Page 45 of Her Noble Protector

“Uhm, not a lot really. He spent a lot of time just trying to get me to come out of the house. I guess he was mostly reassuring.”

Cami looked down at the bedspread. “I could see that.”

“It’s all folded. What day is today?”

“Day of the week, or date?”

“Day of the week,” Lisa clarified.

“Thursday.”

“Tomorrow is garbage pick-up.” Lisa bit her lip.

Cami’s head immediately shot up and Lisa saw she understood. “Honey, Raiden can take the cans out to the curb. Or I can.”

Lisa straightened her shoulders. “No. I’m going to do it.”

“We’ll both do it,” Camilla said firmly.

Lisa released a sigh of relief. “Okay.”

They went to the bags of trash piled up next to the carport door and pushed them aside. Lisa opened the door and saw flies buzzing around her recycle and trash bin. They stank.

“Camilla, let me do this. They stink.”

“We were in Mexico together, I can handle this just fine,” Cami grinned.

Lisa stepped back inside and got two more bags of trash and swung them up into the trash bin then shoved them down into the big bin, barely getting the lid to close. “I’ll take this one, you take the recycling,” she told Cami.

“Okay.”

As she started down her long drive to the curb, she looked over her neighborhood for the first time in almost two months. Nothing really had changed. Not a lot of cars were in the drives, mostly in garages or carports. She saw one van for window cleaning, two beat-up little trucks that were local gardeners, then there was a nicer panel van that said it was a lawn care service.

She was the only person in the neighborhood who actually took care of her own yard; it was just the way it was.

“Is that lady waving at you?” Cami asked as they positioned the bins at the curb.

Lisa turned to see Mrs. Curruthers waving to her on her walkway. Lisa waved back and smiled. Now she had to get the hell back to her house, it was too much. Cami must have seen it. “You’re doing good, Lisa. We’ll just go back now.”

“Excuse me, is this your house?” Lisa had been so busy concentrating on Mrs. Curruthers she hadn’t noticed the white lawn care truck pulling up. A nice Hispanic man was smiling at her and Cami out of the passenger side window, pointing up at her house.

“Yes, it’s my house. I don’t need lawn care.” Lisa knew her voice was trembling. She grabbed Cami’s hand. She needed to get back into the house.

Now!

She couldn’t handle talking to another person. She needed to get back inside.

The side of the panel van opened and two men jumped out.

“Which one?” One of the two men asked his partner.

What are they talking about? Then she realized they were looking between her and Cami. She backed away, and so did Cami.

“Take ‘em both.” The guy on the right said.

“No, take me,” Lisa cried.

“No, me,” Cami said as she pushed Lisa aside.