Page 181 of Share with Me

Chapter Fifty-Six

“What’s wrong with men?” Brinley tapped the top of the interior door panel where her right arm rested. Outside the pickup it was blustery. She could see the choppy waves as they passed by Massengale Park on Ocean Boulevard. They were dropping off some equipment at another one of Tobias Vega’s job sites before heading to the Village.

“Is that a question, or are you exclaiming?” Tobias didn’t look at her from the driver’s seat.

“Don’t know. Both, I guess.” Brinley listened to the blinker.

Simple quadruple time signature. Blink, blink, blink, blink.

Must everything remind her of Ivan?

“I shouldn’t answer the question, don’t you think?”

“Toby, you can be objective,” Brinley said. “Ask me about women. I’ll tell you.”Uh, maybe. We’re all different.

“You can’t tell me beans about why my girlfriend left me.” He parked the truck.

“Sure can. Two words: your mom.”

Tobias laughed. “You might be onto something.”

“No offense. I love your mom. But if your girlfriend can’t cook better than your mom, it’s over.”

“So I need to date a chef.”

“That’s all there is to it, Toby. Problem solved. I’ll send you the bill.” Brinley stayed in the truck. She watched Tobias call out to a couple of his construction guys from the two-story Victorian with tarp on its roof. They came over and hauled off the pressure washer from the truck bed.

Tobias climbed back into the pickup and backed it out of the driveway. “I don’t know this guy you’re referring to, but I can tell you, if he’s anything like I am, it’s going to be hard not to be able to work, especially doing what you love. You know what I mean?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Take my dad, for example. He’s been a plumber forever. Now he’s retired and he still thinks he’s in charge.”

“He’s still in charge. Your little brother needs too much on-the-job training.” Brinley remembered that episode when Felipe refused to send someone to fix a toilet and almost lost that job at Yun’s house.

Yun’s house.

“Say, Toby? Could we—uh, could we go down a couple of streets? I want to drive by Yun’s house one more time. To say goodbye, you know?”

“Sure thing. My dad’s cut up about Yun’s passing.”

“Lots of people are. I’m one of them. I enjoyed having tea with her.”Someday I’ll see Yun again and we can have another cup of tea.

“Dad thought they had something going.”

“She was so stunning he froze at the door.”

“Really?”

“You know what your dad said to Yun? ‘If you’d just show me the offending commode, I will resolve the issue for you.’”

“That sounds like something he’d say. He’s quite a character. That’s why Mom married him.” Toby turned pensive. “I wish—never mind.”

“You wish your parents never broke up.”

“The divorce was bad on my brothers and me, but I think it took a toll on my parents too.”

“My brother Dill has been through that. One time too many.”

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