“Nope. My mom is coming over tomorrow to help. We’ll be fine.”
Granny sighed, clearly disappointed in my lack of enthusiasm for confrontation.
We left with everything paid for this time, but outside I stopped short at the sight of Connor bent over my grass seed trails with a little dustpan and broom he’d swiped from behind the sales counter. He was sweeping it all up into a plastic shopping bag.
“He’s stealing your seed,” Granny hissed. “He wants it for himself, the cheapo.”
I didn’t agree, but I also didn’t want to stay there watching and speculating with the most suspicious woman I knew. So I pushed onward to my car, loaded up my purchases, and drove off with my nerves feeling like they’d been tossed in a blender.
When I got home after dropping Granny off, there were two shopping bags full of recovered grass seed on my porch, another large bag in a brand-new package, a seed spreader I’d forgotten to buy, and two bags of mulch.
Why had he done all that? Connor was supposed to be my terrible neighbor, and I was supposed to hate him. Or at least find him annoying and despicable. But I wasn’t feeling any of those things at the moment, and I didn’t know what to do about it. I’d have to thank him later, when I wasn’t tempted to give him a big hug. Hugging him would be super gross. Because…. reasons. I’d come up with some. I would not think about his strong arms or my fingers running over them, pretending to look for a spider I knew had scampered off. Nope. I wasn’t thinking about any of that.
10
________
Connor
I peered through the blinds again, craning my neck to confirm that Melissa hadn’t left for work. Yep, her car was still there. As tired as I was of waiting in here, knowing the morning would only get hotter, I didn’t dare step outside and start on the yard yet.
It was better if Melissa came home from work this afternoon and thought some yard fairy had descended. I’d have plausible deniability. Both of us could pretend I didn’t enjoy swooping in to help her like I had last night. Denial had been working pretty well for me so far. For example, right now I wasn’t thinking about what her reaction might be to seeing a seeded yard, or the gravel all cleaned up, or the flower beds planted. I wasn’t considering how happy it would make her.
Nope. I was doing this all for me. Because I was a selfish and terrible person who wanted a nice yard just for me.
My roommate, Rob, stumbled into the front room and peered at me through his squinty eyes. “What day is it?”
“Tuesday.”
“Are you sure? You’re never here on Tuesdays.”
“I am today.” I turned back to the window, listening to Rob rummage around in the kitchen. As little time as we spent together, I knew his routine. He’d shove handfuls of cereal in his mouth straight from the box, take a long drink of water from any cup on the counter, and then stumble back to bed until noon. He did have a job at a used bookstore, but it was more of a hobby for him, kind of like his new bongo album. His real money came from a lawsuit he’d won against one of those medical testing facilities. Whether or not they did anything to him worth suing over was a question I asked myself a lot. Sometimes I thought nobody could be that weird without medical intervention.
Hurry, Melissa.What was going on? She always left by seven-thirty. My brother and sister would be coming to help me any minute, and if they didn’t have something to do, they’d be bickering in here with me. I was edgy enough as it was.
This no-school and no-work thing was so foreign to me. Even before dental school, I’d always worked. My dad owned a heavy equipment rental business, and from the time I could hold a wrench I’d been tinkering on machines with him. Now for the first time ever, I had nothing to study for and nowhere to go. Sure, I had interviews lined up, but those were for next week.
Today, I was as free as a kid on his first day of summer. Well, except that I was stuck waiting on Melissa to leave for work.
A sedan pulled up to the curb, and I watched a woman get out and adjust the purple visor on her head and straighten her oversized T-shirt. Even with the big sunglasses covering half her face, I knew who it was. Melissa’s mother was dressed like someone ready to do some yard work. Not good. This was not good for my morning plans at all.
She walked purposefully up to Melissa’s door and out of my view, leaving me with a decision to make. That decision deadline got more urgent after Melissa and her mom stepped out into the yard together trailed by Melissa’s two dogs. The two women began raking gravel out of the way. Over time, the gravel had meandered into the dead grass sections until everything everywhere was dead and patchy rock. Facing the hideousness of it all would’ve been a lot easier without their judging eyes. My plan to become a yard fairy had just disintegrated.
Pacing in front of the window made my indecision worse, but I couldn’t stop myself. I had plants that needed to come out of their plastic pots and get water and sun. I hadn’t bought Melissa extra seed and a spreader so I could watch her work all day, but I also hadn’t planned to go out of my way to spend time with her or her mother. I had walls that needed to remain intact. Neighborly walls that didn’t allow for friendship, or courtship, or making out with her on her couch.Okay, reel it in, thoughts.
My siblings pulled up to the curb in Parker’s truck, and my destiny was cemented. They had Parker’s best friend, Clay, with them. At least I’d have plenty of help.
I jogged outside and met up with my brother before he could ask what Melissa and her mom were doing in the yard. Parker wasn’t known for his subtlety. The kid was scrappy. The shortest of the Harwood siblings, with the most to prove to the world, at least in his own mind.
“Your neighbors are helping us?” Parker asked, nodding at them. “Are they new? I thought nobody lived on the other side of the duplex.”
I turned to look at Melissa and gave her an awkward smile to match the one she had aimed at me. She couldn’t hear us, but she obviously could tell we were talking about her.
“Yeah, they’re new. We’re all going to work together.”
“Cool.” My sister, Lauren, breezed passed me and knelt down to say hello to the dogs. They wagged their tails and ate up the attention. Soon, Lauren was clearing out rock with Melissa and talking up a storm. Probably telling stories about me. My only solace was that Lauren didn’t have much dirt. She was twelve years younger than me. All my annoying stages were too far back for her to remember.
I assigned Parker to rip out the dead cottonwood tree and gave Clay the task of prepping the flower beds. I went and got my own rake and hoe from the small shed in the back and hurried around the side of the house, almost running into Melissa. She had a small smudge of dirt on her cheek and I resisted the urge to wipe it away for her. Not that I could have with my hands full of tools.
