“Can I use it?” Delta asks.
He shrugs and takes the safety glasses from his head to hand over. “Sure.”
“No!” I bark. “Girls, you can drag the pieces he cuts off into the trailer.”
“Oh man,” Delta whines.
“She’s gotta learn sometime,” he says.
“She’s nine years old, Jonah. Cool it.”
“I’ll be ten soon.”
“Perfect,” he smiles. “I know what I’m getting you for your birthday. Alright, now stand back and watch me be really cool and manly.”
He rips the machine to life, and the girls cover their ears. They look so cute in their little gardening gloves and jeans. He cuts limb after limb as the dogs help us drag everything to the trailer.
After five branches though, the girls give up and leave us to search for nearby fairies. Yogi tags along with them while Rugger stays back and helps me haul limbs in exchange for butt scratches.
Jonah and I swap jobs midway, as he handles the heavier wood pieces. Whenever he turns his back to me, for onlya couple seconds, I watch his broad shoulders taper into narrow hips. Strong back muscles work underneath his white tee, and both his shirt and my mind are becoming dirtier with each passing minute.
I want to ride this man hard and wet. I want to drive him like a fully insured rental car.
The imagery holds me captive, and the next thing I know the tree’s finished. When I kill the chainsaw, Jonah hands me a bottle of water before taking the last few pieces back to the full trailer.
As he gets on the tractor, I gather the girls so we can go to the designated burning area. When the tractor doesn’t start up, heat floods his face as he attempts to fire it up again and again with no luck.
“Shoot,” he mutters, and jumps down to open the engine hood.
“Do you have any idea what you’re looking at?”
“Nope. But my dad does.” He takes a picture before shooting it off in a text. “Girls, did you find any fairies? I could really use some of their magical dust right about now.”
Lo shakes her head and Delta sighs dramatically. “We didn’t see any.”
“They must be hiding. Okay girls, looks like we’re hoofin’ it. I’ll come back later for the tractor.”
As we walk around his property together, Jonah and I clear away the easy debris, and the girls continue their fairy hunt with the dogs.
“What kind of tree is this?” Jonah asks, pointing to the same kind of tree we chopped up moments ago.
I shoot him a side eye. “You learned about it in my class.” The wince he gives is so cute I can’t help offering him a little help. “Its binomial name isCornus floridaand it’s monoecious.”
His pace slows and he rubs his neck. “Um... what does monoecious mean again?”
“It means it has both male and female flowers, so every one of these trees can produce fruit.”
“Trees have different sexes?”
I sigh. “Yes. We covered this a lot in class. Did you do any of my assignments?”
He shoves his hands in his pockets and kicks a pine cone off the trail. “I did some, but... I’m sorry. It’s probably pretty frustrating having students like me.”
“Have them every year. I’m used to it.”
“So, I wasn’t exactly memorable, huh?”
“I wouldn’t say that. No one tried charming me as relentlessly as you did.”
