Page 91 of Denim & Diamonds

“It was a dare,” I explained. “But it didn’t go as smoothly as I’d hoped.”

Trevor looked over at me, amused. “Our mom ended up shaving his whole damn head.”

“Damn.” Axe laughed. “I wish I could remember that.”

“I don’t even think you were born yet, Axe. We have photos of it somewhere, though. I’ll have to find them.”

I held out my hand. “No need to dredge those up, please.”

February walked over to where I was working and ran her fingers through my hair. “I can’t picture you without this thick mane.”

“Let’s see…what else?” Trevor scratched his chin. “Oh! Speaking of his mane, Brock went through a phase in high school where he frosted the tips of his hair with bleach. Looked like a boy-band member. It was great.”

February laughed. “Okay, now Ireallyneed photos.”

“That can be arranged, too.” Trevor winked.

“That I do remember,” Axe chimed in. “I remember begging him to do it to mine so I could look like my big brother.”

I needed to put a stop to this. “All right. Enough of this reminiscing, if you want to call it that. We should get back to work.”

After about a half-hour of my brothers and me working together while February “helped,” she let out a screech.

“Ow!”

I ran to her. “Are you okay?”

“I dropped this damn log on my foot. Not sure how it slipped out of my hands.”

My brothers surrounded her.

She sat on the ground, holding her left foot as she looked up at us, her cheeks turning red. “This is mortifying. At least I wasn’t wearing open-toe shoes.”

I removed her shoe and sock and examined her foot, wiggling each of her toes gently. “How’s this feel?”

She sighed. “Good. I think I’m gonna live.”

I smiled. “Maybeyou should rest for a bit.”

“Okay,” she said as she put her shoe back on.

This wasn’t her thing. Which was fine. She didn’t need to have beauty, business smarts,andbe a freaking lumberjack.

Just when I thought she was safe, the pile of wood she’d been leaning against collapsed, nearly taking her down with it.

“Oh goodness,” she cried. “I’m a walking disaster today, aren’t I?”

I needed to end this. Now. “How about a change of scenery?” I suggested.

“Yeah, before she kills someone…” I heard Axe mutter.

“Why don’t we go for coffee? I’m getting a caffeine headache anyway.” I rubbed my temples, pretending to soothe the pain. “We got a fair amount of work done.”

“Okay…” She shrugged, seeming a little defeated.

The two of us said goodbye to my brothers and headed to a local diner.

We each ordered a slice of apple pie to have with our coffee.

---