Southern Storms (Compass 1)
“Nada. Nichts. Nothing. It’s a passion project.”
“My passion, Jax, is money.”
I sighed as I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I can’t take it all on by myself, Connor. I’m going to need your help.”
“And I’m going to need funds. Since when do you even do favors for anyone outside of Joy? Whose yard are we doing?”
“Kennedy Lost. The new girl in town.”
“Oh my gosh.” Connor grew a sinister smirk and began nudging me in the arm. “Is this a booty call type thing? Are you two bumping uglies?”
“Never say bumping uglies again…like…never.”
“Listen, if you two are bumping uglies, then that’s something I can get behind. I’m all about my bro getting laid, and if you need me to plant a few seeds as your wingman, I’m all in. Are you doing her yard to get into her garden? Are you trying to lay down some cucumbers next to her peach tree? Is there an oversized eggplant—”
“Connor!” I shouted. “Shut up.”
He couldn’t stop snickering to himself. Even if he wasn’t amusing me, he was highly entertained. I swore, that kid was his own biggest fan.
“I’m not sleeping with her,” I said, hoping to shut that idea down.
He raised an eyebrow. “No sex?”
“No sex.”
“Maybe foreplay?”
“Nope.”
“A little tongue twister?”
“Not at all.”
I’d never seen him look so disappointed. He pushed his hands against the countertop edge, shaking his head in utter disbelief. “All right, Imma head out.”
“Connor, come on.” I grimaced and sighed. “Please.”
He turned to me as if I’d grown another head. “Did you…did you just say please?” he asked, placing his hands against his chest in shock. “Never in my life have I heard you say the word please to me!”
“Don’t be so dramatic.”
“I’m not being dramatic. You have never said please to me. Ever.”
“It’s that important to me.”
I couldn’t believe I was pretty much begging a seventeen-year-old to help me on this project. Desperate didn’t even begin to cover it.
“Okay, but I have some guidelines.”
“Shoot.”
“Three times a week, we get to eat shitty food for lunch.”
I narrowed my eyes and crossed my arms. “Two times a week.”
“Four times a week and we’ll have a deal.”
“No chance in”—he began to walk away, and I groaned—“fine, three times a week.”
“Okay, cool. And! You have to come to my banging birthday bash that you missed last year because you said you were busy, which—by the way—I know you weren’t busy because you don’t have any friends, therefore there was nothing to be busy with. I’m turning the big one-eight, so the turn up is going to be huge Jax! My mom’s throwing the biggest party yet, and I have the biggest news in the world to announce at the party, and I need my partner in crime to be there, So, you have to come.”
“Fine. Deal.”
“It’s a twenty-five-dollar entry fee, but for you, it’s going to have to be a hundred.”
This punk was really putting it on heavy.
I cocked an eyebrow. “All right. You done?”
He held his hand out toward me. “You got a deal, partner.”
“Boss,” I corrected as I shook his hand.
“Whatever. As far as I’m concerned, we are in a fifty-fifty partnership from this point on.” He closed the box of pizza and took it as if I offered him the whole thing. “I gotta get home to search what it takes to be a landscaper so I’m a professional by morning. Send me an email with your blueprints, and I’ll make them better.”
“Thanks, Con.”
His eyes widened. “Please and thank you in one conversation? I better tell my mom to play the lottery tonight because I’m feeling lucky. By the way, if we don’t use Two Men and a Hoe for our landscaping company, we should highly consider Two Men and a Wrench for our plumbing business. It has a nice ring to it.”
“Good night, Connor.”
“Night, Jax.”
* * *
Connor wasn’t kidding about going home to research the ins and outs of landscaping. When we met up again to pick up supplies, he was well equipped with his knowledge on tools, plants, and soil.
No one could ever say that he wasn’t a hard worker. He put his all into every project he took on. After we got to Kennedy’s property to start digging up the land, Connor tackled the backyard while I took on the front.
After offering both Connor and me water, Kennedy returned to her porch and picked up her reading material. I couldn’t stop myself from glancing her way whenever she’d laugh out loud. Her laugh was one of the most beautiful sounds I’d ever heard. Truthfully, even when she wasn’t laughing, I was still looking her way.
Sometimes she’d catch me, and I’d turn away fast. Other times, I’d give her a halfway grin before getting back to work. When a little girl came riding past the front yard on her bicycle, with her father holding her steady, Kennedy’s eyes snapped up from the book and fell to the father and daughter duo.