OUR PLAYLIST | JENLISA

TWENTY-THREE

Jennie

Playlist: Into Dust | Mazzy Star
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Lisa staggered into the kitchen at 7:00 a.m. with Love and found me not only awake and caffeinated but showered, dressed, and cooking with her mom.

Patricia and I had coordinated the start time for breakfast last night, and I took my cooking duties very seriously. Apparently we were expecting a large crowd.

“Good morning, ladies.” She slid open the back door and let Love out. She poured herself a black coffee, looking unbelievably adorable with her messy hair in her eyes.

Her plaid pajama bottoms and gray T-shirt made me want to wrap my arms around her waist to see what her smelled like. My heart picked up a little thinking about it.

She held her mug in her hand and came around to the stove and gave Patricia a peck on the cheek. Then she turned to me where I stood cutting a melon by the sink. “Did you sleep well?” she asked. Before I could reply, she leaned in and gave me a swift kiss too, only she put mine on the lips. In front of her mom.

I knocked over a container of blueberries.

Nothing was inappropriate about the kiss. It was kind of sweet, actually. I’d just been under the impression we were going to be totally hands off in front of her parents. She’d kissed me good night last night, but only after walking me to my room, and the hallway had been empty.

Patricia smiled down at her frying pan.

In typical Lisa fashion, she grinned at the victory of catching me off guard. She popped a blueberry into her smiling mouth and then seemed to decide she’d embarrassed me enough for one morning and excused herself to take a shower.

“Sorry,” I said to Patricia, picking up blueberries from the counter, my face hot. “It’s like she has to fluster me once a day or a baby bunny dies somewhere or something. She’s very committed to it.”

She laughed heartily. “She learned it from her father. I think they like the color it puts in our cheeks.”

I smiled. Hanging out with Patricia was my idea of a good time. I loved her.

A half hour later, Lisa came back in and helped with dishes and cleanup as Patricia and I cooked. She found any chance she could to put a hand on my back or to stand close to me. Patricia totally noticed it. She kept smiling at us.

People started to filter in for breakfast around 8:30. Two cousins of Lisa’s, three of Lisa’s friends, and a neighbor were joining the Manobans to do some work around the property, and the deal for free labor included food.

After the people went to work, I kept finding excuses to go outside to see what Lisa was doing. I found her on the roof pulling shingles.

She wasn’t wearing a shirt she was on her only sportbra.

I was a lurker. Her shirtless body had me creeping on her from the trees. I’d have used binoculars if I could have done it without being noticed. Broad, lean shoulders, abs, a defined collorbone that made me want to trace the contours with my fingers. I was my girlfriend’s stalker.

When the people pulled on their waders and started putting in the dock, it was almost lunchtime. I liked the dock project because I could see Lisa from the sliding glass doors off the kitchen, though she had a shirt on now, so it was slightly less exciting.

When Patricia and I brought sandwiches down, we set them right on the wooden planks so the people could stand in the lake and use the dock as a table. They descended on the food. Lisa grabbed two sandwiches and a beer and we moved to the end, away from everyone, and I sat down with my legs crossed under me so I could be by her as she ate. She stood up to her stomach in water.