I could do that.
I could fix a cage, coil a hose, sign a court sheet, and keep my land out of my brother's mouth.
I could keep my hands off Daphne too.
By the time I locked the gate, the sun had dropped behind the trees, and the lake had gone from blue to dark steel. I stood there a second longer than I needed to, one hand on the chain, the other remembering the weight of the clipboard when Daphne's fingers brushed mine.
Then I walked home before I could make a habit out of standing still and wanting things I shouldn't.
The next morning, Daphne showed up in sneakers.
White sneakers.
Clean white sneakers.
I stood by the shed with a bag of tomato ties in one hand and watched her pause just inside the gate, looking down at them like she'd brought children into a battle zone.
The sneakers were sturdier than the pink flats. Not smart, exactly, but better. Her cropped pants were olive green today, and she wore a fitted gray T-shirt with her brown hair twisted up off her neck. A few loose pieces had already escaped around her face.
She looked less like she'd come to apologize to brunch.
She looked like she'd tried.
That shouldn't have hit me anywhere below the ribs.
It did.
Daphne looked up and found me watching. Her mouth curved, small and wary.
"Before you say anything," she called, "they're not decorative."
I glanced at her shoes. "They're white."
"They were on sale."
"They won't be white long."
"That feels like a threat."
"It's more of a forecast."
She walked toward the shed, tote on her shoulder, cheeks already pink from the morning heat. "Good morning to you too, Zane."
My name sounded different in her mouth after I'd spent half the night telling myself not to think about it.
"Morning," I said.
Behind her, Tyler came through the gate with his baseball cap backward and a gas-station energy drink in one hand.
Daphne glanced at it. "Is that breakfast?"
Tyler looked at the can. "It has vitamins."
"It has lightning bolts on the label."
"That's how you know it works."
Gus stepped in behind him, gray beard loose over a faded black shirt. "Boy's going to vibrate into the mulch."
