the much larger repair bays. “I’m back from lunch!”
Danny glanced up from his computer, looking amused at her inexplicably emphatic tone. “So we see.”
“’Bout time you got back, slacker.” Devin passed them en route from the minifridge, a carton of leftover take-out food in his hand. “Hey, Lola Ann.” He punctuated his greeting by affectionately chucking her chin, a gesture of such asexual fondness that Ronnie almost winced on her friend’s behalf.
Lola Ann’s expression was one of abject misery. Devin, being male and clueless, missed it completely.
“Well, I’ll let you get back to work,” Lola Ann told her friend. “I’ve gotta get to the post office, pick up those stamps.”
“We’ll see you on Saturday for dinner.” Ronnie gave her an encouraging smile. “In the meantime, don’t forget what we discussed. The world really can be your oyster.”
Turning to go, Lola Ann raised a halfhearted fist in solidarity.
“We make our own destiny,” Ronnie called through the door as it closed. “Even the most daunting journeys start with one decisive step!”
Devin stared at her. “Someone had way too many fortune cookies at lunch. What was that about?”
“Nothing you need worry your pretty head over,” Ronnie said. “Is Dad in the back?”
“Went to lunch with one of his poker buddies,” Danny answered, his eyes never leaving the monitor.
So it was just her and her brothers? She bit her lip, recalled this morning and decided to take advantage of the opportunity. “Devin, after I move out, will you go by the house for dinners and stuff? Keep him company.”
“I suppose, as long as it doesn’t put a crimp in my social life.” When he saw that she was seriously concerned, he sobered. “Sure, no prob. You know I always pop in to do my laundry, anyway.” The bunkhouse didn’t have a washer and dryer.
Ronnie rolled her eyes. “I assume you refer to the bags of clothes you leave on the laundry room floor that get magically sorted, washed and folded for you.”
“Yeah, gotta love those laundry fairies.” Grinning, he speared a bite of cold pasta.
“Well, this laundry fairy is about to get her own mortgage payments,” she snapped, “so you’re going to have to learn how to measure out detergent.”
Devin blinked. “Hey…I didn’t think you minded. I mean, you were doing yours and dad’s clothes so I figured it was no trouble to toss in one other person’s. I wasn’t trying to take advantage of you, Red.”
“Don’t worry about it.” She waved a hand, feeling shrewish. “Just, now that I’m moving out, things will have to change.” Actually, her house didn’t come with a washer and dryer, so maybe she could go to Dad’s house once a week and—No! She would save her quarters and use a Laundromat, or take pizza and a DVD to Lola Ann’s and do a couple of loads there.
They’d snagged Danny’s attention; he was peering at her intently. “You okay, sis? You seem wound pretty tight.”
No way was she sharing Lola Ann’s theory about why that might be.
“I’m excited about the move, but a little stressed, too,” Ronnie said. “It might be weird, not living in my room anymore.”
“It’ll be an adjustment,” he agreed. “For Dad, too. Maybe we could get him a puppy for Easter or something.”
“Do you think…” She swallowed, thinking of their father’s increasingly forlorn moods. “Has he ever considered dating?”
Neither of her brothers replied, but they both looked pointedly at the single framed snapshot on Wayne’s desk.
Danny glanced back at Ronnie, his expression both poignant and proud. “You look so much like her.” As the oldest, he’d had the most years with Sue, the most stored memories.
Ronnie laughed self-consciously. “Oh, right. I can see her now, standing in the kitchen in shapeless coveralls with a grease smudge on her cheek.”
“Flour.” Devin interjected. “I’d come home from school to the smell of something amazing baking, and she’d have little smears of flour on her skin and apron. God, she made the house smell good.”
Better than I ever did, Ronnie thought with an apologetic pang.
Silence fell over the little room, and Ronnie didn’t know who was more discomfited by the thick undercurrent of sentiment—the guys, or her.
Danny cleared his throat. “Guess who brought her car in while you were at lunch? Beth Gold. Seems her vehicle is suffering from phantom engine noises again.”
Ronnie was grateful for the excuse to laugh. “You mean those noises no one else has ever heard but which always seem to mysteriously reappear if she notices Dev working the shop?”
“I don’t think it’s engine noises,” Danny said solemnly. “I think it’s lo-o-o-ve.”
At this, Devin harrumphed. “We went on two dates this summer. Two! She should let it go.”
“She can’t,” Danny said. “Because she’s in lo-o-o-ve.”
Devin tossed a wadded-up napkin at his older brother, doing his part to dispel the earlier emotional tension. “Does Kaitlyn know that when you’re away from her good influence, you revert to a ten-year-old?”
“At least I’ve learned how to be a grown-up part of the time. Just one of the benefits of life with a good woman,” Danny said. “Something you would discover if you settled down.”
“There’s the problem,” Devin said. “Why ‘settle’ when I can get to know so many different beautiful women, each with her own delightful and unique personality?”
“Yeah, ’cause it’s really their personalities you’re after, you hound.”
Devin jerked his head meaningfully toward Ronnie, apparently wanting to spare her delicate sensibilities. Then he smiled, taking the opportunity to redirect Danny’s brotherly concern. “If you want someone in the family to find domestic bliss, you should stop badgering me and help Ronnie here.”
Ronnie ground her teeth and grabbed some paperwork from the inbox on Danny’s desk. “I don’t need ‘help.’”
“Sure you do,” Devin said. “How long’s it been since you had a date?”
“My darling siblings run off my potential dates.”
“That’s not true!” Devin protested. “We just screen them carefully. To keep away those who aren’t good enough.”
Danny nodded. “The guys who wouldn’t be right for you in the long run, the guys who are too stupid to know how to change their own oil, the guys who only have One Thing in mind.”
“You mean like Dev?” she asked wryly.
“Exactly!”
