Yes. Yes. Yes. My lips tweaked in a smile.

He didn’t say anything, probably because I hadn’t answered him yet. Kori was still in the store, and I wasn’t sure if she’d want a ride. She was funny about things like this. So I just asked, “Is that your truck?”

He rocked back on his heels, his exhaled breath drifting warm under my nose like when a waiter at Chili’s whisks a platter of sizzling fajitas past your table and you wish you had ordered those. Only then did I realize how close we’d just been. If I hadn’t said anything, he might’ve kissed me. How bizarre would that have been?

“Yeah, for my business.”

After taking a drag, I asked, “Mowing lawns?” Not very brilliant; in fact, bordering on ditzy, but guys liked dumb. And I liked this guy.

He smiled, his white teeth teasing behind the curve of his lips. Oh, yeah. Definite Fajita Sizzle.

“Yeah, mowing lawns. And landscaping. I’ve got two employees.”

“Really?” They must be illegals. Wow.

“Yeah, just a couple of high school kids in the summer. Right now it’s just me, though.”

Oh. Not quite as exciting as illegals, but the way he’d said high school kids made him seem far older than he was and like he thought I was older too. Most guys did. I wondered if he had his own place. I was sure he did. I imagined it was a one-room apartment with brick walls and a mattress on the floor with a sheet he rarely washed. I probably shouldn’t have thought that was exotic, but I did.

I could see myself washing the sheet and fixing dinner. He probably smelled like fresh-cut grass every day. A girl could get used to that. “Just you, huh?”

His lip kicked up on one side, his eyes flickering and as green as the grass he cut. “You got a lawn that needs mowing or something?”

“She lives in a town house,” Kori interrupted from behind him. “They have people for that.” She lifted me by my messenger bag’s strap.

Let’s get you out of here.

“And she’s jail bait.”

four

Lawn-mower guy watched her drag me away and I waved. He didn’t wave back. He wanted his lighter and the last ten minutes of his life back. I wanted him back.

He never even got to ask me how a girl with black hair could have such pale blue eyes. Ever since I’d dyed my hair, it was the pickup line of choice. If the answer weren’t Clairol, it might have worked better.

“That was rude, Kor.” I shrugged her off.

“I can’t leave you alone for a second.” She sounded tired, exasperated. Like my mother. “You’ve got to stop flirting with older guys.”