"The man in the shabby suit. Mr. West, right? You think he's trouble?" Rico wondered.
"With the break-in and all, you can't be too careful," the sheriff said.
"I haven't seen him," Mitch said and looked at Rico who shook his head.
"It's probably nothing to worry about. We just like to be extra watchful," Sheriff Jackson said.
While Mitch kept talking to the sheriff, Lara came back and sent Rico to help out Sam. So she wasn't out to get him after all.
On the side of the storage shed, Rico found Sam in paint-splattered clothes, rummaging among a stack of paint buckets.
"Why are you working alone? Where is your man?" Rico asked him.
"He's working at home. I'm not supposed to be here either, but Mr. Alton threw his back out," Sam told him.
"OK, put me to work," Rico said and they got busy with sorting and labeling the paints for different projects.
"Wyatt and I used some of these when we painted the honey float for the spring festival," Sam said as he held up a can of yellow paint and looked at it wistfully.
"You're getting nostalgic about rusty paint buckets?" Rico told him.
"I was thinking about how wonderful Wyatt is, and..." Sam started saying and Rico got a look of horror on his face.
"You're gushing about your fiancé? I am warning you right now. There is only so much of that I can take," Rico told him. "Now let me tell you how smoking hot Mitch is."
"Wait your turn," Sam told him. "I'm having second thoughts about not having a bachelor party. I think I should do it for Wyatt's sake. I don't want him to miss out."
Rico was reminded of what Mitch said to him about missing out. They were both wrong. "Wyatt will see right through that. Anyway, I bet he's had plenty of wild times while he was bumming around Europe. Just think of all the slutty things he must have gotten up to."
Sam refused. "No thank you. I don't need those kinds of images in my head."
"OK, then you can help with my dilemma. You know how Sammy oh so helpfully outed her dad to everyone and announced that we are boyfriends?"
"Aha. How did Mitch take it?" Sam asked and visibly steeled himself for possible bad news.
Rico didn't keep him in suspense. "One thing led to another and now Mitch and I are going on our first date. Yay Sammy."
"That's great," Sam told him and gave him a one armed hug while he held a paint bucket.
"It is, but I don't know where we should go. A first date is so much pressure," Rico told him.
"You've been on a date before. I only dated Wyatt," Sam said, but he didn't exactly look sad about that.
Rico had more experience under his belt, but he wasn't sure how much it counted for now that he had real feelings for someone. "All my first dates were just 'Let's eat something and hook up'. Then it was, 'Hey what was your name again?' This date is serious stuff with a serious guy," Rico said and he got even more nervous as he compared Mitch to every guy he had ever been near. There was no comparison, and that meant Rico couldn't screw this up.
"You still shouldn't stress about it. I told you how Wyatt and I had our first date at the café," Sam reminded him.
"And you remember what I told you?"
"Something sarcastic," Sam said and glared at him.
"Wrong. I told you Wyatt was a cheap date. That's not sarcasm. That's a fact," Rico informed him. "You could have served him dirt on a plate and he would still look at you like you're some golden angel that floated down from heaven."
Sam grimaced. "Ugh. Stop that. And if you're that wound up about it, let Mitch plan your date."
"What if he plans it for two months from now?" Rico asked.
"He wouldn't do that."
