Page 59 of Southern Storms

“Four times a week and we’ll have a deal.”

“No chance in”—he began to walk away, and I groaned—“fine, three times a week.”

“Okay, cool. And! You have to come to my banging birthday bash that you missed last year because you said you were busy, which—by the way—I know you weren’t busy because you don’t have any friends, therefore there was nothing to be busy with. I’m turning the big one-eight, so the turn up is going to be huge Jax! My mom’s throwing the biggest party yet, and I have the biggest news in the world to announce at the party, and I need my partner in crime to be there, So, you have to come.”

“Fine. Deal.”

“It’s a twenty-five-dollar entry fee, but for you, it’s going to have to be a hundred.”

This punk was really putting it on heavy.

I cocked an eyebrow. “All right. You done?”

He held his hand out toward me. “You got a deal, partner.”

“Boss,” I corrected as I shook his hand.

“Whatever. As far as I’m concerned, we are in a fifty-fifty partnership from this point on.” He closed the box of pizza and took it as if I offered him the whole thing. “I gotta get home to search what it takes to be a landscaper so I’m a professional by morning. Send me an email with your blueprints, and I’ll make them better.”

“Thanks, Con.”

His eyes widened. “Please and thank you in one conversation? I better tell my mom to play the lottery tonight because I’m feeling lucky. By the way, if we don’t use Two Men and a Hoe for our landscaping company, we should highly consider Two Men and a Wrench for our plumbing business. It has a nice ring to it.”

“Good night, Connor.”

“Night, Jax.”

* * *

Connor wasn’t kiddingabout going home to research the ins and outs of landscaping. When we met up again to pick up supplies, he was well equipped with his knowledge on tools, plants, and soil.

No one could ever say that he wasn’t a hard worker. He put his all into every project he took on. After we got to Kennedy’s property to start digging up the land, Connor tackled the backyard while I took on the front.

After offering both Connor and me water, Kennedy returned to her porch and picked up her reading material. I couldn’t stop myself from glancing her way whenever she’d laugh out loud. Her laugh was one of the most beautiful sounds I’d ever heard. Truthfully, even when she wasn’t laughing, I was still looking her way.

Sometimes she’d catch me, and I’d turn away fast. Other times, I’d give her a halfway grin before getting back to work. When a little girl came riding past the front yard on her bicycle, with her father holding her steady, Kennedy’s eyes snapped up from the book and fell to the father and daughter duo.

I saw the light in her eyes vanish from watching the two of them interacting. It was the same way when she saw the little girl eating ice cream. Was it always like that for her? Whenever she saw children, did her mind freeze in a daze of confusion and hurt?

“Sun,” I called out, breaking Kennedy from her own thoughts.

She turned my way and tilted her head. “Yes?”

“Who do you talk to?”

“What do you mean?”

“Who do you talk to about everything you’ve been through?”

She gave me a broken smile and shrugged. “No one. It’s okay. I’m okay.”

“You should talk to a therapist, or something. They can help.” True, I wasn’t one hundred percent fixed, but I liked to think that no human being on this Earth was one hundred percent healed from past tragedies. Yet I did think talking to Eddie throughout the years did help me. Sometimes it was nice to have a professional person to reach out to for a hand.

“I’m okay, Jax.” She pressed on a fake smile. “Don’t worry about me.”

She went back to her book, and I did the exact opposite of what she said, I worried. As she kept reading, I kept shoving and overthinking.

“Uh, hello? Earth to Jax?” Connor said, walking in front of me and waving his hands around. “Dude, are you deaf? I’ve been calling you for the past two minutes and you’ve been in some like weird daze staring at Kennedy like a psychopath.”

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