The next time Rico went to the Dunbar house, he barely arrived before Mitch put him to work clearing out the kitchen. Rico gave him a look that said, "I know what you're doing." But actually he was glad that he could keep busy.
Mitch was starting on refinishing the cabinets, and Rico was setting up a few things they would need on the sideboard in the dining room. He showed his handiwork to Sammy, "This is your kitchen now."
"The toaster," she said and pressed down the lever.
"That's not a toy. You hungry?" he asked though he knew Mitch had just fed her lunch.
"No. But if you make toast, let me press this thing, OK?" she said.
"It's a deal," he told her then watched her jump when she heard loud banging coming from the kitchen.
Rico offered her his hand, "Let's go see what your dad is doing to make all that noise."
"You're going to scare the kitties, Daddy," Sammy scolded him as they went in.
"I'm taking up the countertop," Mitch said then he went back to hammering. It was coming up pretty easily. He had a section of counter up in not time.
When he tried to carry it away, Rico stopped him. "I'll do that."
"Take it over to the pile by the driveway. Your grandmother said some guy who picks up junk will be coming by to take away the debris from anything we remove," Mitch said but wouldn't let Rico take it yet. "Put on gloves. I don't want to be responsible for your hands getting messed up." He pointed to his toolbox where he had another set of work gloves, and Rico smiled. At the same time bossy and sweet, why the hell did Mitch have to be so irresistible?
Getting back after dropping off the piece of countertop, Rico found Mitch was working on removing another section, and Sammy was watching from the safety of the kitchen doorway.
"I was thinking we could knock down a few walls too," Rico said and picked up the rubber mallet that was leaning by his feet.
"I wanna," Sammy said and held out her arms like she expected him to hand over the mallet. So Rico did.
He handed it to her, and she huffed while resting the mallet on the floor and leaning on it. "What do I do now?" she asked looking up at Mitch and Rico.
"What you're doing is fine," Mitch told her and she nodded.
"When your dad wants something knocked down, he'll definitely call you," Rico told her.
"What are you going to hand her next, a power saw?" Mitch asked.
Rico grinned at him, then he got more serious. "I'll be back to carry out more debris. Now me and Sammy are going to see if the kittens are holding a grudge about all this noise you're making."
The rest of the day Rico helped remove cabinet doors and drawers, plus handles and drawer pulls. That meant working side by side with Mitch, but Rico stayed on his best behavior. Unfortunately, he was still exiled later on so he could do some sanding outside while Mitch continued working in the kitchen.
Every second Rico searched for some excuse to go and bug Mitch, but he resisted. His reward was Mitch coming out with a bottle of water for him and instructions on how he would help him with the rest of the work.
They were working together again and Rico felt stupidly happy. It shouldn't be enough to do some manual labor next to a hot guy, but the guy was Mitch, and Rico kept humming to himself.
Mitch glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. "I guess you enjoy this kind of work?" he said to Rico.
"Or something," Rico told him vaguely. He could hardly tell him that he just liked spending time with him and torturing himself with impossible fantasies.
It started to get cloudy and Mitch kept eyeing the sky. "We need to bring these inside," Mitch decided as soon as he heard the first clap of thunder.
The thunder brought Sammy running over. "I heard a boom."
"This time it wasn't your dad," Rico told her and pointed up at the gray sky.
"It's going to rain. You and the kittens should go inside," Mitch told her.
It took a while to bring everything inside and put it where it would be safe. Then it was time for Rico to be going. He hoped to get to his grandmother's before the rain started even as Sammy was telling him not to go.
She was peering out the open kitchen door and shaking her head. "It's scary outside, Rico. Stay with us," she said to him and lightning followed by a crash of thunder punctuated her words and made her jump.
