Chapter 16

The rest of the week, the girls drove me nuts. It was crazy watching and listening to Leah and Nik going back and forth about Jordyn and me, like the two of us weren’t right there next to them. It was bad enough that all I wanted to do was go online and play Call of Duty and listen to Danny raging through my headset.

The first time I needed a break, I used golfing with my dad’s golfing buddies on Wednesday to get away from it all. Listening to those guys talking shit to each other on the course was far more appealing than having to hear Leah and Nik nipping at each other all day.

Sadly, the golf league was only once a week, leaving me to fend for myself, and it wasn’t going well.

It wasn’t so bad that it had soured me completely on the idea of having sex with Jordyn, absolutely not. I don’t think there was a thing Nik or Leah could do or say that would change my mind about that, but I was wishing I had some alone time with Jordyn and let things happen naturally, without any help from the peanut gallery.

Since golf wasn’t on the table for me to use as an excuse to take off, I had to come up with something else that would both give me some time to myself, but also not offend the three girls. So, that left me with only one real option ... Danny, which made me realize how much I missed having him around. Even as ridiculous as he was, I wished he were here.

Sure, there were some definite pluses to Danny no longer living next door, namely, not having to share Leah with him all the time. At least, that’s how it was before this whole “fuck my friend” mission got started, and I stopped getting any kind of attention, not only from Jordyn, but my sister, too!

I groaned inwardly at the thought of Leah’s ultimate goal. I decided I needed to start my own side quest, one with its own objectives, and first on the list was “hide from the fucking crazy girls.” That should have been simple, but it wasn’t going nearly as well as I’d hoped. Worse, I wasn’t getting the time I’d enjoyed with my sister in the evenings when we were alone. All she wanted to do was bitch about Nik.

What I hadn’t counted on was the fact that my parents were picking up on my obvious annoyance.

I had taken refuge in my room because the girls had taken over the basement and were watching Netflix. Not that there was much for me to do in my room, but it was better than nothing. I was just lying down with a book to read when I heard a knock on the door.

“Ugh,” I groaned loudly, dropping the book in my lap in exasperation. “Yeah?”

Instead of hearing one of the three voices I expected, the door opened, and Dad walked in.

“Are you hiding from your sister and her friends?”

“Yeah...” I groaned. “They’re driving me nuts.”

“Usually, guys like it when girls are chasing after them.” Dad chuckled.

“You try it,” I replied, rolling my eyes.

“Your mom wanted to come check on you, but I told her it might be best if I did, you know, guy talk.”

“I’m fine, just annoyed.”

“Want to know a secret?” Dad asked. “I can tell you how I hide from all of you when I want some alone time.”

“Let me guess, overtime in the office?”

“No, no.” Dad chuckled. “I mow the lawn.” I scrunched up my face at that horrific idea. “Trust me, it works. Any time you, Leah, or your mom tried to talk to me, I could just ignore you and blame it on the mower being too loud to be able to hear you.”

“That’s...” I trailed off, thinking about it. “That’s actually pretty awesome.”

“Your dad has a few tricks up his sleeve.”

“Every time you mow, you’re trying to get away from us?”

“Not every time, but enough.”

“Mom knows?”

“No, and don’t go telling her either.” Dad grinned, and I started laughing.

“Don’t worry, I won’t.”

“Good.” Dad nodded, still smiling brightly. “If you want to talk about girls, I’m always willing. It wasn’t that long ago I was your age.”

“Yeah, thanks, Dad.”

“No problem, just trying to help.” Dad turned like he was going to go but stopped. “We still on for the driving range on Sunday?”

“Yeah!” I nodded.

“Good, and the mower is gassed up if you need to use it.”

“Cool.”

After Dad left, I tried to get into my book, but I just couldn’t. I had pent-up energy, and I couldn’t sit still. I started to wonder if Dad had tried to do some subtle mind-fuckery by telling me about mowing the yard and how I could use that to drown out the world around me. If it were, it was a hell of a way to get me to mow the lawn instead of him. The thing with that, though, was I’d offered to mow the lawn dozens of times and he never, ever let me. At the time, when I was asking, I thought it was weird he’d told me no ... now it was starting to make a sort of sense.

I put on some crappy old shorts and a t-shirt and threw on a pair of socks and my shoes and marched out of my room on a mission to mow the lawn. As I reached the bottom of the stairs, Mom and Dad were sitting in the kitchen, and both turned and saw me. Mom looked utterly and completely confused, but I didn’t say a word. Dad, seeing that I was dressed, knew what I was about to do and just winked with a sly smirk on his face.

I didn’t stop, I just kept walking out through the kitchen, past the basement door that was cracked open with a light on (the girls were down there) and went straight for the back door that led into the garage.

I wheeled the mower out of the garage and checked the gas, which was full. I didn’t need to worry about bagging the clippings, thankfully, Dad had switched over to mulching a couple of years ago and only bagged the first few cuts in spring when the grass was really long. Now, since he was cutting it regularly, it wasn’t needed, which was just fine by me!

I decided to start in front--it was smaller and easier--and save the backyard for last. The mower fired right up in the first pull, and I grinned. There was just something about engines and men, something primal about it that just resonated in our cores ... at least that’s how I felt as I stood behind the thing.

The only thing I needed to make sure I did was not follow the same tracks Dad had last time. He was very particular about his lawn and said if we didn’t go in different directions every time, the grass would lie down. I wasn’t sure if that was true or not, but I also wasn’t willing to find out and get yelled at for not doing it like Dad wanted.

The front didn’t take long, and then it was time to do the back. The only issue there was the privacy fence, but that was something to handle after I was done with the yard. I just have to go back around with the weed whacker to get the edges cleaned up along the fence, sidewalk, and driveway.

The back was a different story. Our backyard was huge and almost all of it was grass, except for the patio by the deck and the raised flower beds Mom had Dad put in along the back fence. I pushed the mower through the gate on the side of the house and into the backyard. I glanced out of the corner of my eye at the deck and found it empty.

I sighed, thankful the girls weren’t outside. I couldn’t see into the hot tub from where I was, but I would be able to once I got a little further in. I just didn’t want to get their attention. If I were going to pretend I couldn’t hear them, they couldn’t find me looking in their direction because my dad’s grand plan would fall to pieces.

I got started on the back, working on the right side of the back yard first and then working my way across, one pass at a time. The consistent walking, the vibration of the mower, I just got into a zone, and before I knew it, I was done with our backyard, but when I glanced up at the deck, I saw the girls up there with our parents. Instead of shutting down the mower, I opened the gate separating our yard from Danny’s and just kept on mowing over there, too.