"He's not one to kiss and tell...not that you kissed! But he's pretty tight-lipped. I'm glad he was driving by when you tripped and was able to help you. What can I do?"
Yeah, honey. I tripped because of him. I got distracted and apparently can’t multi-task.
“I’m gonna be just fine; thank you for checking on me,” I said, hoping she’d understand I was trying to hang up. “Maybe we can grab lunch next week after I get settled in the new job?”
“Of course, darling! And not that you need it, but if you like Drake, I most certainly approve! He’s one of the best guys in town and rarely takes to women. So if you two have a little thing going between you,” she switched to whispering, “he’s one of the good ones.”
“Nice talking to you,” I said and finally managed to hang up.
I planned to take it easy the rest of the day. The furniture was to be delivered between 1 and 3 p.m. so I was going to have a good soak in the garden tub in my room before heading to the apartment. Even though I did not want to admit it, my knees were sore and my face hurt.
A knock at my door and a “Good morning, Aggie!” startled me.
“Um, hello,” I said back and went over to open the door.
“You’re our only guest today, so we brought breakfast to you!” The two owners of the B&B were standing outside my door with a cart full of goodies. “And we know you’re new in town, so we made plenty and brought you some to-go containers to take whatever leftovers you’d like back to your apartment.”
“That is so very kind of you!” I said and turned my head, giving them a good look at my cheek.
“Heavens, child! What have you done?” After explaining everything, Velma went off to make me some sort of salve and Harold wheeled the cart into my room and promised to be back with some extra towels and some ice for my wounds.
I think it looked worse than it was.
She came back into the room and cleaned my cuts once again, even though Drake did a fine job the first time around. Then she applied some sort of goo that smelled like lavender.
“This has oils in it, sweetheart. It’ll take out the sting and help it heal faster.” And she was right.
"I can't thank you enough," I told her. Harold came back in with towels and five small ice packs. One for each hand, each knee, and my cheek. I would be a sight sitting there with all those on me.
"Now I recommend you ice these cuts since I put the salve on. It'll shrink your pores and should make it work faster."
It didn’t matter what the lady said, I was going to do it. They left me to my ice packs and breakfast cart. They had made all sorts of muffins and a full breakfast platter. I ate what was hot and decided to take the rest to the apartment for later. I’d be stuck there until the furniture was delivered and then I could go out and get dinner, so this would be a good breakfast and lunch.
After Drake dropped me off, he gave me his cell phone number in case I needed anything. What I needed was to text him and tell him thank you. But all I could think about was swimming in his pool on Sunday and how Makayla said he was one of the good ones. I had hoped he would join me for the swim...
Hi, it’s Aggie, I typed. I knew he didn’t have my phone number saved and my area code was most definitely not Kentucky, so I figured an introduction was necessary. I wanted to thank you for your help this morning. It was a bumpy start to the day, but I think I'm going to like Hazenberg. What else? Think, Aggie. Think. Looking forward to Sunday!
That was it. That was enough. I would wait to see if he messaged me back. I pushed send and set the phone down. I put my ice packs on and tried to relax for a little bit before getting in the tub and heading out.
My phone dinged.
I’m happy you’re okay and just scratched up. I’m also looking forward to Sunday. In the meantime, do you need help moving in? I have muscles, ya know...
Holy hell, he did have muscles.
You have muscles, but do you have tools?
I hit send before realizing how forward that comment was. And then I threw my phone on the bed, not bearing to see his response.
Do you need to be screwed?
Good lord, man. Did I ever.
Chapter Ten
Drake
Oh, she's flirty, I like this.
A customer came in and interrupted my text conversation with Aggie, so I had to put my phone down for a few minutes to take care of them.
She hadn’t responded to my comment about needing to be screwed. Uh oh. Maybe she took it the wrong way...
I have a hammer too! I messaged back.
And it didn’t take her long to respond. I couldn’t imagine how she was reacting. I bet her cheeks were pink. And I thought about that cut on her sweet little cheek and wanted to kiss it. I wouldn’t normally respond like this to someone I just met, but there was something about Aggie. I wanted more of her.
lol
She responded, lol.
Fuck girl, what does all this laughing out loud mean?!
Luckily, she responded again quickly.
My furniture is being delivered this afternoon and I don’t have a toolbox...
That I could handle.
The toolbox is in my truck. How about dinner and furniture assembling this evening when I close up shop?
I toned it down a bit, not wanting to scare her away.
It’s a date. Although I have no idea where to get takeout?
As if I was going to let her buy dinner.
Lucky for you, I do. Do you like Thai?
We had a great Thai restaurant in Hazenberg, and she needed to try it immediately.
Yes! That was all I needed.
See you around 6. Text me your address.
I was looking forward to this. I didn't have many friends in town. And I didn't really date people that lived in Hazenberg either; I'd go to Lexington or Knoxville to get a few kicks and get it out of my system. Aggie was fresh and I liked the idea of her.
I sent a text to Jack, letting him know I'd keep his hog on ice and would get to it Saturday morning instead of staying late as I had planned. I was closing up on time tonight.
Everything else taken care of? Jack asked.
Yep, it’s done. Just have to butcher the hog. I told him.
Jack was a rather high maintenance customer, if you will.
He didn’t care when the butchering got done. He just cared about the other work I did for him.
But at this moment, I didn’t care about Jack.
Aggie was all in my thoughts.
I thought about Aggie coming over to swim on Sunday and decided to have the pool cleaned before her arrival. I did an okay job keeping up with the chemicals, but it was nice once or twice a summer to have it professionally maintained.
“Hey Ernie, it’s Drake,” I said, calling Paradise Pools, Hazenberg’s local pool center. “Any chance you’d be able to work me in for a good cleaning and chemical treatment either this afternoon or tomorrow?”
He checked and obliged, appreciating the business.
“Yep, that’ll work, if you wouldn’t mind having Ricky swing by the shop when he’s done, I’ll be happy to settle the bill.”
He'd do a good job and clean the concrete patio, rails and ladders, and the slide in addition to the pool and hot tub areas. Granddaddy’s pool was put in probably twenty years before, so when the kids visited, we’d have a pool to play in. They’d kept up with the maintenance over the years and I made sure to do the same after he and Grandmammy passed away.