Free The First Gardener by Denise Hildreth Jones Page A

above the front end of another car in the lane nearest the curb. Maddie’s blue eyes popped up long enough to see her mother.
    “Never mind. I’m going to go now because I see my baby girl.” Mackenzie hung up the phone.
    One of the teachers was helping a pack of tiny people, book bags hanging like sacks of bricks on their backs, cross into the second lane of cars and crawl into the safety of their parents’ arms. Mackenzie was craning her neck for another glimpse of Maddie when the back door opened. Maddie tossed her backpack on the floor with a thud, then pulled her little legs up into the car and bounced into the backseat, her feet swinging wildly. “Oh, Mommy, what a day!” She threw her head back dramatically against the black leather seat.
    Mackenzie laughed. “That good, huh?”
    Maddie jumped up and leaned against the console between the driver’s and passenger’s seats.
    “Maddie, you know you’re supposed to immediately buckle your seat belt.”
    “I know.” She climbed into her booster seat with a heavy sigh. “I just wanted to be close to your face to tell you about my day.”
    Mackenzie searched for Maddie’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “Okay, here’s my face. Tell me all about it.”
    “Where’s Lola?”
    Mackenzie passed the doll back to Maddie and watched as Maddie cradled her baby.
    “Did my mommy take good care of you?”
    “Lola and I had a very adventurous day. But we want to hear all about yours first. Did you eat your lunch? Did you remember to go to the bathroom? What did you do?”
    “It was great, Mommy. We sat in a circle and said the Pledge of ’legiance. And I already knew it ’cause Daddy always makes me say it. And we got to pick out our desks, and she signed them to us and everything.”
    Mackenzie smiled. “You mean assigned?”
    “No, she signed them to us. She wrote our name on a piece of paper and put it on top of the desk.”
    Mackenzie laughed. “I stand corrected.”
    The remainder of the drive home, Maddie talked nonstop. As the iron gates began to part for their arrival home, Mackenzie’s cell phone rang. It was Gray. He couldn’t wait. Mackenzie pushed the speakerphone button so Maddie could talk.
    “Hey, Daddy!” Maddie hollered from the backseat.
    “Hey, Maddie lady. How did it go? I know you were such a big girl today.”
    “I was, Daddy! I get to be the helper for the whole first week of school!”
    “You do? Well, I’m so proud of you. How about you let Daddy take you and Mommy out for a really nice dinner, okay?”
    “To celebrate?” Maddie responded with her infectious excitement.
    “Yes, to celebrate. That okay with you, Mack?”
    “Sure. You need to work late tonight?”
    “Not tonight.”
    “I want Rotier’s!” Maddie declared.
    Rotier’s was the place where Gray and Mackenzie ate the night they knew they loved each other. Neither of them had expressed it until the next day, during halftime of a University of Tennessee and Vanderbilt football game, but they knew. Maddie loved that story as much as she loved Rotier’s famous cheeseburgers on French bread, which had garnered them eleven straight years of being named the best burgers in Nashville. Their shakes and Reuben sandwiches were just as good. Though “really nice” it wasn’t.
    Gray’s voice filtered through the car. “Rotier’s, huh?”
    “Or Chuck E. Cheese’s?” Maddie offered.
    Gray’s laugh echoed. “That was going to be my second choice. How about we go with Rotier’s. I may just fall in love with your mother all over again.”
    “Sounds good to me,” Mackenzie said.
    “Me too,” Maddie echoed.
    “Well, I’ve got to check on Dad first. They’re wanting to change some meds, and I want to talk with the doctor.”
    “Do you need me to go?”
    “No, I’ve got it this time. So I’ll pick up my two best girls a little after six for some cheeseburgers.”
    “Three girls!” Maddie hollered, raising Lola by one arm and shaking her as if Gray could see