Marcie and Leo Ch. 075

It was a quiet night. When the day started, Marcie and I woke up to the sound of my alarm. That's a normal occurrence except it was a Saturday. Normally, it doesn't do that. I looked over at Marcie's sad face and apologized. She responded by allowing me to hold her for a bit while we both fell asleep. As much as Marcie talks about feeling safe in my arms, there are an equal number of times I feel safer when I hold her. I can't pinpoint why to be honest. I theorize that it had to do with when I was mourning Missy and she was my rock. At the same time, she allowed me to be her rock after we lost Mitchell. There's a deep connection there that it hard to explain to people.

We woke up a few hours later. She turned to me and kissed me on the nose.

"Good morning, Baby!" she said in a bit more of a chipper mood.

I smiled. It was exactly what I needed after the mistake I made earlier. We spent the next half hour or so waking up gradually just holding each other. Some folks think that every Saturday was spent with intense love making. It can't be farther from the truth. One of the joys of being married to my personal goddess is that she is the best snuggle bunny in the world. Yeah, I know I have a limited range to work with because there was only her and Missy. But that's my truth and I'm sticking by it.

As we moved towards the bathroom, I noticed that she was looking at me more. Not like in a stalker way, but more like in admiration. I was enjoying the attention until she showed me in the mirror. There I saw it. There was a stray hair showing. And it wasn't my normal black color. She leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek.

"Where has that been hiding?" she asked.

I looked at her.

"I have no idea."

"I could pull it out if you feel bad about it."

I smiled.

"I think I earned it."

She smiled when I said that.

"Well, if you change your mind, I got you."

That was the last word before we stepped into the shower and started to wash each other off. As her hands were in my hair, I was thinking about it. It was never a concern of mine before. It's not that I didn't take pride in my appearance. To be honest, I've been doing better since Marcie and I have been an item. She's definitely been my style guru and kept me from making bad choices about what to wear. She's also been helping me with products and such, something I had never heard another guy say ever. Luckily, I kept this information from Matt since I know he would have ribbed me over it.

As we stepped out the shower, we started looking for stuff to lounge around in. I put on a pair of sweatpants to go with one of my black T-shirts. She put on one of her T-shirts and a pair of lounge pants. We stepped into the kitchen and started putting together some breakfast hash. That was when we cut up some potatoes and fried them in a pan with some chopped bacon. We also worked on coffee because that's required. We then sat at the table and started to chat a bit while we ate.

That day's agenda was strictly some minor housework. I started to work on dusting while she started laundry. At a certain point, she had me help strip the bed to put it in the laundry. It was as we were doing this that there was a knock on the door. I opened it to find Wes standing there wearing a black T-shirt. I always bought them when they were on sale, thus why they were in plastic when Aubrey brought them over. Luckily, Wes seemed to figure out a way to shrink it.

"Hey, Leo. So did you mention something about someone doing the yard?"

I thought for a second and remembered who I called before. I grabbed my cell and called the service to see how backed up they were. Sadly, they were understaffed, so there was a two-week wait. I looked at Wes before I thought of an answer.

"Maybe we should get our own lawnmower."

Marcie looked at me from the dining area.

"Leo, Mitchell's is in the shed in back."

I looked at her.

"How long has it been back there?"

She gave me a snarky smile.

"Maybe I just let you call those yard guys of yours. So, I didn't mention it."

I saw her point. Growing up, my father never let me use his lawnmower. It was one of his things. He never shared the finer points of lawn maintenance with me at all. I looked at Wesley.

"Do you have experience?"

He shook his head. Here we were, two tech wizards with no amount of experience operating a lawn mower between us. I looked at Marcie as she smiled at us.

"Don't look at me. Mitchell never let me touch it."

I started to panic for a moment before I went to my laptop and started looking up other landscapers. Because our yards were close together, it made better sense to allow them to do both yards at the same time. I started checking out different places with the same results as my usual landscapers. It was starting to look a bit hopeless at that point. That is when I heard the sound of a lawnmower coming from outside.

