They needed to find who was doing this real fucking soon.
Chapter Four
Luna winced as the rose bush pierced her finger. She jerked her hand back and frowned. Glancing down at her finger, she saw it was already bleeding, and she quickly shoved it into her mouth and sucked. The metallic taste of blood grossed her out.
It wasn’t long before it stopped bleeding, and she sat back, staring at the garden. She hated the garden. The weeding. The thorns. The smell. Dirt was not a pleasing smell to her.
Her mother called this morning and asked her to weed out the rose bushes and mow the lawn.
She wanted to argue, but living rent-free in her parents’ house, she couldn’t exactly do that. So, she was weeding and next, in the height of summer, she’d be mowing the lawn. Sweat already dribbled down her back.
Mac had closed the dinner for the third time that week. At this rate, the town was going to cause a riot. People wanted their easy takeout but in-the-diner meal. They weren’t getting that and had to cook.
She missed when things were normal. When they were not so confusing.
“Stupid thorns.” She hadn’t completed the weeding, but she couldn’t help but hesitate about going back in. Her mother loved her roses.
Reaching under, she finished the last of the weeding, wincing again as one of the thorns caught her, slicing her arm. This time, she just left it, hoping the heat of the sun would dry it the fuck out.
She got to her feet and made her way back into her home to grab some cold lemonade from the fridge. She poured herself a glass, drank it in three gulps, and knew she couldn’t avoid the lawn mower any longer.
This was a job she’d hated as a kid. It was a way of her earning pocket money, but it didn’t mean for a second that she had to enjoy it.
Nope. She never did.
Luna walked to the garden shed and stared inside the wooden building. If her dad was in charge, the place would have been covered in cobwebs, spiders, and God knew what else.
As it was, her mother was in charge of the garden shed, and pretty much everything. Her father was allowed his stuff but with the proviso that her mother had to clean it. The shed was spick and span. Not a cobweb in sight.
She shook her head as she spotted the duster hung up in the pride of place.
After grabbing the mower out of the shed, she pushed it toward the front lawn. Not only did she have to do the front, but there was also the back. She had dressed for the occasion in a tank top that was a little on the small side and a small pair of shorts that showed off way too much thigh.
Still, it was too hot to complain.
After plugging in the mower, she squared her shoulders, turned on the ignition, and started to mow.
Sweat built across her brow. Annoyance chased down her spine, and she kept on pushing. She had gotten halfway through when she looked up to see Matthew Bana standing there looking at her.
She turned off the ignition. “Matthew,” she said.
“Luna.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Taking in the hot day. Walking the streets.”
“We don’t live close together.”
“I know, but I was in the neighborhood. Thought I’d come and see how you’re doing.”
She wondered if Holly had told him that she’d been rude.Had she been rude? Probably, but she was also a little pissed off.
She hadn’t broken Matthew’s heart. It was the other way around. He broke her heart, and quite easily.
“I am mowing the lawn,” Luna said.
“You hate mowing the lawn.”