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And there was something about laughing with André that felt…simple. Like untying a shoelace or turning on a light when you entered a room.
It was normal and familiar andregular.
Her phone buzzed and she checked it, still hoping to hear from Chase.
It was just a social media notification. She opened it and smiled at the picture of her dad holding up a fish he’d caught. She left a heart emoji and put her phone down again.
“How is your dad?” André asked.
She gave him a narrowed side-eye. “You just read people’s messages all the time? You know that’s rude, right?”
His smile was unrepentant.
“You know Dad,” she said taking off the hat Ryan had given her and smoothing her hair down. “Finding ways to stay busy despite all the orders to relax.”
She put the hat on André’s head. He didn’t react.
“For my birthday this year he got me a bandolier—that I’m fairly certain he had custom made—for my tools and stuff. He still can’t accept that I prefer to shove everything in my pockets and leave it where it doesn’t belong.” Nikki rolled her eyes at herself. She knew her methods were a pain in the ass to those around her.
“Have you used it?” André asked, lips twitching because he knew the answer.
She growled. “I can’t find it.”
He chuckled low and deep.
“How are the renovations at the homestead?”
Oh boy. This was a tricky subject.
They had used to discuss carpentry work back in the day. He was always going to teach her what he knew and together they were going to fix up her old house. Her dad had taught her the basics, but she wanted to know how to do it all. She wanted to be able to build a house from the ground up.
It was just a weird hobby she’d gotten into in high school. Someone had said that girls couldn’t take shop class and she thought that was idiotic.
She found out she really liked it.
Not enough to make it a career.
But she liked to drywall the same way some people liked to knit or play video games.
She shook her head and heaved a sigh. “Slow. I’m doing what I can, but it takes me so long to learn how to do something correctly. Learning how to use a bandsaw took way longer than it should have.”
“Yeah, but once you’ve learned it, it’s locked in there,” he encouraged.
She licked her lips. “Yeah. Still. I’m better with electricity.”
He shuddered. “That’s scary to me. I still doubt myself every time I have to do electrical work.”
“You don’t really want to make mistakes in that area,” she said, her lips pulled into a teasing smile.
“Not more than once anyway,” he agreed.
She barked a laugh. He folded his arms over his chest, a pleased smile on his mouth.
“André…” she said, not quite sure where she was going but feeling like something should be said.
He glanced her way, hope in the arch of his eyebrows.
“This has been nice,” she admitted. “Thank you.”
