“It’s a gift,” he said with a chuckle. “But that sounds really fun. What do you need?”
“Well, that’s the problem. I don’t know. I think I need…” The last shreds of her confidence in the ‘figure it out’ plan vanished in a puff. “Screws?”
He gave her a very strange look. It took her a moment to figure it out.
“Are you trying not to laugh at me?” she demanded.
“No?” he said in a very unconvincing tone. “Okay, yeah. But let’s see if I can help. What do you need to get done?”
“I need to fix it!” she said with forced brightness.
He didn’t bother with trying to hide his laugh this time.
“Okay, okay, how about this: why don’t I come over later and see what you’re working with. That way you don’t just…” He glanced down at her hands. “Buy seven different random screws and hope for the best.”
“You don’t mind?”
“Not at all,” he said. “It will give me something to do other than just get in Eleanor’s way all day. Besides, it sounds like a fun project.”
There was a warm feeling growing inside her, and as much as she tried to tell herself that it was just because she was excited to build another link to a member of the community, she knew it was more than that. She liked hanging out with Shane. He was charming, kind… and not terrible to look at either.
But she didn’t feel ready to let any of those thoughts trickle in. After all, Shanewasn’ta member of the community, at least not a permanent one. His visit might be open-ended, but it was just a visit.
Besides, things werenotsufficiently settled with Eleanor for Winnie to add in a complication of having feelings for her brother.
Not that Winnie had any such feelings. Nope. No way. No how.
But that didn’t mean she should say no to overtures of friendship, certainly.
“That would be really nice,” she said. “I would be glad to have company. And if you happened to have ideas about how to fix cornhole boards, I’m sure I could let you take a shot at it.”
“I appreciate that,” he said, smiling. “I mean, you’ve obviously got it totally under control.”
“Obviously,” Winnie agreed, secretly thrilled with herself. She was joking around! And he was smiling and laughing with her!
They made plans for Shane to come by later that evening then left the hardware store, leaving Garrett behind them, visibly relieved to see the back of them, even if neither of them had ultimately made a purchase.
“I’ll see you tonight?” Shane asked as he climbed into a car that Winnie recognized as belonging to Eleanor.
“Yeah, that sounds great,” Winnie said.
As she drove away, she reflected on how true this was. She really was looking forward to seeing him… maybe more than she should have been.
But that was a problem for another day. Today, she was just going to enjoy herself and see where that optimism led her.
“Hey, do you mind if I borrow…”
Shane trailed off when his sister gave no sign that she heard him, instead continued standing at the sink, humming happily, and running her sponge around a dish that looked like it had been clean a good while ago.
“Eleanor?” he continued in a singsong tone. She jolted, nearly dropping the slippery plate.
“Oh my gosh,” she said, only stopping herself from pressing a hand to her chest when she spotted the sponge. “I—how long have you been standing there?”
“Only for a few seconds,” he said, grinning. “But would you have believed me if I said I’d been here way longer?”
She pulled a face. “Yes,” she admitted. “I absolutely would have. I’m not proud.”
“Nah,” he said. “That was happy humming. I can tell. You should be absolutely proud of whatever it is that’s got you singing like a songbird.”
