Page 29 of Rebel Summer

Beau wandered over to Dax, holding the riding mower steady while Dax set the engine into place. Under lowered lashes, I couldn’t help but watch. His hands moved fluidly from one part to the next, deft and capable and basically…it was startling how attractive a man that knows his way around tools could be. Let me be clear, it wasn’t Dax that was attractive. It was the idea of him.

“Why is it always me? Phoenix is sitting right there too,” Beau complained, taking great care not to get any grease or grass clippings on his uniform.

“He looks too pretty in that suit,” Dax said.

“I do look pretty in this suit,” Phoenix confirmed, helping himself to a Coke from Dax’s mini fridge under the counter.

“You need to hire some help,” Beau complained, as the motor was set, and the boys stood tall once more.

“Why, when I have you two over here every day, stealing my food? It’s the least you can do.”

“We come for the music of our forefathers,” Phoenix said dryly as The Beatles played in the background.

“We’re going to grab some lunch. You in?” Beau asked Dax.

He hesitated a moment, tightening something on the lawn mower. “Nah. I’m good.”

Deciding I should move my focus somewhere else, I scratched my initials on the calendar along with the time and tossed the pen back onto the counter.

I turned to Dax. “Where do I start? The Legos?”

Dax stood, brushing the grass off of his hands. “We’ll get to that soon enough, but since I’ve got you here, I thought you could do a few other things first.”

My body tensed, immediately wary, a new energy suddenly buzzing around the room. “Like what?”

“I’ve got a bathroom here that—“ he began.

My eyes widened. “No.”

“I try to clean it every so often, but I just don’t have the time.” He motioned around the room filled with machines.

“No,” I said again. “I’m terrified of what ‘every so often’ means to you.”

The straight face he tried to keep intact faltered a bit at that. “I haven’t had any complaints lately. But—” he motioned toward Beau and Phoenix—“this place is like an airport with people coming in and out all day. If you were to clean it, it would really help me out.”

“That’s not what the judge sent me here to do.”

A smile crossed his face then. Whatever his trap was, I had walked right into it.

“I believe the judge said that you’re required to give me two hundred hours to help rebuild the Lego car and…” He paused for effect before adding, “…whatever else my business needs. And right now, it really needs the bathroom cleaned.”

I immediately looked at Beau, who was now scratching his neck and motioning for Phoenix to stand up.

“Well, we’d better get going.”

“Wait!” I called. “Beau, is that true?” My time in the courtroom was blurry, to say the least.

Beau shot Dax an annoyed look. “That’s what you were asking me to look up the record for?”

Dax smiled.

Beau sighed and looked at me. “It’s true. It was specifically for the Legos, but Judge Baylor also added that it could be for other things in the business too.” He gave Dax a look before turning his attention back to me. “But if the other things part gets out of hand, come talk to me.”

Beau and Phoenix left after giving me words of encouragement and looks to Dax that I wasn’t sure how to decipher. Dax very obviously wanted me to hate the very idea of this. And…honestly…I did. But he would never know. So when he handed me the bucket of cleaning supplies, I took it with a smile.

Except, Dax smiled too, motioning with his hands. “It’s just around the corner.”

Using all my willpower, I kept a smile pasted on my face before disappearing into the public bathroom of a very manly repair shop.

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