The Landlord

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

We finished repairing and repainting all the porches. They looked fresh, new, and awesome. Which... just made everything else look even more dumpy and worn. Blake worked at the marina two of the three days it took to finish, so yeah, I'll happily take all the credit for finishing the porches. I will say it was nice having most of that time to myself. Since Matt dropped that reality bomb on me, I haven't been in the most chipper of spirits.

"The porches really turned out well," he said, looking down the road at each house.

He just got home from work when I officially wrapped up the last porch. He was wearing a different uniform – a gray button-up tee and khaki shorts. He looked nice and spiffed up compared to me. I was in a loose blouse and jean shorts, covered in brown paint, covered in sweat. Even with my hair pulled up, my neck and face were drenched with sweat. At least I finally elected to stop wearing jewelry on these days. Did I mention I was sweaty? It was at least 90 degrees out today so... I wanted to die basically the whole day.

When he looked down to me, I nodded in agreement. I'm sure he noticed I've been more quiet the past few days, but he didn't say anything. "God, I would kill to go back to the beach," I said, forcing conversation. "I took Garrett over the weekend."

"Yeah? Which beach?"

"Bentford beach."

He chuckled. "You went that far to go to a beach? Here, can I show you something?" he asked, turning and walking towards the side of his yard.

Blake was entering the patch of trees next to his house. I did not approve. "Do I have to? I just want to go home and shower; I'm overheated."

"It will be worth it," he said, pausing to wait for me.

"Oh, I'm sure walking through trees, branches, and bugs will be nice when I'm all sweaty, sticky, and paint-y," I mumbled, reaching him as we entered the trees.

The pines and maples were tall, allowing me to easily see past the tree trunks to the water we were nearing. I've never actually walked down to the boat launch or the water yet. If I had though, I wouldn't have taken this off-road route. I would have taken the common sense route and walked down the damn road. But no, we had to take the short-cut. So worth it to dodge sticks and swat at bugs.

When the trees cleared and we reached the water, there was a grassy bank. It was only a few feet wide. Below the bank lip, water was gliding up. The small wave stopped only inches from the grass then slid back down the sand bottom.

The most surprising thing... was it looked pretty dang nice. Well, nice for what I first expected anyway. I'm sure it was still disgusting water to swim in. "See this bank..." he said, turning left and pointing further down where the land kept going. I was surprised to see, much further down, people playing in the water. "Technically this is all my property, but I tell my tenants they can come back here and swim if they want. It's not a beach in the sense that there isn't a lot of sand, but it's a good swimming spot on hot days."

After seeing the people, I also saw something much closer down the bank. It was a small private dock just a few yards away. "That yours too?"

"Yeah, all of this is mine."

Honestly, not sure what the point was of all that land. Actually, in general, I never understood people's desire for a big property. What did people need so much space for? Unless you have a ton of junk or have dead bodies to hide, what's the point?

The breeze over the water was nice, which helped my overheated body. "Why did you show me this?"

His eyes widened and he gestured towards the water. "So you can swim, dummy. Whenever you want. You don't have to drive to some beach an hour away."