CHAPTER 9

– Present Day –

Jason woke up earlier than usual on Saturday morning. His weekly soccer game wasn’t for a few more hours, so he decided to finally use the mulch he’d had delivered recently.

He was just starting to work up a sweat, shoveling the mulch from the wheelbarrow, when he heard Kayla’s sweet voice.

“You look like you could use some help.”

Before turning around, he was already smiling. He looked over his shoulder, not bothering to stop shoveling. “Yeah, that’d be nice. Too bad I don’t know anyone who is qualified to help.”

He couldn’t stop smiling. He loved teasing her.

She gave him a fake pouty look. Jason noticed how sexy her lips looked when she pursed them out.

She walked closer, and held up her hands, which were already covered with a pair of his leather work gloves. “See, I look qualified, right?”

He looked her up and down briefly, as if weighing her comment. She was wearing an old t-shirt, gym shorts, and tennis shoes with low-cut socks. He kept shoveling, as if being dismissive. “You’re going to get dirty if you help.”

She looked down at her clothes. “I don’t care. That’s why I wore this.”

His next shovel load landed on her shoes, but she didn’t react.

Jason smiled at her, waiting for her response.

She put her hands on her hips, and eyed him suspiciously, but couldn’t keep herself from smiling too. “So, that’s how you want to play this? I offer to help you, and you’re going to throw dirt on me?”

“I said you’d get dirty.”

She rolled her eyes, and finally moved her feet, trying to kick the mulch into the flowerbed. “Ok, besides amusing you, what can I do to help?”

He began shoveling again, but each load went into the flowerbed. “If you want to do this, I could carry those stones over.”

She looked at the pallet of stones, and started to walk over to them. “I can carry those.”

Jason dropped his shovel to intercept her. “No, it’s ok. They’re really heavy, and I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

She pursed her lips again, as if he were teasing her.

He added, “No, I’m serious. They are way too heavy. I’m not being silly now.”

She said quietly, “I’m stronger than you think.”

He reached toward her, and laid a hand on her shoulder. “I know you are, Kayla. And I appreciate your wanting to help. I actually really hate laying the mulch out, so if you did that, I’d be very grateful.”

She looked back over at the wheelbarrow, and then finally nodded.

Jason watched her start to work, thinking she’d have questions, but she just picked up the shovel and started going.

He didn’t really want to have to lift the stones either, but he’d already bought them, and they needed to be placed. One by one, he started carrying them over to the new walkway he was creating. After having carried ten stones, he sat down on the pallet of stones and took a few swigs of his ice water.

The day was warming up too fast, and Jason was feeling old. Especially compared to Kayla’s youthful endurance.

He watched her finish unloading her second wheelbarrow of mulch, and she noticed he was sitting down. She smiled, “Those stones too heavy for you?”

He shrugged. “I suppose they might be.”

She sat down on the pile of stones with him, and bumped her shoulder against his. “You know, I really can help you with them. Maybe we could lift them together?”

He thought about that, but it sounded like it would take too long. But when he looked into her eyes, he saw her enthusiasm, and willingness. He ended up saying, “We can try it.”

She laughed, and then covered her mouth immediately, as if she hadn’t meant to laugh so loud. “Sorry. You just sounded so resigned. It’s really funny.”

He took another sip of his water and handed it to her. “Want some?”

She shook her head, but then she stood up right in front of him. Before he knew what she was doing, she had wrapped her arms around his torso, and was lifting. She grunted, “See how strong I am? I can pick you up.”

His butt barely raised up. He laughed at her, and leaned back to make it harder to pick him up.

She repositioned lower on his torso, and tried again.

Instead of picking him up, she ended up being lifted into the air as Jason scooped her into his arms. He stood up, holding her tightly. “Are you trying to prove that you’re stronger than me?”

She wrapped her legs around him and squeezed her thighs together tightly, locking her ankles behind his back.

She was breathing hard from her exertion. “No. Just trying to get you to admit that I’m strong.”

He grunted as air escaped his lungs because she was squeezing him so tight. “I suppose your legs are strong.”

She laughed, but redoubled her efforts. She thrashed her torso, trying to get him to topple over, and somehow she managed to get him off-balance.

He felt himself falling sideways, but at the last moment was able to turn so that his arms could catch his fall.

In that brief moment, he was terrified that he was going to fall on top of Kayla and hurt her. But his arms saved them both.

He landed in a push-up position, but Kayla still held onto him, just as tightly as ever.

She relaxed her arms enough to lean back and look into his eyes. Then she smiled at him, devilishly, biting her lip.

He shook his head at her, and slowly lowered her to the ground so her back was holding her weight. “Kayla, you are an incredibly strong person.”

He stopped himself before he said, It’s one of the things I love most about you.

Jason fought the temptation to push his body against hers. Instead, he held himself up on his arms, hovering above her until she dropped her arms and legs from around his body.

He watched her face, as she held his eye contact. She raised her arms, and Jason was mesmerized.

She was a sexy angel whose sole purpose on earth was to tempt him.

He quickly snapped out of his trance, as Kayla wrapped her legs back around him, pulling him down to the ground with her, and she smeared dirt on his forehead and cheeks.

Without thinking, he decided to play her game. He lowered all his weight onto her, pinning her down to the ground. He grabbed both her wrists, and held her hands above her head with one hand. With his other hand, he reached for the mulch, and then held his dirty hand right above her face so she could see her impending doom.

She kicked her legs, and wiggled her body, and tried to pull her arms out of his grasp, but she wasn’t able to move.

Very slowly, Jason began to trace a line across her cheek, smearing dirt across her beautiful face.

He felt her relax, and he lovingly traced a line up to her forehead, marking her. Then he slowly traced down to her jaw, and then her neck.

Her breath quickened, and her chest rose. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but she just stared at him. Jason thought he saw something cross her face. Was it fear?

He started to raise himself up, but then whispered, “Are you done causing trouble?”

She bit her lip and smiled.

Jason waited for a real response, and gave her an “I’m serious” look.

She giggled, and admitted, “I’ll try.”

They both broke out laughing, as he stood up, and then helped her up.

He stood behind her and brushed off her shoulders and back. “I told you that you’d get dirty.”