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When Leander foundfor so else to do

"Jamie," he said He was smart to say it froh deadfall under the trees to do the job I started kicking it into a pile, looking for the biggest, thickest branches, the ones that would put up a fight

"What are you doing?"

I stole a glance at hiuish ser in a healthy way," I said to him, the air quotes visible "So leave me the hell alone"

He didn’t He took a step closer "I can get you a sawbuck from the shed"

"No"

"Or a coat"

"Fuck off"

Another step "I could get you a bigger ax?"

At that, I stopped "Yeah, okay"

We worked in silence, cutting the brush off the thicker branches, weeding out the pieces with knots There wasn’t a stand anywhere near the house, so I braced ht Then I lifted the ax above ht it down, hard

I couldn’t seebut the blood in my head Leander set the next piece up, and I split that, too, and the next, and the next, feeling the hot pull in my shoulders build until it broke down into incredible, brain-nu blisters on both hands I felt, for the first ti wash over me for a le" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>