I went to the front door and looked in the other direction from Aubrey's house to see a teenager with a beat-up lawnmower working on a different yard. I grabbed a pair of shoes and was ready to head out the door before Marcie stopped me.

"Leo, I'll talk to him."

I stood there powerless as my goddess crossed our yard and waved down the teenager. As she sat there talking to him, I was wondering what they were discussing. I would not mind having him mow our yard because it was small, but Aubrey's yard was a bit bigger, and I started feeling bad. It was when Marcie came back smiling that I was having a good feeling.

"Well?" I looked at my wife with wonder in my eyes.

"Scooter is going to come over after he finishes his parent's yard."

"That's great. So how much do we owe him?"

"Well, it depends on how much you pay a consultant."

I looked at Marcie. So did Wesley.

"I persuaded him to show you and Wesley how to start the lawnmower and do minor maintenance on it before you two share the burden of mowing the yard. I figured it was only fair since Wes didn't ask us when it was getting warmer about the landscapers and Leo didn't think ahead for once."

We both looked at her stunned. She definitely had us there. We both went to the shed and pulled the lawnmower out. It was a standard gas-powered mower. We looked in the gas tank with a flashlight and saw it was bone-dry. Wes found a gas can in the corner and went to fill it while I stared at the contraption. It was a few moments later when Aubrey approached.

"Have you seen Wes?"

"He's getting gas for the mower."

"Gas for the mower? You're not thinking of..."

I looked at Aubrey. It didn't take a mind reader to see what I was thinking.

"Leo, you've never done this before."

"He is going to learn. Leo needs to show he can handle this stuff," Marcie responded.

It was then we heard someone clearing their throat behind us. We turned and saw the teenager from next door. He was looking at Mitchell's lawnmower with a huge grin on his face.

"The old man's machine. I never thought I'd see it again."

I looked at Scooter. I was about to speak when Marcie took over.

"Tell you what, Scooter. Can you show Mr. Mercer here how to get it running?"

"Sure, Ma'am. Your husband showed me plenty of times what to do on this thing."

I was about to speak when Marcie stopped me.

"Yeah, this was his baby all right."

"Was, Ma'am?"

Then it clicked. He started to apologize profusely.

'I am so sorry, Mrs. Marcie. I forgot he was gone. I'm a hard head."

Marcie placed her hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay, Scooter. I miss him a bunch also. Thing is, you're gonna help Leo here learn how to mow the yard so he can take care of it."

He looked at me.

"Sir, you've never used one of these before?"

I shook my head.

"It's okay. We just need to fill it up with gas and prime it. Then it shouldn't take you long to mow this yard."

"He's mowing both," Marcie said.

I looked at her for a moment before I realized I was committed. Soon after, Wes returned with the gas can and watched as Scooter showed us how to prime the engine and get it going. It wasn't long after that I started mowing the yard while watching Marcie cheer us on. Wes took over and started on his yard while I rested before I took it back from him to finish it off. Once we were finished, Marcie then surprised both of us.

"Okay Scooter, a deal is a deal. I'll let your mom know that you own this lawnmower now."

Scooter's face betrayed his thoughts. He thanked Marcie before he took the lawnmower from me and pushed it towards his parents' yard. Marcie looked at me and smiled.

"That's for waking me up this morning, Sweetheart."

She then walked over and kissed me full on the lips.

"I love you. And am proud of you for going through with that."

"That's great, Sweetheart. But how are we going to mow the yard now?"

"Your landscapers will be here in a week. I called them up and sweet talked them into putting both yards on the schedule."

"So why did we mow it then?"

Another kiss.

"Because you looked so hot pushing it. Wanna take a shower to clean all the yard waste off you?"

I followed her back in the house. Did I mention that Marcie was smarter than me lately?