vineyard started on the other side and his vines combed away toward the road.
“Are you offering to take care of the lawn for me, Lonnie?”
“To earn my keep,” he said. “I didn’t want to presume nothing without
talking to you first.”
“I’m sorry—earn your keep?”
“Like I said, I used to do these jobs for your daddy all the time. We had it
all worked out between us.”
“I’m sorry—” She didn’t know where to begin; of all the arrangements
Neda had been told her father made with his tenants, full rent in exchange for
yard work was the most unbelievable, yet Cadell waited seriously. “Do you mean
to say this is how you want to pay your rent?”
“I did all kinds of things that were a help to your daddy. I’d like to get back
to this lawn for you, before it gets past my help.”
“In return for paying rent,” she said. “You want to work off your rent.”
“If you’ll let me.”
“Like you did for my father.”
“For a long time,” he said. His sharp eyes looked down on Neda from the
loose satchel of his face. “I’m surprised you don’t remember me more.”
She’d meant to get things in order quickly, to hire a management company
to look after the rentals, to make a decision about the house she grew up in,
whether to sell or rent it as well. But the tenants with their tales of woe had
made her pause and reconsider her father. If he’d truly made arrangements with
all of them then he was far kinder than Neda gave him credit for. Lonnie Cadell
had relied on his kindness, and she remembered how her father used to rely on
Cadell for certain jobs. Despite his age and size, Cadell’s offer of help made him
vulnerable. She couldn’t leave feeling that she’d abandoned him. Yet she couldn’t
stay forever. “So long as you’re being honest with me, Lonnie, we’ll go ahead with
it, the lawn.”
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