He smirked. “The date started at eight last night. And that’s why I’m smiling.”

My eyebrows shot up. “You like her?”

He lifted a shoulder. “I liked having fun with her. She was looking for the same kind of thing, so it worked out.”

I sipped my beer and sniffed. Dating was always easy for Rowan.

He tapped my knee. “Who was on the phone?”

“The city,” I said. “Finally got through to someone about Annie’s old place. The guy said the city doesn’t have any plans for it. He told me on the sly that we should fix the damn thing ourselves.”

He scoffed into his beer. “Figures.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a loud table of local guys sharing a pitcher. I thought I heard my name.

“You could do it though.”

I tapped the side of my beer and looked at the TV instead of Rowan. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve got some extra time on your hands,” he said. “If you started cleaning it out yourself, you don’t think everyone on that block wouldn’t come help?”

My hackles wanted to go up at the mention of my extra free time right now. But it was Rowan. He was only saying a nicer version of the words I heard in my head every day: You retired from pro boxing three years ago. You haven’t moved on, and news flash? You’re not doing shit.

Didn’t mean I was ready to carry the weight of people’s expectations again. No matter how minor.

“I don’t think so,” I said.

“What if I helped you?”

“You’ve got a lot going on right now. You don’t need one more project.”

Rowan was one of the coordinators at the rec center in our neighborhood. He was trying to get a food delivery program for seniors off the ground. It was hard work. Long hours.

But now he was shrugging again. “So we organize a few cleanup days? Come up with a plan for what would replace the mound of stinking trash? Doesn’t seem so bad to me.”

“What would we replace it with?” I asked, curious.

“I don’t know. A fucking tree? It’d be nice to have one of those around.”

I rubbed my jaw. He wasn’t wrong. Our neighborhood wasn’t known for its green space or whatever. I’d only been thinking about getting rid of what was there. Not what would come after.

I shook my head. “I know what you’re doing. I’m still a no.”

He stretched his arms out wide. “And what am I doing?”