❦♰❀ reddie smut ☿✿☆

11. the only thing thats mine

by: showmeahero
(sorry i haven't updated in a while! still kinda mad my other book deleted and it's a hassle to find all the stories again, but im gonna start updating regularly now!)
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Eddie lives in an enclosed community, because Myra had chosen it and then she'd been the one to move out, so now he owns a nice little house all by himself in a tidy little neighborhood that he can be fairly certain is safe. There's still the chance that one of the uptight husbands in the gated community will snap one day and kill them all, but Eddie's willing to take that chance for a place he's almost entirely paid off.

One of the benefits, he supposes, of living in a place like this is that his monthly fees go towards things like upkeep for the landscaping, which includes his lawn. They contract a gardening service, so Eddie doesn't have to do it himself. He'll still go outside and straighten things out when they're gone, because he's still himself, but it's still nice to get most of the work done for him while he's typically not even home.

This time, though, he is home when the gardener shows up. He's only just gotten a promotion that means he gets to work from home two days of the week, so he's still adjusting, and he gets distracted easily by the sounds in the neighborhood. A lawn mower going in his own front yard is more than distracting, it's impossible, and so Eddie goes to the front window to see where he'll have to touch up later.

His mouth goes dry when he looks outside. He hasn't seen this gardener before, and he's sure of it, because he's positive he'd fucking remember this guy. He's divorced and in his thirties, but he's also gay, and he's certainly not dead, and this guy would've stuck in his memory for sure if he'd seen him before.

Eddie abandons his work, deciding his work day is at least on pause, if not unofficially over, as he strips out of his everyday clothes and into his outdoor clothes, since it's the middle of July and the air outside is dense with heat and humidity. He grabs a bottle of water from his kitchen before he goes out on his front porch, leaning over the railing and just watching, for a second, arms dangling and fingers loosely wrapped around the bottle.

The guy's still mowing the lawn, unaware that Eddie's even there. He's got at least half a foot of height on Eddie, with wide, broad shoulders and thick curling hair pulled back into a bun. He's sweating, which isn't surprising since Eddie's been out for about two minutes in a tank top and shorts and he's already sweating. The gardener has a thin t-shirt on and shorts that end above his knees, and it's all just soaked through.

"Hey," Eddie calls. The guy doesn't look up right away, so Eddie shouts, "Hey!" and the guy finally turns. He waves, shutting off the lawn mower and leaving it in the middle of Eddie's lawn. Eddie doesn't even really care, because he's transfixed by the guy's arms moving under the short sleeves of his shirt; he has strong biceps and big hands and it's all so fucking distracting that Eddie forgets what he's actually doing until the guy's right in front of him, looking up at Eddie from the other side of the porch railing.

"Hey," the guy says. He pushes a hand through the stray hairs curling out of his bun, slicking them back with sweat as he looks back over Eddie's lawn. "Looking alright so far?"

"Yeah, it looks— It's great, good job," Eddie tells him. He stares at him still as the gardener looks out over his lawn with a hand on one hip, surveying his work. When he looks back, Eddie's caught staring; the guy doesn't comment, though. Just gives him a funny look before smiling and glancing down at the water bottle in Eddie's hands.

"That for me?" the gardener asks. Eddie looks down at it, too, because he'd entirely forgotten the prop reason for him to come outside at all, but he nods jerkily.

"Yeah, I thought you could use it, it's hot out," Eddie tells him. He stretches over the railing to hand the water bottle over. The gardener stretches up to take it carefully from his hand, their fingers brushing as he pulls it free.