CHAPTER TWENTY
LIZ
"Ithink you and I should convince Cas and Jovi to take us out on a double date tonight," Holly announces as she strolls into the living room, having showered and changed after our photoshoot ended earlier this afternoon.
"I'll go on a date with Jovi when hell freezes over," I mutter, bending down to pick up the last of the toys the kids scattered after breakfast this morning.
Some mornings I make them tidy up themselves, chores and responsibilities and all that. Others, I decide they're fucking kids and they've had plenty of grown-up shit to tackle already. They can go another few years being messy gremlins who leave trails of chaos in their wake.
Holly lets out a laugh. “It was worth a shot.” After a moment she quiets down, looking around the downstairs living area. “Unrelated, where are the kids? Shouldn’t they be easy to locate based on noise alone?”
She’s not wrong. The house is uncharacteristically silent. “They’re in the yard.”
“By themselves?” Holly cocks a brow, her mind clearly already guessing at the full scenario at play here.
“They’re not alone,” I grumble, tossing an armful of plushies into a basket.
“Then who’s with them?”
“Jovi.” Obviously.
“Jovi?” She tilts her head, curious, and it occurs to me she might have been expecting me to say another name. Mention another cowboy. “I thought he took off an hour ago for some work thing.”
“He did,” I admit, avoiding eye contact and giving the dining room wall a good stare down instead.
“But he got halfway there and passed by one of the biggest nurseries in town. And they were running a sale on apple trees. Had them on display right out front,” I explain, annoyed about how this story ends.
And even more annoyed I have to tell it.
To Holly.
“And then he remembered how the kids were listing all the things they wanted to plant in the garden in the back, and how apples were high on the list. And now,” I stop to sigh dramatically, “here we are. With Jovi in the backyard planting three different types of apple trees with the kids. And blowing off a work thing to do it.”
Holly looks like she might burst if she holds back her grin any longer. “That must really piss you off.”
“I’m done talking to you.”
“You say that now,” she teases. “Wait until I’m gone and Jovi’s the only one left to talk to.”
“Do you wanna go to the airport now?” I offer, pointing at the door. “I know you have, like three days before your flight leaves, but I wouldn’t mind getting you there early if you’d feel more secure about making your flight that way.”
She just laughs and brushes by me on her way to the kitchen, and I’m guessing the back door. “Ah, Liz. One day, you’ll be laughing too. You’ll see.”
“Uh-huh.” The only thing I can see at this moment is the trail of dirt someone tracked in from the back door to the pantry.
And then back again with a detour to the counter by the sink where the box of trash bags has been abandoned.
Jovi then. Because he’s the only one who could have reached that box where it was in the pantry.
JOVI
“You look pissed,” I observe the second Liz steps outside to join us in the garden. “Is it because I tracked dirt through the kitchen?”
“So you were aware of it,” she clarifies what she undoubtedly already knew. “And you did nothing about it.”
“I did know,” I admit, grinning while I pick up the hose.
I take a moment to fake her out, pretend like I’m about to spray her and thus earn another scowl before I go on, “And I didn’t do anything about it because I still have to go back in one more time.
Figured I’d wait to clean it up until after I was done making a mess. ”
Liz’s brow climbs half an inch up her forehead. I’m tempted to remind her she’s begging for wrinkles giving me that look, but I zip it for the time being and take her scolding. “Oh, you’re not going through the kitchen in your muddy boots again. Uh-huh. Not happening.”
“But I need to go get the labels to mark each tree,” I go on calmly, knowing it makes me sound like the reasonable one while I’m pushing her buttons. “I left them on the kitchen table.”
“So, just—” she’s barely into her response when Gavin takes off running, dirt and leaves and a plethora of natural debris falling off of him with every step while he yells, “I’ll get them.” All before Liz can finish with, “take off your boots.”
I’m not even the first person to laugh at her.
Holly beats me to it, cracking up so hard she’s about to fall over if she leans any deeper into that shovel she’s using to help Remmi dig the next spot for our final tree.
“You’re sweeping the kitchen this time,” Liz grumbles, stomping my way to take the hose from my hand. “And I don’t trust you with this,” she hisses, twisting the nozzle to shower the first of our trees with water.
“Is sweeping the kitchen really my job? I mean, sure, if it were my mess. But Gavin clearly falls under your responsibilities around here. Any mess he makes seems like yours to clean up.” I have every intention of sweeping the floor.
And I’m well aware I’m spewing bullshit.
But it’s too damn easy to piss her off. And way too much fucking fun to do.
“If that’s how you want to play this, go right ahead. Just know that I’m perfectly happy to make time to come out to the barn and return the favor,” she says, spraying the garden hose with a bizarre sense of superiority.
“It’s amazing the level of haughtiness you can bring to such a basic task,” I tease. “It’s a fucking hose. It doesn’t require any sort of exceptional skill to point the thing. It doesn’t even require a great deal of accuracy.”
“No?” The second she says it, she turns, spraying me full-on in the face and soaking me from my hair down. Before I can react, she directs the water back at the trees. “Oops.”
“Oh, it was an oops alright,” I warn, wiping my face with both hands. Then I shake my head, sending my own spray of water about and leaving my hair a tousled mess.
Behind me, I can hear Remmi squealing with anticipation while beside me, Holly is making tracks to get out of the spray’s reach.
