5

The past few days, I’ve been working hard to avoid Adrian. It’s not easy since I don’t have much to do. I took a trip to the book store yesterday and hung out at the coffee shop reading for most of the afternoon, but Brittany came in for the evening shift and the prying question started all over again.

It’s the same in every small town. The smaller the population, the more people pry into your personal life, especially if you’re new to town. They want to know where you’re from, why you’re here, what you do, what you did before moving….every little detail down to your mother’s maiden name. It’s exhausting to answer the same questions over and over again. 

A woman in her forties named Dotty got almost hostile towards me the day before when I was hanging out at the diner and I wouldn’t tell her if I’d gotten a mammogram recently. Her cousin had just been diagnosed with breast cancer and she took it personally that I wasn’t as concerned about my boobs as she was. 

Today I’m going to start a garden outside in the back of my house to keep busy while being out of Adrian’s way. I drove an hour to a garden center early this morning, loading up my Tahoe with bags of soil, fertilizer, supplies, seeds, and a couple of plants. I’m excited about starting my own garden. We had one at home in Kansas that I would help my mom tend to, but in San Francisco, I didn’t have enough space to grow more than a herb garden on the window sill. 

I saw Adrian’s truck already in the driveway when I drove up to the house. I gave him a spare key on the second day of his working here to come and go during the day so I didn’t have to be around him. That’s not how he took it though. 

The jokes about me moving too fast for him, and that he wasn’t that kind of man or ready for that kind of commitment were enough to make me hostile every time I saw him in passing. I groaned when seeing him come from the front door, watching me pull in and park with a crooked smile on his face. 

“Where’d you go off to? I got here extra early to try and catch you today but you were already gone,” he asks, walking over to my car with that damn smirk on his face. I quickly rolled up my window, trying my best to ignore him. 

“Cat got your tongue?” He asks, walking around to meet me at the back of the car as I open up the trunk’s hatchback. I continue to pretend he’s not there, hoping he gets the hint.

“Hey, if you’re still mad about me turning you down, I understand, but you don’t gotta be-”

“What?!” I turned and yelled in his face. “Where do you get the nerve?! Seriously. You rude jerk. I don’t know why you-”

“There she is,” he beams at me.

“Who?-”

“Missy the mighty midget. I was missing her around here. It’s too hard trying to argue with myself. Even though I did enjoy hearing about your boob examination with Mrs. Dotty in the old Perkin’s Diner a couple of days ago. Had me reconsidering your offer.”

“I didn’t offer you crap,” I sneered at him, picking up a bag of dirt and tossing it onto my shoulder. Adrian picks up the other 2 bags like they weigh nothing and follows me around the back of the house. “And I’m not a midget, you butt flap. I’m the same height as your sister.”

“Butt flap?” he chuckles, “Is that a fat joke or a skinny pun? I don’t get it.”

“Go away,” I groaned, picking up my pace so I could walk further ahead of him. 

“My sister is pretty short too. 5’ 4”? That’s short.”

I dropped my bag of dirt in a huff, then turned around to make another trip. 

“That’s average. Just because we’re not giants like you-”

“I’m a giant now? A giant butt flap?” he chuckles to himself. 

Does he have, like, a word limit he has to reach each day? Does he get off to making innocent clients furious with him all day long?

“Are my pipes fixed yet?”

“I’d be more than happy to check,” he smirks, wiggling his eyebrows. Frick! Okay, I set myself up for that one. 

Adrian POV

I don’t know what it is about her, but every time I see this girl I just want to pick on her like a 5-year-old with a crush. Her small face turns this fascinating red as it heats in frustration and her rose lips get all pouty and heart-shaped as she starts huffing around. I end up teasing her more and more just to see how red she can get. Her deep, chocolatey brown eyes glaring up at me fills me with excitement. 

Nothing changes much in this small town, tucked far away from the rest of the world. She’s the first person to move here since I moved back to take over my father’s business. She’s been the talk of the town for the past few weeks, but no one is getting any closer to discovering why she would want to move here to the middle of nowhere.

She isn’t working. Not from what I can tell. She bought the house in cash, but that’s not saying much. It was the land she was paying for more than anything. This house is nothing to get excited about. She’s paying more to repair it than I think it’s worth. 

There are all sorts of rumors going around about what she’s doing here. Like, her husband died and used his life insurance for a fresh start, or she’s hiding from the cartel with stolen drug money. The girl that’s been staring daggers at me whenever I enter the same room as her is too innocent for either of those scenarios. She doesn’t seem like she’s in mourning, and she definitely isn’t acting like some scared recluse, hiding up here in the hills. 

I don’t know why she’s here, but it’s bugging the hell out of me. I just want to ask, but I don’t want to be like every other nosy nebby in this town and pry into her personal business. I much prefer picking on her and seeing her feathers get all ruffled as she starts stomping around in a huff. 

I watch her till the dirt in the flower bed out back from the bathroom window, admiring the view as she bends over, pulling the weeds from the upturned dirt. She may be the same height as Britt, but she has way more curves to her hips, accented by a thin waist. Its….distracting. I’m back to the little boy act, picking on her height instead of admitting it's her body in its entirety that I’ve been admiring. 

She tosses her wavy, chestnut locks over her shoulder for the fifth time in the last two minutes, then huffs in annoyance as they fall right back in her face. My fingers flex, fighting the urge to run out and hold her hair back for her, laughing at her frustration while hiding the fact I’m checking out her ass while she’s bent over. 

I shook my head, laughing at myself. I need to quit. She’s not interested, and I’m not really dating material right now. I have got my own shit to deal with.

Speak of the devil, my phone started vibrating right then. I knew who it was before even checking. It’s Friday, 9 AM on the dot, right when the witch gets off work. I groaned, turning away from the window, and pulled my cell phone from my pocket. 

“Hello?” my voice sounds rude and cold, even to my own ears.

“Do you have it?” The shrill, headache-inducing voice makes me wince. I don’t know how I ever tolerated the sound of her voice at all.

“Not yet, but I have half. I can get you the rest in a few weeks.”

“That’s not good enough, Dre. I need you to get it together or I’m just going to take her with me. I don’t have all the time in the world.”

“I’ll get you the fucking money, Monica. I’m doing a job now. I’ll have the rest soon. Just give me two more weeks tops.”

“That’s what you said last week.”

I rolled my eyes. I didn’t say that last week. She told me I had a month last week and I told her I’d get it. I just shortened the timetable by a week, but the psycho still isn’t happy.

“I’ll get it. I swear. Jeez, Monica, you don’t even want her anyway.”

“And you do. So you can pay or I’m moving on and there's nothing you can do. Two weeks, Dre, then I’m gone. I got a job in Vegas and I’m accepting it. Just put my two weeks in here. Figure your shit out before then. I’ll meet you in the same spot tonight at six,” she added sharply, before hanging up. 

I groaned, resisting the urge to punch the wall I just patched back up. I can’t lose this contract. I need the money now more than ever. 

I take one last look at the beauty outside, still fighting her hair as she works the ground, then get back to work.