Ricky grinned at him. “Don’t worry, no one will ever suspect a little shrimp like you.”
Jordan chewed on his lip, unsure whether Ricky was making fun of him or complimenting his secret identity. A few seconds, later, though, he nodded, having settled on the latter.
By then, Ash had hoisted all the fence planks in a stack onto his shoulder. Cassidy had the two-by-fours. Ash started toward the gate to his backyard, but Jordan and Ricky trailed them.
“What’re we going to do first?” Ricky asked.
“Yeah, what’re we going to do first?” Jordan chirped.
Ash’s face fell. So much for spending time with Cassidy alone.
But Mrs. Rivera said to her sons, “Cassidy and Ash are going to work on the fence. But you two are going to clean your rooms.”
“Aww, Mom—”
“Don’t ‘aww Mom’ me. Those rooms were supposed to be spotlesslastweekend, and they still look like a hurricane blew through a swamp. I want them clean before the cross-country team comes over for the spaghetti carbo-load. Upstairs, now!”
Mrs. Rivera turned to Ash and Cassidy and gave them a wink.
Oh god, was it that obvious that he liked Cassidy? Ash could feel all the blood rush to his face. Maybe he ought to tell her that he would build the fence himself. That would save Cassidy the embarrassment of having to work with him. Enough guys atschool had crushes on her; she didn’t need to spend her weekend dealing with another one.
But Cassidy just walked up beside him and asked, “You ready?”
He nodded, relieved. Maybe she hadn’t seen her mom’s wink.
Cassidy set her two-by-fours on the grass in Ash’s backyard and clapped her hands together like a team captain ready to pep-talk her runners. “All right! Let’s do this thing.” But then she paused as she surveyed the broken fence again. “On second thought, maybe I should be a little less enthusiastic. I have no idea what I’m doing.”
Ash smiled. He laid his stack of planks on the ground and walked over to the section of fence that had toppled over. Some of the boards were still intact and held in place by the two-by-fours that ran horizontally across. But a good number of the planks in between were either completely shattered or significantly damaged.
“Well, the good news is that the main posts are still fine,” Ash said, tapping on one of the solid vertical supports. “If these had come down, we would have to dig up the bases, get new posts, and mix and set new concrete for them.”
“But we’re pretty much going to have to rebuild everything in between, huh?” Cassidy said.
“Yeah,” Ash said. “A couple of the boards on either side of the hole can be salvaged, but we have to replace the rest. Wehave to put in new two-by-fours that go across, too, since some of the nails on the old ones got twisted or bent.”
“Who’d have thunk I was such a wrecking ball.” Cassidy smirked, although there was some sheepishness behind her bravado.
It only made Ash like her more.
“Should I get a toolbox?” she asked.
“My stepdad’s got everything we need in the garage,” Ash said. “Back in a minute.”
He started to jog away, then thought better of it. Cassidy was a runner. What if she noticed that he had terrible form or, really, no running form at all? He opted for a casual stroll instead.
As soon as he was in the garage, though, Ash pressed himself against the wall, letting his head drop back for a moment to take stock of everything that had happened so far.
Cassidy fell into his yard.
Cassidy talked to Ash.
Ash somehow managed to talk to Cassidy.
And now he had the entire afternoon with her.
There really was something a little more magical than usual about this particular Halloween.
He took a deep breath and allowed himself a smile. Everything was going fine. Better than fine. And who knew what the next few hours would bring?
