Laura nodded. “It was. Medium rare. My mother likes hers like shoe leather, but I refused to ruin the steak. She complained the entire time she ate it, although not one bite remained.”

“I love a good steak.”

“How was your chicken?”

Cassidy laughed. “So we smelled each other’s dinner, huh?”

“It had an unusual aroma, though.”

“Green jerk chicken.”

“Ah. An old girlfriend made that for me once. I’ve never tried it myself. You’ll have to share your recipe.”

“Gladly. Ashly wasn’t too impressed. A little too spicy for her.”

“Is there such a thing?”

“I know, right?” Cassidy’s gaze was drawn to the bird feeders. “The flowers out by the pool look great, by the way.”

“Good. I think there’s room for two more, if you’re game.”

“Sure. Would you have time this week?”

“Maybe. It depends how long the front beds take. I still have to go get flowers for those too.”

“Oh, which reminds me. I put an envelope with money in the closet out back.”

“Where you keep your pool stuff?” she asked without thinking.

Cassidy laughed. “I see you found the floats, huh?”

Laura did have the good grace to blush. “Sorry. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Of course not. Make yourself at home. But yeah, I put it on the top shelf. I put a thousand dollars in there. Is that enough?”

“Good God! You have no idea how much flowers cost, do you?”

“Not a clue.”

“I told you last week that little flowerbed only cost thirty bucks.”

“Yeah, but I want to pay you for your time and labor.”

“You already are.”

“That’s just for mowing. That didn’t include hauling stone and bags of dirt and stuff.”

“You don’t have to pay me extra, Cassidy. We had a deal, remember? I get to use your pool in exchange for manual labor.”

“No. I feel like I’m taking advantage of you. Let me pay you something. Just a one-time thing for the flowerbeds.”

Laura tilted her head, studying her. “What is it that you do for a living, anyway? You said you were the boss.”

“Anderson Heating and Air Conditioning…at your service,” she said with a smile.

“Oh, God. That’s you?”

“What?”

“All those obnoxious ads and billboards?”

Cassidy laughed. “Obnoxious? But hey, if your AC goes out and it’s a hundred and one, who are you going to call?”

“I’m going to call Anderson and if your butt’s not there in twenty minutes, my service call is free.”

Cassidy smiled. “See?”

“I never imagined a woman owned that company.” Laura stood up. “You want another cup of coffee?”

“Please. Black with just a pinch of sugar.”