AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Luckily, before I can think about his mother any longer, we pull up to the house.
Mae and her daughter are busy in their yard again. This time, they seem to be trying—but failing—to start up a riding lawnmower.
“Come on, kid. Let me show you how it’s done,” I say to Dylan. He gives me a frosty glare in response.
“Oh, hi there,” Mae says, after seeing us. Her hair is escaping its bun, and the little fly-aways frame her face in the golden evening sun. Her cheeks are flushed with exertion, and I have to grab onto that thought before it becomes a distraction.
“Hello. Having trouble getting that thing started?” I ask, to distract myself.
“No, no. Uh,” Mae hesitates. “Okay, fine. Yes.” She throws her arms in the air. “We have absolutely no idea what we’re doing. We’ve always been city girls—and renters at that.”
I circle them, inspecting the lawn mower before saying, “Well, first things first. It needs gas.”
“Hold on, ladies,” I go into their barn and locate a container containing what irrefutably smells like gasoline. I screw off the nozzle and dump a good portion inside, like the manly man I am.
“Oh, duh,” Mae remarks to her daughter.
“Do you mind?” I ask, implying that I’ll replace her in the driver’s seat.
“By all means, Dean.” Her back brushes me as I take over the machine, and I can feel the heat of her body even through her farm clothes.
When I finally get on and get my thoughts under control, I rely on the memory of my own grandfather teaching me how to turn a mower on.
“And there you go!” I say, as if I was completely confident the entire time.
“I mean, if you want to go ahead and hit the whole property, I certainly wouldn’t mind,” Mae jokes.
“You wish. Unfortunately, we’ve got our hands pretty full with moving some initial stuff into the new place.”
I turn the mower off and watch as she attempts to turn it on herself.
“Oh!” she exclaims after it roars to life.
“You’re a fast learner.”
“Or you’re just a great teacher,” she retorts.
“It’s really like the whole chicken and the egg situation, isn’t it? We’ll never know which one came first.”
She flashes her bright smile at me, and I have to look away before I let it put a spell on me.
“Well, if there’s nothing else…” I say, while nudging Dylan towards Mina. “Axes,” I mouth to him the best I can without her hearing or seeing me. I follow it up with a miming motion that has my son scowling at me. But he turns to Mina all the same, his expression switching to something fond and shy so quickly it nearly gives me whiplash. I wasn’t this bad when I was a teen, was I?
“Um, Mina?” Dylan asks her.
“Yeah?” she responds shyly.
“Would you maybe, uh, want to hang out for a little bit?”
“You mean—right now?”
“Never mind.” Dylan scuffs his shoe on the dirt. They’re his favorite sneakers, and just last week, he’d moped around the house as if he were dying because he’d gotten a bit of sand on them. “If you’re too busy, I understand.”
“No, I’m free now. What did you have in mind?”
“Well, I really like axe throwing. Is that something you’d be into?”
“Um, I’ve never tried it.” I can see the beginnings of a smile grow on Mina’s face. Dylan might be worried about hanging out, but I get the feeling I already know how this is going to turn out.
