Keeping Time by Jamie Craig

Author:Jamie Craig [Craig, Jamie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: JMS Books LLC
Published: 2020-05-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Ana had been mostly kidding about making Ben work out in the garden, but when he volunteered, she didn’t see any reason to tell him no. She gave him a pair of gloves and a small spade, then stretched out on the cool lawn in a pair of over-sized shades to watch him work. And she loved to watch him work. He was lean and tan in the sun, his bare back glistening with sweat, streaks of soil clinging to his forearms, his hair damp on his head. She never knew anybody who actually whistled while they worked, but he did. Just looking at him made her mouth water.

Ben so enthralled her she didn’t notice her neighbor, Claire, until her little toy poodle put its cold nose in Ana’s face.

“Shasta! Get down!” Tiny hands swooped the animal away, and Ana shifted her attention to see Claire cradling the dog in her arm. “Sorry about that. I think we’re both just so surprised to see you home during the day, we got a little excited.” She sat down on the grass next to her, her slim legs folding automatically into a lotus. “Why are you home? Was there a snowstorm in Hell I didn’t hear about?”

Ana laughed. “As far as I know, no. I’m on vacation this week, and since I get to spend the next three weeks on the road, I thought I’d relax at home.”

Ben’s whistling caught Claire’s attention, and her head snapped up as together they watched him toss a handful of weeds into a nearby bucket. The muscles in his back rippled from the movement, and it was Claire’s turn to whistle under her breath as he bent down again over the flowerbed.

“And got yourself some fresh home entertainment with a new gardener, I see,” she commented. “Oh, he’s yummy. Where did you find him? And please tell me you’re loaning him out while you’re gone.”

“I found him on the Internet. You can find just about anything online these days.” Ana dropped her voice. “As for loaning out, that’s up to him, but for now we have a more or less exclusive arrangement.”

“You must be paying him pretty well if he’s not taking on any more work. Most college kids are screaming for summer jobs.”

Ana’s lips thinned. She wasn’t sure if she should shrug it off, tell Claire to mind her own business, or snap that she wasn’t paying him and this was just another variation of their extensive sexual exploits. Her stomach shifted uncomfortably. It was exactly this sort of thing she wanted to avoid. Now it was Claire mistaking him for a gardener, what would she do later when somebody mistook him for something much worse?

“He’s not working for me, Claire.”

“Then what…” Claire’s voice faded away, her mouth making a small o as she looked again at Ben. Even through the dark sunglasses, Ana saw her eyes appraise him in a new light, and when Claire spoke again, her voice was pitched much lower.

“You have got to tell me what dating service you used,” she half-whispered.

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