Daniel felt warm and fuzzy inside. Bryce had often told him to relax and let go, thathe’dbe the man and Daniel could just be a kid. And look how that had turned out.
“But don’t be afraid to ask for help, either. Seems to me you have Lila and Rachel. Will, too. I envy you.”
“You do?”
“Yep. You have a family you built. That’s golden, man.” He slapped Daniel on the shoulder. “And now you have me here to show you how to fix some basic things. Kenzie says you’re a criminal genius. So pay attention. I’ve been fixing things in my mom’s old house for years and saved her a ton in repair costs.”
“Yeah, that’s what I need to do.” Daniel nodded. “I’m handy with tools. I can do it if I know how. I usually Google things, and we watch a lot of YouTube.”
“So do I. But you have to know when to let a pro fix something, especially when electricity is involved.”
“That’s what Kenzie says.”
The front door opened, and Kenzie waved at them to come in.
“Well, I guess we’d better do what else she says.” Evan smacked his lips. “I for one want some cookies. She promised to bake peanut butter chocolate chip if I do a good job.”
“Oh, nice. Those are my favorite.”
“So you’re not just a delinquent, but a delinquent with good taste.”
“Ha.”
Evan grabbed a duffel bag from the back seat. “Come on. Tell your sister how great a catch I am, will you? And how responsible I am behind the wheel. And speaking of, I haven’t forgotten your spectacular bowling. Next weekend, it’s you, me, and a large parking lot. I’ll give you some lessons. But this is a manly thing, so don’t be blabbing to your sister.”
Daniel nodded, more than excited at the prospect of getting behind the wheel of such a cherry car. “Deal.” He held out his hand, and Evan shook it.
“Deal.”
After they’d both taken showers and used up a good bit of hot water, Kenzie put them to work. But, Daniel noticed, she spent a lot of time checking up on Evan. And Evan spent a lot of time checking out Kenzie.
Daniel still didn’t know how to feel about that.
Then Evan distracted him by daring Daniel to come up with even better cuss words than he’d used at the game.
Three hours later, between fixing things and running back and forth from the home improvement store together, he and Evan were rolling in laughter, and Kenzie looked baffled.
“What’s so funny?” she asked after she stuck her head in the kitchen.
“Guy stuff,” Evan said when she asked.
“Guy stuff,” Daniel agreed. “You wouldn’t understand.”
They smiled at each other as she stomped away, muttering about idiot men.
“Okay.”
Evan looked puzzled. “Okay what?”
“Okay, dick-for-brains. You’ve got the green light to date my sister. But one wrong move and I’ll make ABBA look cool.”
“ABBAiscool, fartnozzle. Just not as a ringtone.”
“And I thought you had game.”
“Please. I kicked your scrawny butt on the soccer field, didn’t I? And let’s not forget how I made Will look like a teen virgin at her first after-prom party. Boy looked about as scared as you could—”
“Ahem.”
