“A couple of hours,” Daniel replied, pushing to his feet. “Gary came back about half an hour after you fell asleep, so we decided to get this done after we’d put the groceries away.”
“Well, aren’t you helpful?” I asked snarkily.
I wasn’t sure why I’d said it or even why I’d used that tone. I wasn’t mad at him.
“You’re grouchy when you wake up,” he said, his lips twitching like he was trying not to laugh. “Good to know.”
“I am not,” I argued as the panic in my chest started to calm.
I was stiff as a board when he reached for me, his thumb gently tracing the curve of my cheek. “I wouldn’t leave without letting you know first.”
I nodded, though I found that hard to believe. Daniel seemed to think he knew what was best for both of us, and if he thought that leaving without telling me was best, he’d do it.
“You want to help me finish this up?” he asked, jerking his head toward the porch.
“It looks so much better,” I replied grudgingly as I walked over to inspect his work. The lattice under the porch had been broken for months. It had begun slowly rotting and was just soft enough that when Thunder had been chasing some animal that ran through the holes but hadn’t been agile enough to stop in time, he’d crashed right through it and gotten stuck. We’d then had to widen the hole just to get him free.
I looked up at him. “This is all your fault, you know.”
“Leave poor Thunder alone,” Pop ordered, leaning down to pet his head. “He doesn’t get around like he used to.”
“He was moving fast enough to break through the dang lattice,” I countered, picking up one of the paintbrushes. “I think he’s playing you.”
Thunder lifted his head off the porch, his sad eyes looking me over, then dropped it back down.
“You’re such a con artist,” I accused, laughing.
He just slowly closed his eyes like he couldn’t be bothered.
“If I would’ve known you’d be doin’ projects around the property,” my pop said as he watched Daniel and me paint, “I would’ve let you start havin’ boys over a whole lot sooner.”
I glanced at Daniel, who was studiously staring at the lattice. He had to be thinking the same thing I was—if my father had any idea what we’d done in the bathroom, he would’ve shot Daniel in the ass as he chased him off the property.
“I fix stuff all the time,” I argued, trying to ignore the heat in my cheeks. “Ian and I mowed and cleared all the brush at the end of summer. Plus, I’ve swept off this porch and the patio out back like fourteen times since then,andI pressure-washed them too.”
“But you didn’t fix my lattice,” Pop pointed out with a small chuckle.
I grinned at him. “Ass.”
“Brat,” he shot back, still smiling.
I glanced at Daniel. “Is it strange when he calls you a boy?” I joked with a snicker.
“Just a bit,” Daniel replied dryly, shooting a look at my dad.
“To be fair,” my dad said. “The boys she brought over before wereboys.”
“Well, this one isn’t,” I reminded him. “He’s older than dirt.”
“Offensive,” Daniel sputtered, pushing just hard enough on my shoulder that I almost lost my balance.
“Sorry, not dirt. Just older than telephones and cars and airplanes and Jell-O and sneakers and?—”
“No, I’m not,” he argued, flicking paint at me. “All of those were invented before I was born.”
“Seriously?” I asked in surprise.
“Okay, a couple of them were.”
