Borrowing Trouble(10)

“You two behave for your grandparents. And have fun with your mama.” He looked up at Bethany. “And if you need anything, give me a holler. I’ll be around.”

“Will do,” she said with a smile. “Come on. Clint, help Millie with her bags.” The kids hustled out and Jay followed them to the front door with goodbyes. For the first time in recent memory, Jay realized he and Bethany didn’t say goodbye in any physical way.

Which strangely didn’t bother him. He didn’t want to be touched by someone who knew him intimately right then. The only person who ever had known him intimately. Because that touch brought with it the firing of synapses in a corner of his brain that he didn’t even know had been dormant. He honestly didn’t know what lay back in that place.

He grunted to himself as Bethany’s SUV backed down his driveway, out onto the road, and drove away. He shut his front door, wishing the metaphorical door in his brain would so easily close.

Nothing to be done for that except getting busy. He had plenty of chores he could handle. The southern weather being what it was, the grass still grew, so he needed to mow the yard. He needed to work on that back deck he’d been trying to complete since they’d moved in.

So he got to work.





Chapter 5



He changed into his work boots and a ratty old Budweiser t-shirt. He’d only just pulled the push mower out and slid on his cowhide gloves when a familiar F-250 trundled up his gravel driveway.

His first instinct was to tense up, but the smile that stole across his face betrayed him. His subconscious was really starting to piss him off.

And scare the shit out of him.

“Yo!” Landon shouted in greeting as he hopped down from his lifted truck.

“You know those lift-kits make you look shorter, right?” Jay teased, trying to get out of his head. Which turned out to be a mistake because his mouth ran away with him. “Overcompensating for something?” Don’t joke about the man’s dick size!

Landon just laughed at that. Of course he did. His head tossed back, face beaming with amusement. “Old man’s got jokes.” Landon walked over to Jay and pulled off his ball cap. “How’s it going?”

“It’s going. Kids just left. Thought I’d do some work around the place.”

“You’re nicer than my old man. He saved all the chores for when I was home.”

Jay let out a hmph. “My kids are better than most, I won’t lie. But we spoiled ‘em, raising them in town like we did. If I want house work done right, I’m better off doing it myself.”

“Kids today,” Landon joked, shaking his head in mock shame. “Who’d’ve thought you’d be a soft-touch dad?”

Jay scoffed. “I’m no such thing.”

“Whatever you say.” Landon surprised Jay by pulling a pair of old cowhide gloves out of his back pocket. “Saw you were working so I grabbed these. Mostly came over to check you were still coming tomorrow night. But if you want a hand around the place, I don’t mind.”

Damn Landon Petty. Damn him to hell, because right as Jay tossed all the strange shit in his mind around, as he tried to keep himself from thinking on things that confused him so much, Landon had to just… be Landon. A good man, a good friend, who no-questions-asked was willing to pitch in just because Jay was his friend and he knew Jay was doing it alone. Even after Jay had been squirrelly around him the last couple of days. And that undefinable feeling settled in Jay’s gut again, making him smile but tremble a bit, because maybe… just maybe the feeling was slowly and inexplicably becoming more defined.

“I’m sure you got better things to do with your Friday afternoon.”

Landon cocked his head, still with that friendly smile, and shrugged. “Not really. What better way than to help out a neighbor?”

“You live ten miles away.”

“Well, you’re my parents’ neighbor.” True enough, Landon’s parents were the next house down the way about three ponds, a couple pastures, and two miles.

“In the loosest sense of the word.”

“Fine. Helping out a friend.” Landon’s words held a weight to them that surprised Jay. He also felt a warmth he wasn’t entirely comfortable with. He remembered all too well what having a crush on Bethany had felt like; the newness and the need at fifteen had been overwhelming. This feeling wasn’t quite that, but he wasn’t a hormonal kid. And this started in his chest, not his dick.

What. The. Hell?

He realized Landon’s brows had risen and he’d begun shifting uncomfortably. He couldn’t tell the man to f*ck off. He didn’t want Landon to leave.

He also didn’t want Landon in his face right then, either. “Uh, yeah. Yes. Sure. Thanks.” He motioned with his hand for Landon to follow him. “I appreciate it.” He only half meant it.

He led Landon into his detached, tin-sided carport and dug out the weed-eater. “The oil-gas mix for this is in that orange can over there. If you don’t mind getting around the flower beds.”

“That’s what you call those dirt piles?”

“Look now,” Jay scolded, laughing as he handed over the weed-eater. “I had other stuff to get around to before I could do anything with the beds.” Truthfully, he didn’t know the first thing about annuals and what-not.