the knot at Nick’s waist, she had to laugh. “God, sign that kid up for Boy Scouts. This is one heck of a knot.”

“Wonderful.”

“Well,” smacking his butt, and starting back inside, “I think it’s stuck. You’ll have to wear it today.”

“Oh hell no…I am NOT wearing this apron! Cut the damned thing.”

Laughing at the pathetic look on his face, she tried one more time. “Okay, okay. Baby. You gotta learn there’s a price to play sometimes.”

“I think I’ve learned.” Isn’t that what this whole lot in his life was about? Yep, he was finally learning. But the line had to be drawn at wearing a daisy-laden apron. Nope. No way.

“Good…there we go. Now go put that on its rightful owner. We’ll get to work after I make up a cooler of water.”

Nick stood on the porch and watched her go in, still clinging onto the apron. She did not just smack his butt, did she? Nah, must have been his imagination.

“You want this entire pile of dirt in this little spot we’re digging out!?” Ben was not happy. It’d felt like they’d been working all day and honestly looked like they’d accomplished nothing.

“Yep. You’d be surprised how it’ll all fit. One more section to scoop out here and we’ll be ready to start filling.”

“Ugh…I need a cigarette.”

“Forget it, hot shot. Start diggin’.” Nick shoved his shovel into her garden plot for what felt like the 10 thousandth time, glad to see it almost done. At least this part.

“Digging, digging…why isn’t Jack helping?”

“He is, Ben…he’s keeping Rosalie occupied.”

Right on cue, squealing could be heard rounding the side of the house as Jack ran with the pint- sized wheel barrow pushing Rosalie inside of it.

“Oh yeah, he’s workin’ real hard.” Scoop, lift, grunt, dump. This sucked.

“You know…you have worked up a sweat, Ben. How ‘bout you come inside and help me with lunch, huh? Air conditioning and all.”

Without a word, Ben tossed his shovel to the ground and headed inside. Looking back to Nick who was wiping his brow with the hem of his shirt, Solana gulped back a sigh and tried to speak. “You okay to finish or should we all stop now?”

“I’m good…lemme finish this.” He held back his own sigh as he watched light tendrils of hair that had escaped her pony tail. Some stuck to the sweat on her neck and some bounced along the back as she walked. Lucky hair.

Suddenly, two chubby arms around his thighs shocked him out of his reverie. “You stopped working!”

Looking down at the curls and bright brown eyes, he stuck the shovel into the garden and scooped her up instead. “You’re right…you stopped playing.”

“Jack went in with Mami.”

“Ah, the wimps are inside, huh?”

“Help you scoop?” She leaned down, out of his arms, and reached for the shovel handle.

“Yeah…get one of your shovels…this one will knock you over.”

She slid out of his arms and toddled off to find one of the shovels the boys had brought her so she could help. Scooping small shovelfuls up and lifting them all the way up to the top of the large wheel barrow, she quit after two tries. “Too hard, Nicky…I pooped.” She plopped down on the ground right where she stood and wiped her brow, looking remarkably like a miniature Solana.

“Okay, well…” Nick dumped the final shovelful and covered it with the kneeling blanket Solana had been using to do more detailed work. “I’m done anyway. Hop on…let’s go get this to the field.”

Scooping her up again, she giggled as he carefully put her onto the pile of dirt, told her to hang on and slowly made his way to the field.

“Faster, Nicky! Faster!”

“Faster!? You’ll fall!”

“No…you catch me. You a good boy.”

“I am, huh? Okay…here we go…hang on!”

She quickly turned around to face him, got on her knees, fluffed her apron and grabbed onto his shirt like the reigns of a horse. Moving her arms up and down to complete the picture, she squealed as he picked up speed. “Go, Nick! Go!”

Watching the horse and buggy ride from inside, Solana closed the curtain to the small kitchen window and tried to busy herself making sandwiches for everyone.

“You okay, Miss Romero?” Ben…tough kid. Sensitive kid, too.

“Yes, Ben…I’m fine.” Wiping a small tear away, she continued looking busy hoping he’d let it go.

He didn’t. “Why are you crying then?”

Tossing him a deli bag of ham and giving directions with her eyes to lay it out on a plate, she sighed, trying to answer that question for herself, no less for a thirteen year old.

“I’m not sure, Ben…happy tears though. Do you ever cry when you’re happy?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever been happy. And I quit crying when I’m sad. Doesn’t do any good.”

