Page 10 of Call of A Eagle
LYRA
Two days had passed since Waylen started working on the garden, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t help but watch him whenever he was around.
Today, especially.
I tried to focus on the herbs in front of me, carefully plucking the dried leaves from their stems and placing them in the small spice jar, but my thoughts kept drifting back to him. Every time he crossed my mind, I glanced out the window, and there he was—his broad back hunched over a patch of weeds, working his way through the overgrowth.
It drove me crazy how my heart insisted on skipping a beat every time I looked his way. I barely knew him, and yet something about him kept drawing me in. I frowned, irritated, as my owl perked up at the thought of him, making the situation even more unbearable.
She seemed to be doing that a lot lately.
I pretended not to notice her and reached for another sprig of dried oregano to remove the leaves from. Ignoring my owl didn’t stop my thoughts from drifting back to Waylen, though.
Why did he have such a magnetic hold on me?
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t shake myself free from thoughts of him. And it wasn’t just his presence that reeled me in either, part of it was the fact that he genuinely knew what he was doing in the garden beds. His efforts out there were paying off, because things were starting to look under control again.
“Good grief, stop mooning over him,” I scolded myself, tearing my eyes away from his muscular back for the millionth time in the last hour.
I didn’t have time for this—for him.
There was too much to do around here. The last thing I needed was to be distracted by a man who was, at best, a temporary worker, and at worst, someone I didn’t even know. Plus, there was still something about him that didn’t quite add up.
It felt as though he was hiding something.
“Are you going to be grumpy all day, or are you finally going to lighten up?”
I jumped, startled by Granny’s voice. I hadn’t even heard her come into the kitchen. She stood by the doorway, giving me one of those knowing looks that made it clear she could see right through me.
“I’m not being grumpy,” I said, but I was sure the heat that crept up my neck gave me away.
She didn’t look even the slightest bit convinced. “Well, grumpy or not, I know there’s something bothering you.”
“Nothing’s bothering me.” I sighed. “I just have a lot on my mind.”
“Like a certain someone working out in the garden?”
I shot her a glare, but it lacked any real bite. “Granny.”
“Just remember, dear, life’s too short to let good things pass you by. Now, come help me with these tinctures, and try to keep your mind on the task at hand, hmm?”
“Yeah, yeah,” I muttered, even though a small smile tugged at my lips as I followed her to the dining room table, where she’d been working on her tinctures.
Was she right, though? Was Waylen something good I shouldn’t let pass me by?
As the morning wore on, I found myself moving back and forth between the garden and the kitchen, my hands busy with tasks I knew so well—cutting herbs and stringing them up to dry.
“Ready to share what’s gotten into you today?” Granny asked, pulling me from my thoughts as she made her way into the kitchen.
I grabbed a few more sprigs of rosemary and tied them together to be hung to dry.
“Nothing has gotten into me today,” I said with too much bite etched into my words. She made a noise, and I knew I’d better watch myself. Granny could be a bear when she wanted to. I cut another piece of twine and wrapped it around the stems of the rosemary I’d gathered together. “I’m fine.”
“Suit yourself,” she huffed, clearly unconvinced by my response. “It’s nearly noon. Why don’t you go ask Waylen if he’d like a turkey sandwich for lunch.”
I froze, knowing that if I went out there, I’d only be feeding into the curiosity gnawing at me about him. Still, offering him a sandwich was the polite thing to do. After all, he’d been working in the garden all day. He was bound to have worked up an appetite.
“All right,” I said, trying to compose myself. “I’ll be right back.”