“I like it,” he said then grinned and shook his head. “You’re different.”
I started to say something more when Rio walked into the room. My eyes met his and he looked from me to Drake. “Ready to go?”
I nodded. He had no idea just how ready.
Ten
Waking up at four in the morning to bake the items for the shop, then dropping them off after a late night hadn’t been easy. I had slept very little when I finally got in bed last night. One would think I had lain awake thinking about all Rio had told me and I did at first. However, my thoughts had ended up on Saul and our brief conversation.
Which was why I had gone back to bed and fallen asleep quickly after taking the baked goods to Hillya this morning. When the roar of a lawn mower right outside my window woke me up only thirty minutes later, I was not happy. I was far from it. One could say I was furious. Lack of sleep is not something I handle well.
Covering my head with the extra pillow on the bed didn’t help muffle the sound and I finally growled in frustration and got up. Stalking to the door, I slipped on my fuzzy pink house shoes and swung open the door with more force than necessary. Whoever was outside cutting grass at this hour should be shot. This was ridiculous. People were sleeping.
It wasn’t until I was down the stairs and on the sidewalk headed toward the grassy part of Gran’s yard that I saw the truck. The blue Ford truck that seemed to taunt me with its presence. Was this a joke? Turning, I looked at the cause of my interrupted sleep.
Saul was wearing a cowboy hat and pushing a red lawn mower in my gran’s yard. He lifted his hand and saluted me but did not stop his noise-making machine. The white tank he was wearing should be as illegal as his cutting grass this early in the morning. It clung to his skin from the humidity and sweat, making his muscular chest even more pronounced. I forgot my anger for a moment while I took in the sight of his arms and the way they flexed as he worked.
The sound cut off and my eyes snapped back up to his face. Saul had pushed the hat back on his head and was wiping his face with a towel. I hoped that meant he hadn’t noticed me staring at him. Although I was sure he was used to it. You didn’t look like that and not get ogled daily. It was part of his penance for being beautiful.
I remembered why I was out here and tried to get my anger ramped up again before he made his way over to me, if that was what he was going to do. I was already getting a damp sheen of sweat on my body from just standing outside in this humidity and heat. Why was it so hot so early here?
Saul stepped around the mower and began walking in my direction. The jeans he was wearing were ripped and hung on his hips just enough to be sexy. Although I was positive he could be wearing a pair of khaki pants and a polo and still appear sexy. It wasn’t the good ole boy way he dressed that made him visually appealing. That was all genetics.
I tried to remember how good the bed had felt when he’d so rudely woke me up.
“You need something?” he asked me and squinted from the sun shining in his eyes. He reached up and pulled the hat forward until it shaded his face.
“It’s eight in the morning and you’re cutting Gran’s grass,” I stated the obvious.
He nodded. “Yeah,” he agreed.
“Why are you cutting Gran’s grass?” I asked him since he wasn’t going to elaborate.
“I always cut her grass,” he replied.
Frustrated I sighed and put a hand on my hip. “I’m not Gran. I didn’t ask you to cut the grass.”
He studied me a minute. “Were you going to cut it?” he asked.
I hadn’t thought about it. The grass was fine when I got here and cutting grass had never been something I gave much thought. “I don’t know,” I shot back. “But I do know I was asleep and now I am not.”
Saul ran a hand through his curls. I tried very hard not to get distracted by that. “Don’t you have a job?” he asked me.
“YES, I have a job and I was up at four this morning baking for that job. This is my day off, so when I finished delivering the items to the shop I came back home to sleep!”
He didn’t say anything for a minute and I wondered if he was going to apologize or if he even should. Did he expect me to pay him for cutting the grass? That was another issue if he did. I hadn’t hired him to do it.