“Yeah. But the moving guy was giving my sister looks.” Daniel had stoppedthatright away. His “crazy chick” stories usually worked in his favor. Kenzie didn’t need more crying jags or a man treating her like dirt. Why deal with that nonsense when you could stop it before it began?
But Kenzie’s actions had been…strange, even for his sister. She hadn’t so much as looked at a guy since jackhole Bryce. Yet she’d seemed seriously interested in the moving dude. Daniel knew her tells, the way she worked so hard not to show that she liked a guy. He decided it wouldn’t hurt to get more information about the “hunky mover with the nice ass.”
God, if he had to hear Lila say that one more time he’d puke.
“What kind of looks?” Rafi’s eyes widened, then he nodded and sighed. “Oh, right.Kenzie.”
“Ew.”
Rafi grinned. “Come on, man, she’s hot. And she’s not your mom, so it’s normal she have a life, right?”
“You like to think ofyoursister with some guy?”
“I have two sisters. One’s engaged to a jerk, and the other’s in love with some huge, badass Marine.” Rafi snorted. “Some guy? Jordan just moved in with ‘some guy.’ But he’s not so bad, really. He took care of Juan for me and beat up some gangbangers.”
“Really?” Daniel frowned. Evan hadn’t seemed all that badass, but he was big. And driving that truck, he had to be some kind of service member. Maybe a Marine. How great would it be if he was the guy actually shacking up with Jordan? Then Daniel could tell his sister what a loser Evan was. “What’s the guy’s name your sister’s living with?”
“Cash Griffith.”
Bummer. But Griffith was Evan’s last name, according to his cell phone. “The guy checking out Kenzie was Evan Griffith. Is Cash his brother?”
“Cousin, I think. Reid is Cash’s brother.”
Daniel smirked. “I swiped his phone and set him up.”
“Nice.” Rafi slurped his soda. “You want me to see what I can find on the guy? I’ll talk to Jordan, but all casual-like.”
“Yeah.” Daniel moved his fingers over the keys, never as at home as he was when typing on a keyboard. While Rafi messed with his phone, Daniel pulled up Evan’s name, found out a few particulars, then did a more detailed search.
In seconds he had Evan’s address, phone number, and places of business at hand. Kenzie had been a little too emphatic about how much she didn’t like the guy. Unfortunately, Daniel had seen her looking pretty hard at Evan when the guy had been bitching about his phone.
Kenzie hadn’t so much as looked at a man since she’d broken up with Bryce over a year ago. As usual, thoughts about Bryce hurt. Made Daniel feel that same old guilt for ruining his sister’s life.
So he did what made him feel good and tapped into a locked system—the school’s admin server.
“What schedule do you want for this upcoming year?”
Rafi put his phone down and said through a mouth of pretzel, “I registered last term.”
“Yeah, but we can make sure you get what you wanted.”
Rafi swallowed and leaned closer. “Well, I know I don’t want French with Mathison. Can you hook me up with Mr. Charbeau instead?”
“Don’t you mean Monsieur Charbeau?” Daniel asked as he made some changes, rearranging Rafi’s schedule so he had more classes with friends. Then he did the same for himself.
Some time later, he checked his phone and saw a few messages from Kenzie. “Shoot. Gotta go.”
Rafi nodded, pleased. The guy had been a lot happier lately since moving back home with his folks. Rafi didn’t seem to realize how lucky he was to have a choice. Daniel had one home, no parents, no other family to stay with but Kenzie. If he didn’t include Lila, Rachel, and now Will.
And who knew how long Will would last with Rachel? Bryce had said he loved Kenzie. He’d lived with them, had hung out with Daniel like a best friend. Then he’d left and hadn’t come back.
Daniel hated thinking about Bryce. “See you tomorrow?”
Rafi nodded. “After my tutor. Got math and science to make up.”
“Summer school’s gotta suck.”
Rafi sighed. “Yeah. But at least I don’t have Simpson to worry about. What a tool.”
