“Did you take it all to the café?” he asked me.
Confused, I frowned. “What?”
He glanced up at the front door. “Is there some of your baked goods inside?”
I followed his gaze then looked back at him. “Uh, yes,” I replied because there was an entire banana loaf I hadn’t been pleased with its appearance.
“I’ll stop mowing if you’ll feed me.”
Again I stood there confused. “What?” I repeated.
“I’m hungry. You give me food and I’ll finish mowing later today when it’s fucking hot as the surface of hell out here,” he said.
I did not want him in the house and I did not want to feed him, but I was southern. I couldn’t be rude. It was in my blood to feed a man when he asked. How annoying.
“I didn’t hire you,” I told him because that was something I could be rude about.
“I know. I wasn’t doing it for you,” he replied.
He was doing it for my gran? He hadn’t said it but neither of us needed him to clarify. There were several things I did not like about Saul, but this wasn’t one of them. Whatever the reason he felt he needed to keep mowing my gran’s yard after she was gone, said more about him than his faults did.
“Fine. Come on up to the porch and I’ll give you an entire loaf of banana bread,” I told him and began walking back to the stairs.
He smirked. “You’re not going to invite me in?”
I didn’t stop and look back at him. I simply said, “Nope.” Just because he was good to my gran and even after her death he was mowing her lawn did not mean I felt charitable enough to ask him to come inside. We weren’t friends and I wanted to go back to bed.
When I reached the front door, I glanced back over my shoulder. “Milk or coffee?” I asked.
“Whole milk?”
“I have low-fat oat milk,” I replied with a smile.
“Coffee,” he said then and for some weird reason, I enjoyed the fact I didn’t have the kind of milk he would prefer. Lack of sleep made me testy. I was going to blame it on that. Besides my less than eight hours of sleep was now completely his fault. Last night he’d been in my head and wouldn’t get out, and this morning, he’d been cutting the grass in a freaking white tank.
Opening the door, I walked inside and when I turned to close it, I saw him walk over and sit down on the swing. I hoped he wasn’t going to sit out there and eat. I was making this meal to go because he needed to go. I needed for him to go. If he didn’t, I would end up doing something stupid like bringing him a plate and asking if he needed creamer for his coffee.
I started a pot of coffee then I wrapped up the banana bread in foil and placed it in a paper bag I had from the shop. Only twice did I glance out the window while doing this. Both times Saul had been sitting in the swing looking toward main street. I was glad he hadn’t lit a cigarette while on Gran’s porch. I didn’t want the smell of cigarette smoke on her patio furniture.
Once the coffee was done, I poured it into a thermos and then put two napkins in the paper bag before picking it up and heading for the door. I hadn’t tasted the bread, but I was sure it was good. The uneven way it had risen was why I hadn’t taken it to Hillya. I wanted it to look appealing not warped when she put it in the bakery display case.
Saul shifted his gaze to me when I stepped outside and then stood up as I held out the bag and thermos to him. “Here you go,” I said, not moving in his direction. He needed to walk to me to get it then he could keep walking until he was in his truck.
The amused grin on his face said he knew exactly what I was doing. He stopped in front of me and took the bag and thermos. “Thanks,” he said.
“You’re welcome,” I replied, wishing I had said nothing at all.
“Sorry I woke you,” he then said.
He was still damp with sweat and I felt a pang of guilt at having acted the way I did. He’d been mowing the lawn. He was right; I wasn’t going to mow the lawn. For starters, I didn’t know how to mow a lawn or how to start the lawn mower up and did it use gas? I should be thanking him. My pride wouldn’t allow that though.
“I’ll be back later today to finish up,” he said then turned and left with the bag and thermos.