“Well… Thanks,” I say, continuing to work. I feel sweat trickling down my chest between my breasts, and I’m glad I pulled on a loose t-shirt this morning, too sleep-fogged to think ahead. The last few days, I’ve worked in a sports bra. Might as well work on my tan one way or another. Not exactly the California dream situation, but I can work with what I’m given.
Suddenly I wonder if my neighbor saw me struggling to make progress on the pool, and I’m glad the heat’s already flushed my face so no one can see my blush under my ballcap.
Lennox must have seen me out here working or he wouldn’t have come over to help.
And brought a whole crew.
I decide that whatever he’s seen of me, it’s totally worth it if that’s what prompted him to pitch in.
When the buckets are full, Lennox and the runner climb out of the pool. The other two guys start handing up the buckets, and to my surprise, my neighbor grabs two buckets and dumps them over our fence, into his yard. Figuring out what to do with the stuff has been a problem, so I’ve just been dumping it into our trash can. For two weeks, with just one person climbing up and down the ladder every time my bucket got full, it’s been slow going. These guys have a whole system worked out, and I can see how they got so much done this morning.
One of the guys, a tanned, tattooed guy with a blond mullet peaking out under a ballcap and a pair of sunglasses over his eyes, grabs my bucket. “I’m Billy,” he says, hooking a thumb back over his shoulder at the last one, a beefy guy who sports paler skin singed red by the sun, frosted tips, and a pair of mirrored shades. “That’s Tommy.”
“Y’all live in the neighborhood?” I ask, accepting an empty bucket from Tommy. It’s smeared with brown, and some of the murky water drips off the bottom and runs down my leg, but I don’t complain. I’m grateful as hell they’re here.
“Nah, I play ball with Maddox,” he says, nodding toward the runner. “Go Wampus Cats.”
“Same,” Billy says. “I live over in the trailer park on the east side of town.”
“Couldn’t resist a pool job, could you?” Tommy says, elbowing Billy.
“Fuck off,” Billy says, shoving him in the shoulder. His hands are clad in work gloves, and I can tell they’ve seen their fair share of use already. He looks like the kind of guy who worked for his muscles, like a farm boy who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. He’d fit in better in Ridgedale than what I’ve seen of Faulkner.
“He’s just waiting for your mama to come out and offer us some lemonade,” Tommy says to me. “He’s been eyeing your house all morning, trying to catch a glimpse.”
“I said, fuck off,” Billy growls, bending to scoop a handful of slime and tossing it at Tommy. It splatters over his pale belly and onto his sunburned chest.
Tommy throws a bucket aside and leaps at Billy, collaring him with a muscular arm. They wrestle around, trying not to lose their footing in the slippery ooze, before Maddox hops down and casually strolls over, grabbing the back of both their necks and yanking them apart.
“Ustedes pueden calmar!” he snaps.
Billy shoves him off before stalking to the far end of the pool and digging back in, angrily flinging sludge into an empty bucket.
Lennox climbs back in too, looking as unbothered by the fight as if they were playing, though Billy was obviously pissed. I cast a curious glance at Maddox, but he just scowls, his gaze catching on the muddy water dribbling down my leg before he attacks the job as angrily as Billy.
I work my way over to Lennox, who seems to be the only one who hasn’t become irritable in the heat.
“How do you know these guys?” I ask. “They said they played ball with Maddox.”
Maddox knows where I live, but there’s no way the jerk face recruited people to come help me.
Lennox gestures around. “Meetmi parceros.Mad’s my brother—my twin. Billy runs with our crew, and Tommy was just bored and promised free beer. A couple more are on the way.”
“Free beer?” I barely manage to speak past the racing of my heart. If we raid Lee’s beer stash, I’m dead meat.
“It’ll be here any second,” Lennox says, giving me a quick wink.
“Oh,” I say, covering my nervousness with a laugh.
I catch Maddox watching us from across the pool, a frown on his face. Before I can ask what his problem is, Lennox speaks.
“You a square?”
“What?”
“You looked so freaked when I brought up beer, and you don’t look like the kind of girl who’s already on the wagon. You ever even had beer?”
“Of course I’ve had beer,” I say, reaching up to readjust my cap and pull my long hair through the hole in the back. “And I’m not a square.”