Page 114 of Fish out of Water
Collette watched him the whole time, her eyes widening a little more with each swallow he took.
I got close to Collette and leaned in, trying to snag her attention. “So when do they think they will have the water shut off?” I stared at the side of her head, trying to bore my eyeballs into her skin. I needed to save my friend from herself before she made this weirder than it already was.
“They said it could be a couple more hours.” Collette still wasn’t looking at me.
She’d been out here no fewer than ten times, sneaking every peek she could at Andrew in his sweaty and dirty work clothes. Most men would have probably figured out what was going on by now.
But Andrew wasn’t most men. He was pretty oblivious to certain things, and attention from the opposite sex was one of them.
It was going to take something blatant to clue him in on Collette’s infatuation.
Andrew lifted the half-full water bottle Collette’s way. “Thank you.”
“Mm-hmm.” Collette’s eyes still had a glazed look and the smile she gave him was definitely a little on the creepy side.
I bumped into her side, knocking the stupefied look off her face as Andrew went back to digging, fighting his way through the roots of the plants we’d worked so hard to grow.
And Collette went back to staring.
I grabbed her a shovel. “Here.” If she was going to stand here all day the least she could do was dig. “Just follow the line.”
Collette grabbed the shovel from my hand and immediately went to work, doing a pretty impressive job of breaking up the dirt right along the orange strip marked across the ground.
Andrew stood back, one reddish-brown brow lifting as Collette worked past him, hacking at the ground like it’d wronged her.
“You might want to slow down a little, Collette.” Andrew frowned as she continued at a pace that would be hard to maintain. “It’s really hot out here.”
“I’m fine.” Collette shot him a wide smile before continuing down the painted path.
Andrew watched her a second longer before going back to work, digging out the escape path for the water that apparently wouldn’t be stopping anytime soon.
Even when it finally stopped spewing from the pipe we still had what was already out here to deal with.
And it was everywhere.
Soaked into the ground. Running down the walks and pathways.
Overflowing the waterscapes.
Even if we were able to save all the plants and trees, it was going to take us weeks to recover from the damage.
“Fucking developers.” I stabbed at the dirt, digging for all I was worth, which at this point wasn’t very much. I was tired. I was wet. I was dirty.
And there was still so much to do.
We already had all hands on deck, digging multiple paths and moving anything we possibly could. All the landscapers and gardeners were helping deal with the mess, along with a handful of the maintenance men.
And apparently the gift shop manager.
I offered Collette the bottle of water she brought me. “Want a drink?”
She didn’t even look up. “I’m fine.”
It was clear she was trying to impress Andrew. Unfortunately, it was a wasted effort. Even if he was impressed by what she was doing, he wouldn’t realize any of it was done for his benefit.
I set the water onto the back end of Collette’s golf cart so she could easily reach it when she was ready. And she would be ready. The heat was hellacious and the humidity was stifling. The heavy tree cover and foliage of the gardens blocked out any breeze that came across the gulf, and while the water causing the problem helped cool things down, it didn’t do nearly enough to counteract the raging sun.
We worked for another thirty minutes, managing to get most of the remaining overflow diverted to one of the many concrete walkways winding through the property. Once it was there it could follow the properly-graded path to one of the many drainage systems built into the displays.
