Page 103 of Love & Other Disasters

“Hey,” someone yelled.

J.P. shut off the trimmers and found Cassie wearing a tank top without a bra and a pair of Daisy Duke shorts. He adverted his eyes.

“Shouldn’t you pull out the weeds before adding hedge clippings to the mix?” she asked.

“Figured I’d just pull it all out at the same time,” he said, looking at her forehead.

“That might be more difficult, don’t you think? And besides what the roofers left behind might make an even bigger mess,” Cassie said, moving to the row of overgrown hedge and plants. She bent over right in front of him, those tiny shorts lodging into her ass.

He averted his eyes, started up the trimmer, and went to work on another hedge. Cassie worked on another part of the row, pulling debris and weeds. He only noted her location in his periphery.

“Cassie,” he said shutting off the trimmer. She was on her hands and knees weeding the hedge bed, but her small tits hung out the top and her ass out the back. The girl was skin and bones. “That’s not an appropriate outfit for gardening.”

Cassie stood, wiping dirt off her legs, and in doing so, giving him another shot of cleavage.

“You’re so silly,” she laughed, fanning herself with a hand. “It’s hot out here.” She bounded up the steps. “How about a glass of water?” Her swishing ass disappeared into the house.

Oh hell.

J.P. frowned and clamped a hand on the back of his neck. Did he dare follow her? Nope. It was too dangerous to be alone with that girl.

“You got the place cleaned out,” she called, pushing through the door with two cups of water. “I’d seen the dumpster and wondered if you’d get it all.”

“You’ve been in there?” He met her at the bottom of the steps and took the offered cup.

“The night Evelyn went missing. The door was open, and I walked in to check around,” she stepped off the porch almost bumping him.

J.P. stepped back. “That was not a smart move.”

She shrugged. “If something had happened to her, I didn’t want to wait on the police to arrive and search. I mean, if she needed help, she needed help right then.”

“Thanks, I do appreciate that.”

Cassie smiled. “How is she doing?”

“Okay,” he said, sipping the water. Then realizing how thirsty he was, he gulped the rest. “Back to work,” he sat the glass on the step.

Jordan hoped that if he focused on yard work and paid no attention to Cassie that she’d become bored with him and leave, but, that plan didn’t work. She continued to help and give the neighborhood a show. What if her dad passed by with her acting like this? He’d be a dead man.

He wiped the sweat off his face with the hem of his t-shirt and caught Cassie staring at him.

She smiled, sheepish. “You work out.”

“Sometimes,” he said.

Cassie sauntered over laughing, “Looks like more than sometimes,” she lifted his shirt to expose his stomach.

He pulled his shirt away, dropping it back into place.

“What are you trying to do? Get me murdered by your dad?”

“My dad? I’m twenty. Plenty grown up.”

How cute. “Well, I’m thirty-one.”

“I don’t care, age is just a number.” Her palm stroked his bicep.

He didn’t believe that for a minute. Sure the age gap differences diminish as people get older, but Cassie wasn’t old enough for him by any stretch.

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