“Ah…well, let’s see what we can do about that, huh? Happy tears feel good.”

“They’d have to. Sad tears suck.”

“Yes they do…no more sad for Ben, huh? You’ve had enough of that.” Ruffling his sweaty head, she stacked some more meats onto the plate.

“Yeah…just hope I know happy when it comes my way.”

“You will Ben…it’s right in front of you…and I think you already know it.”

“Okay, Rosalie…last one. You gonna help?”

“No.” She didn’t wake up from naps very well. Rubbing her eyes and plopping down on the ground right in the middle of the mess, she looked back up to everyone wondering why they were laughing. She didn’t even notice that she’d sat on a small trowel and it had hit her on her diapered bottom. “Durmiente.”

“English, Rosalie…”

“No.”

Solana’s eyes widened and she crawled over to her sleepy, stubborn daughter, pulling her chubby fingers from her eyes. “Yes. English. We speak English in front of guests, young lady.”

Meeting her mother’s gaze with equal fire, she did resign to the house rule. Reluctantly. “Sleepy. I sleepy.”

“You need to go back to bed?”

“No.”

“Fine…then help us put this last flower in…come on. Jack’s done all of your work, sleepy head.”

Sighing in resignation, Rosalie followed her mom to the garden. It was pretty. And she had wanted to help, but just couldn’t stay awake.

Getting down to her level, Ben handed her one of her spades. “Here you go…the dirt is really easy now.”

“Okay.” Looking up to Nick and pleading with her eyes for some help with something…waking up, maybe, he got down to help her too.

“This is the one we’re putting in…pretty, huh?”

“Right here now, baby…”

Rosalie dug with Solana’s help and Nick sat by, waiting until the hole was big enough for the final bush. No one knew what it was called…it was just spindly and full of pink flowers. A perfect crowning touch.

Once planted, they all stood and admired their work. Stunning. Absolutely stunning. The larger tree in back was tilting a little, which drove Ben crazy. Solana had told him to hush…gave the garden character.

“We done good, guys…you all deserve a big reward.” Wiping his face with his shirt hem again, all Nick could think about was a shower and his pool. He hadn’t worked this hard since rehearsals for tour…and even then he wasn’t sure he’d worked this hard.

“Are we going to your house now?”

“I hope so…showers first though.”

“Oh man…another shower?”

“Yeah, Ben…another shower. No way in hell are you getting in my pool like that.”

“Okay, boys…Rosalie and I will clean up too and meet you there?”

“Sounds good…” Nick started picking up the tools, laying them over the wheel barrow to cart them into her garage. “I’ll give you the password for the gate…oh…and could you do one more favor for me…for Kitty?”

“Yeah, whatcha need?”

“She’s coming too. Needs a suit. Size 6 women’s? I have no idea.”

“Kitty’s coming swimming?” Solana couldn’t hide her shock. She didn’t try. Kitty did nothing socially. Ever. In the 4 years that Solana had served this center, she’d never seen Kitty do anything with anyone. Only heard about it from others.

“Yep…but she needs a suit. I figure you could find one better than me.”

“Yeah, sure. Give us…oh, an hour or so, okay? How ‘bout if I pick her up so she can help decide.”

“Sounds good…call first so she’ll know.” Pushing the wheel barrow into the garage, Nick bent down to give Rosalie a kiss. “Your flower is perfect…we’ll see you in a bit.” He looked up and saw that he was in a perfect position to do a little pay back, what he’d been wanting to do all day, but just never found the right time.

Swatting Solana on the behind, he winked at her gasped reaction. “The tree is crooked. Might wanna straighten that up.”

She could barely respond as she smiled through her glare, wanting to be more incensed than she really was. The smart ass. “Oh I’ll straighten the tree, Mr. Carter…just you wait!”

Nick didn’t try to hide his shock now either as he closed the door behind Ben and Jack. Shaking his head at the bouncing ponytail as it made its way back inside, Nick was silent as he slid into his truck.

“What was she talking about? She likes the crooked tree.”

“Never mind, Jack…never mind.”

“Oh no…tell me. It’s some grown-up thing isn’t it?”

Ben was too busy giggling to even try to explain to his brother. Nick wasn’t sure what he should say, if anything. “Okay, here’s what you need to know, Jack.” Looking back to pull out of her driveway, he measured his words carefully.

“Beware of beautiful women.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it...just beware.”