Page 66 of Yours and Mine (Friends with Benefits)

“And added two rose brushes, peonies, a few gerberas, and some lilies.”

Carter opened his eyes wider each time a flower name escaped my mouth.

“Okay, I don’t know what half of those are, but thank you. I now officially owe you.”

“It was my pleasure. If you like, I can add some to the front of the house as well.”

“Only if it’s not too much to ask, and if you’ll let me pay you.”

“Nope.”

“Come on. At least for the bulbs and whatever else you used to plant them. You’re trying to get a business going as well, so I’m sure you’ll need all the funds you can get.”

“Okay, how about… we’ll see.”

“So long aswe’ll seemeans I can pay you back.” He winked. “Anything special on the menu today?”

“Morning glory muffins.”

“Never heard of those.”

“They’re like carrot muffins but with pineapples and nuts.”

“Okay, I’ll have one of those and a coffee, then. And if you could keep track of which ones I’m trying, that’d be great. I want to be surprised every morning I come here?”

“Every morning?”

“Yes, until the job is done, at least.”

Right.

“Cool. I’ll make sure you get the fresh ones. Wait, what am I talking about? They’re always fresh.”

Was I feeling nervous again? This was just Carter, my friend who wanted to try my muffins… our muffins.

Geez, Jo. Get a grip on yourself.

“See you around.” He waved.

“Yeah, see you around.”

Over the next month, Carter came in each morning, ordered his coffee, and grabbed a new muffin I’d prepared. After we’d gone through them all twice, he switched to tasting cupcakes. I’d never seen anyone devour our baked goods the way Carter did, but he’d done that ever since he first stepped into Marge’s bakery. These days he still moaned the same way he had as a kid, and his eyes rolled back in their sockets. Except now I enjoyed watching him do it more than I remembered doing when he was younger.

After the construction day was over, we’d drive his father’s old car that he’d finally fixed back to his house in the late afternoon, where he’d work in the garage while I spent an hour getting dirty in the front garden.

It looked almost perfect now, and when I took a few steps back, I couldn’t believe how much it had changed on the outside. The next step would be to take care of the old furniture inside. Half of it was good enough to keep, and the other half needed either a major revamp or to be trashed and burned so that no one’s eyes would ever hurt looking at it, the way mine did. I had yet to find a way to break that news to Carter.

When I took another step back, I tripped over the curb and fell butt first into a bucket full of water.

“Ahh!” I screamed, but it was already too late. I was sitting in the bucket, half-submerged, laughing, when Carter ran from the garage around the corner.

“What happened?” he asked.

“I… I fell.” It was difficult to get the words out between my bursts of laughter. “And I can’t get up.”

That’s when Carter lost it as well. He fell to his knees, hands on the grass, laughing with me, physically rolling over. Actually, he was laughing at me.

“Some help would be nice,” I managed, but still kept laughing. He finally reached for my hand and pulled me out of the container, bringing me close to his body and not letting go.

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