she yelled back, and it wasn’t long before Mack came striding through the kitchen. He stood at the deck. She lifted her very last shovelful, bent down, and shook all the weeds loose, reaching farther to loosen up some more that were deeper, and then heaped the ground around the plants. She straightened up, groaning. “I forgot how hard this work is.”
“Maybe so,” he said, looking down at the bed along the fence. “But you’re doing a hell of a job.”
She beamed at him. “Well, that’s the established garden,” she said. “I didn’t really want to lose it, but it needed some work. I’d like to find a way to put something along the very back against the fence to stop it from rotting and to also give the whole thing more definition.”
“We could probably put some loose boards along there,” he said. “That would allow you to build the dirt a little bit higher along the back too.” He walked down the few steps and came around to where she stood. Looking at the wheelbarrow, he asked, “Where are you dumping all this?”
“Out in the compost bin closer to the front,” she said. “I was just bringing the bin down here to fill it, but now it’s too heavy.”
He gave a short bark of laughter. “I’ll go dump it for you.” He turned and grabbed the handles of the wheelbarrow as if it were a tiny toy and wheeled it ahead of her.
She raced past him and opened the big compost barrel near the garage. It was picked up every second week, and this one was definitely full. When he brought the wheelbarrow around, she used her shovel to scoop the contents from the wheelbarrow into the bin. “What are you doing here anyway? You sounded superbusy earlier.”
“I am,” he said. “A bunch of cases have been opened, and a bunch converged,” he said.
She looked up at him and raised her eyebrows. “Can you tell me more?”
He shook his head. “Hell no,” he said. “We have enough work to do without you getting in the middle of it.”
She snorted. “On the other hand, if you told me about it, maybe I could cut your work in half.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Are you insulting us?” he drawled.
“No, just poking a little fun.” She snapped the compost bin closed. “Thank you. That can go back to the garden now.”
Obediently he turned and pushed the wheelbarrow back to where he’d found it. “Are you doing more this afternoon?”
She shook her head. “No. I planned to do that ten feet I just finished, then spread out the tarps and figure out the markers I needed to cut out that part of the lawn and get that done. But it took way more to do the ten feet of weeding than I was expecting.”
“Ya think?” he said. “You’ll need some more dirt in here, won’t you?”
“Yep,” she said. “Though I’m not sure how, or how much it’ll cost.”
“Especially back here.” He frowned. “You can’t get a dump truck in here. He could dump it on the driveway on a bunch of tarps, but you’ll have to wheelbarrow it around.”
She nodded. “What about those big bags they can sling around? Do you think they could drop it alongside the garage here or even around the back?”
He looked at her in surprise, then walked to the side of the house, frowning. Then he nodded. “You know what? They just might. At least that would keep it all contained, and you could just shovel out a wheelbarrow full at a time.”
“That’s what I was wondering,” she said. “Then I could take it down, start at the far end, and work it back. But it would probably take at least two bags.”
“More, I think, if you want to do both sides.”
“I do,” she said, “and I should top dress this grass in the center, but I wanted to get some patio blocks along in the middle because walking on the grass isn’t the best.”
He nodded. “We were talking about a patio in here.” He looked at her. “Where are those tarps you bought?”
She beamed at him. “Let me go get them.” She dashed up the steps and noted a full cup of coffee sitting on the railing. She glared at him. “Do you ever buy your own coffee?”
“Nope,” he said, “I don’t have to. I just come here and get a cup.”
She rolled her eyes, snatched up her own empty cup, and walked inside. Thankfully there was still