“Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
He grinned and immediately got to work.
For the next hour, I unpacked while the steady sound of the mower drifted through the windows. Every time I checked outside, Chase was still working—no phone, no earbuds, no disappearing for twenty-minute breaks. By the time he finished, my yard looked completely different.
I handed him fifty dollars.
“You don’t have to pay me this much. I said twenty-five.”
“And I said fifty.”
He stared at the bills for a moment.
“Thank you.”
As he pushed his mower away, something bothered me.
His face looked familiar.
I couldn’t figure out where I’d seen him before, but the feeling stayed with me long after he disappeared around the corner.
The following Saturday, Chase returned at exactly eight in the morning. He went straight to work. About an hour later, I brought him a bottle of water.
“You’ve earned a break.”
