Meeting Her: Romantic Garden Tales, #0

By Jenna van Berke

Sometimes you just know.

 

Landscaper and ex-quarterback Thao isn't usually shy with women. The tragic knee accident that put a sudden end to his promising football career hasn't harmed his confidence.

But when he meets herb store owner Layla with her endearing blush and her liquid green eyes, his easy charm abandons him, leaving him speechless…

 

Read this cute and heartwarming tale of love at first sight today!

 

*** Meeting Her can be read as a standalone short story or as prequel to Until It's Gone***

 

***Romantic Garden Tales is a series of sweet romance standalones***

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brake Books
• Release date: Jan 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393868699

Jenna van Berke

Jenna van Berke writes suspense, romance, and cozy crime, sometimes all in the same story. An accomplished reader and daydreamer, she's an expert on avoiding spending time in the real world. When she isn't absorbed in a book, you can find her treasure-hunting at a flea market, hiking, or saunaing. She moved to Finland several years ago.

Book preview

Also by Jenna van Berke

Romantic Suspense:

White Nights (free)

Dark Nights

Bleak Nights

Romance:

Until It’s Gone

My Husband’s Secret

Meeting Her

A lright guys. Tony Becker wipes the sweat from his forehead. I know it’s getting late, but if we put in another hour or two, we won’t have to come back here on Monday.  Okay?

We all nod in agreement. My knee is killing me, and I’m craving a cold beer, but I definitely don’t want to come back to this place. The two-hour-drive in Tony’s ancient van is torture in this heat, and Tony is always fair with overtime. We’ve been working on this project for almost two weeks now, re-landscaping the garden of an old Victorian building, and I’m proud of what we’ve achieved. We’ve helped the place back to the splendor it deserves. 

Great! Phil and Thao, go on and get the trees.

Grateful for the opportunity to stretch my knee, I get up. We’ll plant the two Mediterranean cypresses at the end of the cobblestone path we’ve almost finished laying, just in front of the pavilion in the back of the garden.

Where are they? Phil asks when we reach the maple tree by the drive.

Baffled, I look around. This is where we stored all the other plants. Maybe we left them in the van?

But we didn’t.

A deep frown appears on Tony’s forehead. What do you mean the cypresses aren’t there? Where are they?

I don’t know, boss. Maybe we forgot to pack them, Phil mumbles.

Tony hurls his work gloves on the ground, grumbling an impressive assortment of curses.

I could go back and get them, Lance offers.

Are you insane? Tony shakes his head. It’s rush hour. It’d take forever.

We watch him pace in silence for a minute. Finally, he turns to us. Get me those damn trees from somewhere. The first to deliver gets a hundred bucks.

ONCE I SIT IN THE VAN, a smile spreads over my face. I love a challenge. I’m competitive. You