Page 24 of Guarding My Love

Charlotte put her hands on her hips and went to open the top to see if there was gas.

“Don’t!” she heard.

She turned and there was Foster standing in the driveway glaring at her.

“What?”

“Don’t look in there. It’s not the gas. It’s the oil.”

“Oil?” she asked, frowning.

“Yeah,” he said. “I heard the knocking and smelled the smoke at my place. I can’t believe you still kept mowing. Did you think the faster you ran you’d air it out like a fan or something?”

When he said it like that, she felt like more of a fool. Good lord, could she embarrass herself anymore in front of him?

“I just wanted to get it done,” she said. “I thought it was running out of gas.”

“You’re lucky the engine didn’t seize.”

“Why didn’t you want me to open it and look in the gas section?”

“Because everything is overheating in there and the gas could be hot and spit out and burn you,” he said.

He moved past her and opened another cap that she’d missed before. “Is that where oil should be?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Well, poop,” she said. “I was so excited there was gas in it from the previous owners, I just figured it was good to go.”

“They probably took the oil out at the end of the summer.”

She frowned. “I saw a can in the shed that said oil.”

He moved past her into the shed, located the can and brought it out, poured it in, then pushed the mower to the side.

“Let it sit for now. You can try to start it again in a few hours.”

“IfI can get it started again,” she said. “Good thing you didn’t see me doing that.”

“First time?” he asked.

She nodded her head. “It took six tries, but I did it. I’m learning.”

“Everyone has to start somewhere,” he said.

“And you came to save me again,” she said. “I wish I could save you, but it doesn’t seem like you do anything wrong.”

He snorted. “My family would tell you I do a lot wrong.”

“Been there and done that,” she said. “Mainly from my parents. Not Amanda. Though she and I didn’t have a great relationship for years. I’m glad we do now, but she doesn’t live around here. Does your family live around here?”

He seemed to hesitate. “A mixture. Half of us are within an hour or so commute. The other spread out in different states.”

“Amanda lives on Amore Island with her husband and son. She’s having another baby at the end of the month. Not sure why I’m telling you this when you’ve made it very clear you don’t like people or talking.”

It was the tongue and cheek way she said it that had him breaking a tiny little grin.

“I don’t know. Something about you makes me keep coming back when I’d normally run in the other direction.”

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