“Making it impossible for me to say no?”
He nodded.
“I’m realizing that.”
He grinned. “Maybe we could eat a slice or two before starting on the yard?”
She nodded. It wasn’t as if she was going to tell him he had to work on an empty stomach, particularly as he’d brought food.
Riley pulled a couple of plates from the cabinet. “Can I pour you a glass of water?” she asked.
“That would be great. You mind putting it into something that would be okay to take outdoors?”
She filled two reusable plastic water bottles, then handed him one. He’d already opened the box of pizza and removed a slice. Heaven smacked her nostrils.
“That smells so good.”
He took a bite. “Tastes that way, too.”
She eyed the pizza. “It would be rude for me not to have a slice.”
His eyes twinkled. “It would.”
“But just one...”
* * *
Justin wiped the sweat from his brow to keep it from running into his eyes, glancing around at their progress thus far.
He liked Riley’s house—and her yard. The blue house had been built in the eighteen-hundreds and renovated several times over the decades since. The front yard boasted large rhododendrons, roses, azaleas and other flowering bushes Justin couldn’t name but knew that his mother would have a fit over. And in the back Riley had a private oasis of sorts, with a large eucalyptus tree draped in tiny lights that he imagined must look magical at night.
That she had those whimsical lights said a lot about what she hid beneath her no-nonsense self-protective layers. There was a fire pit, a bench, several chairs, and off toward the back of the yard in a shady area was an over-sized hammock, hung between two large oaks.
Riley spent a lot of time in her yard and it showed.
The house itself was well taken care of, too, with high ceilings and glass vents above the doors giving testament to its age. Hardwood floors covered with the occasional colorful rug ran through the whole three-bedroom house. At some point someone had converted the back porch into a small washroom, and a new bathroom was now connected to Riley’s bedroom.
Cassie rented the second bedroom, and the third seemed to be a catch-all with an exercise elliptical, a few ten-pound free weights, a shelf filled with books—mostly from nursing school—and a computer desk. The walls were decorated with colorful matching flower paintings signed by Riley and Cassie.
Yeah, he liked Riley’s house, inside and out. Just as he liked her, inside and out.
“Cassie’s with Sam,” she’d told him earlier, while they’d been eating pizza.
She’d eaten two slices, all the while talking about how good it was, making him glad he’d gone to the trouble to search out low-carb pizza options prior to ordering.
His gaze ran over where she knelt now, pulling weeds from a flowerbed. She didn’t need to diet, but if she thought so he’d do his part not to sabotage her. But he’d also do his part to make sure she understood that he liked her curves just as they were.
Perhaps sensing that he was watching her, she turned, glanced up at him, and smiled. His muscles clenched with memories, with elaborate longings. Not that he could act on them, no matter how she looked at him or tempted him. He’d promised himself he’d keep his hands off.
For today, at any rate.
So far they’d worked in her front yard and were making good progress. She’d purchased some mulch that she’d had stacked up next to a screened-in side porch. After weeding her landscaping, they’d spread the mulch around the knock-out roses and bushes in the front of her house.
“You want something to drink?” she asked.
“If you want to fill my water bottle up, that would be great.” He’d almost finished what she’d put in there earlier.
She picked up the bottle and carried it inside, coming back out moments later. She handed it to him and surveyed their work. “I like it,” she admitted.