“A power tool.” Lila swung wide again. “Like, a tiny drill with tiny bits that do nothing and go nowhere.”
“Oh yeah.”
Kenzie had to admit that as annoying as Lila was, she had a point. Kenzie needed to stop avoiding the subject of Bryce, because not thinking or talking about him had made him fester inside, so that anytime his name came up, a well of sadness pooled and filled her with depression. “You make sense, surprisingly. I’m not ready to talk about him right now.” Though she’d shared buckets of tears with her friends for a solid month after the fact. “But I will soon. I promise.”
“Good.” Lila smiled.
“But I’m still not going out with Evan. Let me ease back into the dating scene, okay?” She had no intention of making a mistake that would cost Daniel so much. Not again. And her odd fascination with the sexy moving man warned her to be wary.
“Perfect. We’re here to help.”
Kenzie stared at their overly innocent expressions and couldn’t help laughing. “You guys look eee-vil. Yes, Lila, with three e’s. Excuse me if I’m not feeling better about your offer.”
“That’s just because you have no idea when a good thing hits you. But we do. We’ll provide assistance when needed.” Lila’s shark-like grin didn’t inspire confidence.
“Oh man. Please don’t.”
“Enough of this.” Rachel waved a royal hand. “Now, minions, we must return to the work at hand. And I for one am not calling Ellie Ruger until we nail down our concept. Because, Kenzie, your interpretation of a loaf of kale with legs needs work.” Rachel pointed to the monitor in front of her.
“It’s not a loaf.” Kenzie rolled her eyes.
“A head, then.”
“Nope. I looked it up. Lettuce have heads, kale have leaves.”
“Whatever.” Rachel shrugged. “Your drawing sucks.”
“So does your face.”
“I hate kale,” Lila muttered, and they buckled down to make kale look appetizing, a new shoe account appealing, and Lila not so pathetic on her dating profile.
* * *
Friday evening, Evan made up his mind, tired of dithering. Tired of being “boring.” And frankly, tired of dealing with Smith and his bitching, though, for Smith, complaining about Cash or Reid only twice a day was a marked improvement.
Sitting in the front room of his mother’s house, waiting for his cousins to show, Evan decided to call Rachel Kim. He drew a deep breath and focused, telling himself to word his request correctly so she couldn’t call him unprofessional. Which he was totally being.
But he couldn’t stop thinking about Kenzie.
“Honey, are the boys here yet?” his mother called from the kitchen.
He and his mother had always been so close, talking, laughing. But lately, she’d been breaking their mother–son dates, going off without him, not telling him about doctor appointments unless he interrogated her about them. He didn’t understand what he’d done to upset her, and if he tried asking about it, she snapped at him. Hell, last week he’d shown up to do some maintenance on the sprinkler system, and she’d griped at him to leave well enough alone. A chore he’d always taken care of no longer needed attention.
Then again, he’d been visiting on a Friday night to deal with his mother’s sprinklers. Not barhopping, trying to score a date, or hanging with friends. Hell, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d done that.
His cousins were right. He needed a life.
“Not yet, Mom,” he yelled back. “They’re coming though.”
“Huh. About time.”
While his mom went back to her meal prep, Evan bit the bullet and dialed.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Rachel?”
“Yeah. Who’s this?” She sounded suspicious. Not that he could blame her with all the telemarketing calls he received on any given day.No-call list, my ass.
