Summer Lovin'

Chapter Nine

"Lucy, I'm home!" a voice called.

Summer came out of Dana's room now dressed as she did spend most of the day in her pajamas. She was just about to put her hair up when he came in.

"Hey, Ricky," she said with a smile.

"Hey," he said, smiling back. He was covered in sweat and dirt again.

"I'm going to shower and then we can go," he said, walking towards the bathroom.

"Okay," she answered and went back to her room.

"What do you do?" she asked as they drove to his house.

"What do you mean?" Jesse asked puzzled.

"For a living."

"Oh, I thought you knew."

Summer shook her head her ponytail flopping.

"I'm a builder."

"A builder?"

"Well, construction contractor, I guess. My family has a business. We build houses, restore houses, repair houses, and whatever else involves a hammer and saw."

"Ah."

"Why?" he asked curiously.

"Just wondering."

Summer looked out the window as they drove. Jesse pointed out some places of interest, but it was mostly a residential area. 

After arriving at the house, they walked around the back to the gardens. Summer hadn't seen that much of them when she was there with Dana. Summer was interested in the garden but it didn't seem to interest Dana, so she hadn't kept Dana long. 

Under the masses of weeds, she could see color wanting to burst out. Jesse had at least an acre of just flowers that were overwhelmed by tall grass and weeds. Summer couldn't wait to get in there and get the beauty out.

Jesse sighed. "I guess we need a bulldozer or something."

Summer spun around. "Don't you dare!"

"You going to whack your way through that?" Jesse asked, gesturing to it in doubt.

"Yeah!"

Jesse laughed. "Good luck." He positioned his hands mockingly in the form of pen and paper.

"So, item number one on the list, a jungle knife," he pretended to write down on the pad in his hand.

Jesse followed her into the tangled bushes. "You're nuts," He told her as she went further in, pushing the tall weeds away as she moved through them.

Summer gasped in awe as she moved some weeds out of the way. "Look, Jess! You have roses here!"

"And snakes," Jesse grabbed her arms and quickly pulled her back. She screamed when she saw them and dashed behind him. Summer wrapped an arm around his waist and put her head into his back.

Jesse squeezed her arms reassuringly. "It's okay. They're just garden snakes, but we should get them out of here."

"Please do," Summer said, pulling away from him. She looked at the ground and backed up, still holding onto his shirt.

"Jesse!" she heard a voice call. Summer looked up to see an older blond man with the upper half of his body hanging out of a second-floor window. "Everything okay down there?"

"We've got snakes," Jesse called back. He took Summer's hand and lead her out of the garden.

"Not surprised." The man called down his reply, "Why don't you come up? I want to show you something. Bring Summer too."