"No, but she has lunch ready and it would be rude to make her wait. And for the record, she's my grandma, not the 'old lady'. Or you can call her by her name, which is Cora."
"How about you? What's your name?"
"Faith. And you?"
"Tyler."
I hear my grandma's voice calling out, "Faith? Are you out here?"
"Shit." I wave my hand at Tyler. "Hurry up. Turn around."
"Faith?" Grams yells.
I get out my phone and call her landline number. She'll hear it and go back inside, answer the phone, find out nobody's there, then spend a few moments trying to figure out who might've called. By then, I'll be back over there.
After a few rings I see her go back in the house. I put my phone away and go back to Tyler. "C'mon. Turn around."
"You're not using that on my head." He points to the pink towel. "Where the hell you'd get that? A Barbie house?"
"Who cares what color it is? It's clean. That's all that matters." Since he refuses to turn around, I walk around to the back of him and dab the towel over the dried blood.
"It's cold," he says.
"Yeah, well, I didn't have time to wait for the water to warm up before getting it wet. Deal with it."
"You're a horrible nurse."
"I'm not a nurse."
"Good, because you'd be horrible at it."
"Thanks," I say, rolling my eyes.
The cut has stopped bleeding but cleaning it up has left the towel stained with blood. I can't bring it home looking like that.
"I'm done." I hold out the towel to him. "Is there any way you'd consider washing this for me? If Grams sees it with blood on it, she'll freak out."
He grabs the towel and tosses it in the open trash can in the corner.
"I asked you to wash it, not throw it out."
"Something that hideous belongs in the trash."
I sigh. "Okay, well, I'll see ya later." I start to leave then hear him talking.
"You never said why you came over here."
I turn around. "Oh. Yeah. Your music is kinda loud. I was wondering if you could turn it down."
He looks at the radio that's sitting on the tool bench, then looks back at me. "Sure. I could turn it down."
"Really? My grandma said she asked but you wouldn't do it."
"Because she didn't ask. She demanded, and then she called the cops."
"She called the police weeks ago. You didn't even live here then."
He smirks. "So you've been talking about me."
"She mentioned that you'd just moved in. That's it. And she didn't call the police about the music. It was about the noise coming from the garage. Your grandpa was in here working and whatever tools he was using were loud."
"Walter." Tyler stands up and goes over to the radio and turns it down.
"That's your grandpa's name? Walter?"
"Or Walt. He goes by either."
"I'd love to meet him but I really need to get back to the house. I hope your head gets better."
"I have faith that it will," he says with a hint of a smile.
I smile back at his play on my name. "Bye, Tyler. Oh, and thanks for turning the music down."
He just nods, a slight smile still on his face, those sexy eyes making my stomach flutter.
I hurry back to the house. Grams is on the phone.
"Betty, did you phone me just now?" She listens, shaking her head. "Must've been a wrong number." She nods. "Yes, Faith just arrived. We were just about to have lunch." She nods again. "You too. We'll talk on Monday. See you then." She hangs up the phone and says to me, "What took so long? I thought you were just getting a box."
"I was. I mean, I did. And now I'm back." I smile. "Ready for lunch?"
She eyes me. "You weren't talking to that horrid neighbor boy, were you?"
"No. Of course not." I walk past her to the kitchen.
She follows me in there. "I realize you're an adult now, Faith, but that doesn't mean you make the best decisions, especially when it comes to young men."