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Isaac could totally picture her doing exactly that. In fact, he bet she was a lot of fun to watch football games with. Maybe if he was still stuck here this fall, he’d ask her over for one. If, that was, he didn’t scare her off before then.
“Anyway, enough about band. Let’s get today’s game plan squared away before it gets too hot to think.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Actually, that sounded better than good. The more they focused on work, the less time they’d have to talk about the more recent past. To his knowledge, Del still hadn’t recognized him. He hoped to keep it that way.
She withdrew a sketch from her truck that illustrated what his rental’s yard once looked like. Apparently, mile-high thistles hadn’t always ruled the entryway. Del directed him to focus on pulling weeds while she worked to smooth out the ruts Brooklyn had left in the storm.
“So, what you’re saying is, you’re putting me over there so I stay out of your way?”
An ornery gleam twinkled in those bright blues of hers. “Don’t know what you’re talking about, city kid.”
“How do you know I’m a city kid?”
“Trust me, we know ’em when we see ’em.” She tossed her sketchpad back into the cab. “Tell me you at least brought some gardening tools out with you.”
He gave her a blank look.
“Or gloves?”
Damn.Gloves probably would have been a good idea, especially for handling those thistles. He offered her a sheepish shrug.
“And you asked me how I knew.” She opened the door behind her seat and pulled out a five-gallon bucket. “Everything you’ll need is in there. Pull the thistles, getting as much of the root as you can, and toss them in a pile. I’ll collect weeds and branches on the trailer when I’m done with the ruts. Oh, and here, I almost forgot.”
She withdrew another container from the back, removed its lid, and held it out in offering.
“Compliments of my sister, Brooklyn’s mama. You know, for not narc’ing on us and all.”
“Cookies? For breakfast?”
“Technically, some of us ate hours ago.” Del popped one in her mouth. “And just so you know, there’s never a bad time to eat cookies.”
With that she was off to tackle the ruts in Will’s yard. Isaac gathered his bucket of supplies and started for the weed patch, certain it’d be done in no time…which just went to prove how little he truly knew about gardening. Holy smokes, thistles were a pain to work with! Between stalks breaking, seed packets scattering, and roots refusing to budge, he felt like he’d barely made a dent by the time Del returned, announcing it was lunchtime.
“Already?” he asked, using the back of a dirt-speckled arm to wipe sweat from his brow.
“Time flies when you’re having fun, huh?” She grinned. “I’m going to run the first load of branches over to my shop, then come back and eat a quick bite before putting down grass seed. After that, I should be able to help you tackle some more of those weeds.”
“Grass seed?” His gaze shifted past her to where the tire ruts had been. Now, instead of deep trenches, there were parallel lines of fresh dirt. The Bobcat sat parked a short way off. “When did you have time do all that?”
She laughed and climbed into her truck. “Let’s just say this isn’t my first rodeo. I’ll be back in a few.”
Isaac watched her go, then tossed his thistle-stained, sweat-soaked gloves aside. This weeding stuff was for the birds.
The hermit life has made you soft, Manning.Keep huffing and puffing—that’s sure to impress her.
Was he trying to impress Del? If so, he was surely doing a stellar job of it. No tools to start, no gloves, and now he was a hot, sweaty mess.
Isaac returned to the house, got marginally cleaned up, made up some lunch, and then brought both it and Louie out onto the front porch. His bully had just dozed off beneath the porch’s shade when Del came walking up with her lunch pail.
“Mind if I join you guys?”
Isaac felt like an elementary school kid getting invited to the cool kids’ table. Only, in this case, it was the cool kid self-inviting to his. And yes, Delaney Brooks was very cool in his book. He offered her a smile and waved to the open chair across from him. “Not at all.”
She drew closer then stopped, worry on her brow. “Is Louie okay?”
“Oh yeah, he’s just sunning himself.”