“Are you threatening me?” Liz asks, not bothering to look my way. She’s busy adjusting the settings on the hose, stopping when she lands on the laser stream. She directs the intense surge of water at the ground before it can start to tear up the plants. “That doesn’t seem wise, Jovi.”
“You think I’m scared of a little water?” I start to move toward her.
“I think you’re scared of me.”
I almost let out a laugh. Instead, I drop my voice down low and give her a taunting smirk. “Hardly.” Then, I dart for her.
She’s expecting me, of course, but instinct makes her turn away from me, trying to keep the hose from my grasp. A mistake I’m sure she’ll see in hindsight. I’m not coming for the hose, but it might have stopped me from coming for her.
Both arms around her waist, I tackle her, dropping us both to the ground. I take the brunt of our landing, rolling onto my back upon impact. I want her filthy, not hurt.
She’s barely off her feet when she starts screaming a mix of obscenities and demands to be let go.
Still holding her, I start to turn onto my side, bringing her up to face the dirt along with me. She’s at just the right angle, where I could release her and gravity would take her before she’d have a chance to put out her hands to stop herself from getting a mouthful of mud.
“Sure you want to be free?” I tease.
She fights me another second or two before she realizes her current state. The moment she does, her entire body stiffens and she growls, “Jovi, I swear to God.”
“Threats will get you nowhere here,” I tell her, keeping my voice light as hers grows darker. “You want me to show you some kindness, I’m going to need a little in return.”
Her body goes soft for a split-second and I think maybe she’s about to surrender.
Then, as suddenly as she relaxed, she tenses again.
“Never.” Before I know what’s happening, there's a click as the setting is changed. She shoves into me, rolling us both until I’m lying flat on my back, then she directs the nozzle skyward, pressing the handle on the hose and placing us both at the center of a torrential downpour.
In the background, I can hear Remmi laughing so hard she’s getting hiccups. Gavin must have made it back outside too, because I can hear his squeals every few seconds, so beside himself with delight, it’s bursting out of him.
“Remmi, quick,” Liz shouts, “come grab the hose!”
Without hesitating, Remmi runs into the spray, giggling the entire way. I’m so thrown by the turn of events, I don’t think to stop them when Liz hands over the most powerful weapon at our disposal.
A second later, the cold shower stops and I’m lying in the mud still clasping Liz to my chest.
“Now what?” Remmi asks, grinning from ear to ear as the hiccups continue to escape her.
“Now point it at his head and in your meanest, most bad-guy voice snarl, 'drop her or the hair gets it.'”
I let out a laugh so suddenly, my arms loosen and I release Liz as a result of the reflex.
She wastes no time rolling off me and getting back to her feet.
I don’t even care. She won this battle fair and square.
“That was good,” I tell her, still chuckling as I get to my knees and start to assess the situation of mud on my body. I run my hand over my head and retrieve it to find it caked in dirt and grass. “Of course, my hair probably would have benefited from the attack.”
Remmi shrugs. “If you say so.” Next thing I know, I’m being sprayed again.
“Jesus Christ,” I groan, scrambling to my feet to get out of reach. “What is with you Penny girls?”
I’m still trying to get upright when Remmi comes closer, angling the water to keep reaching up toward my head. When I try to get away, it leads to a chase all around the backyard.
While I run, I curse myself for convincing Trent to add extensions to the original hose so Lena could water her flowers in the back without having to bother with a watering can. Then, when I’m done berating myself, I turn things on Liz. “Would you do something?”
She claps her hands with an unbecoming level of glee, chuckling in waves. “I am doing something.”
“Gavin! We’re supposed to be a team. man,” I call over to him. “Come save me.”
Gavin, who up until now was as enamored with the show as everyone else, immediately jumps into action. “I’m coming!”
At last, the hose is turned away from me. The second Gavin became a threat, he had his sister’s full attention. Thankfully, he’s not bothered by the spray. If anything, he's enjoying it, dancing through the drops like I’ve seen him do in the sprinklers countless times.
Once I’m sure I’m not Remmi’s target anymore, I take the long way around the outside of the yard until I reach Liz again. Not the only one who feels safe enough to move freely again, I notice Holly also comes out of hiding.
I wait until both women are close to each other and casually step between them.
“Almost looks fun, huh?” I say as I wring water from my shirt. “Bringing back any memories of running through your parents' sprinklers in the yard?”
“We lived in apartments growing up.” Holly smirks, watching both kids taking turns with the hose. The chase has given way to a new game. “But my grandparents lived on a farm up in Oregon. Their sprinklers were the best.”
“I bet.” I turn toward Liz, waiting to hear what’s come to her mind.
“I don’t remember playing in a sprinkler.” She picks at a clump of mud still clinging to her pants. “Only time I played with the hose was to make water slides for Lena.”
“You’re kidding.” Not that it would be funny.
“Nope.” She shrugs, paying so much attention to a grass stain on her knee, I have to assume her level of disinterest is covering up for something. Something like hurt. And embarrassment.
“Well, it’s a good thing we made up for that today,” I nudge her, trying to get her to snap out of it. “Know what really makes the whole thing official?”
She looks up, one of her fingers absentmindedly still flicking at the stain. “What?”
I smirk. “This.” I tip my head in her direction and shake it with full force, sending the excess water from my hair straight at her face.
She lets out a squeal. Then before she can think to retaliate, I stop my shaking. “Now it’s official. You’ve played in a sprinkler.”
“You’re a jackass,” she hisses, wiping her face. But the grin she’s fighting to hold back takes any sting out of the insult.