cAfter her divorce, Hayley pours her heart into the perfect lawn, until her

entitled neighbor starts driving over it like it’s a shortcut to nowhere.

What begins as a petty turf war turns into something deeper: a fierce, funny,

and satisfying reclamation of boundaries, dignity, and self-worth.

After my divorce, I didn’t just want a fresh start. I needed it.

That’s how I ended up in a quiet cul-de-sac in a different state, in a house with

a white porch swing and a lawn I could call my own.

I poured my heartbreak into that yard. I planted roses from my late grandma’s clippings.

I lined the walkways with solar lights that flickered to life like fireflies. I mowed every Saturday,

named my mower “Benny,” and drank sweet tea on the steps like I’d been doing it my whole life.

I was 30, newly single, and desperate for peace.

Then came Sabrina.

You’d hear her before you saw her. Her heels clicking like gunshots against concrete,

voice louder than her Lexus engine. She was in her late 40s, always in something tight and glossy,

and never without a phone pressed to her ear.

She lived in the corner house across the loop. Her husband, Seth, though I wouldn’t learn his name until much later, was the quiet type.

I never saw him drive. Just her. Always her.

The first time I saw tire tracks through my lawn, I thought it was a fluke.

Maybe a delivery guy cutting a corner during his route. But then it happened again. And again.

I got up early one morning and caught her in the act, her SUV swinging wide and slicing

clean through my flowerbed like it was a damn racetrack. I flagged her down, waving like a madwoman in pajama pants.