"Pizza!" was Joey's suggestion.
Bailey looked at Matt. "I never say no to pizza," he said.
When the pizza arrived, Matt was the one who opened the door and Bailey heard him chatting with the guy who delivered it while Bailey was in the kitchen washing out some glasses andplates so they could use them. The delivery guy was saying how some party on the beach got called off and told Matt about some other party that was still on.
Bringing in the pizza, Matt told Bailey, "Dave thanked you for the tip."
"He's a friend of yours?" Bailey asked.
"You're friends with a pizza guy?" Joey said, impressed that Matt had such high level connections.
"I know him," Matt said with a shrug, and that made it sound like they weren't exactly friends.
"And you're going to a party," Joey said so he must have heard them talking too.
"I'm already at a party," Matt claimed. "We have pizza, we have soda."
Joey didn't agree. "No. We don't have cake."
"This is a rainy day party. It's just pizza, soda and rain," Bailey told him.
Joey made a face at that then he wanted to know, "Did you find anything good in that room?"
"That's the office and we found some photos and a box full of keychains. You get to pick out a few to keep," Bailey told him. "Just a few."
After dinner, Bailey didn't feel like going through any more papers, but he worried that he was taking away Matt's chance to earn enough money. While he avoided going back to the office, somehow they all ended up sitting on the porch to watch the rain.
"I found a hole over here," Joey noticed and pointed out a gap in the porch floor.
He was peering down there and Bailey was thinking how he needed to have that fixed. Then he wondered, "The porch can use some attention, is that something you can do, Matt?"
Matt had mentioned doing some handywork and now he went over to have a better look. "Some of these boards need to be replaced. I can manage that. And a coat of paint?"
"Sounds good," Bailey told him, glad to be able to give him more work.
Now Matt was asking, "Are you maybe thinking of staying here, maybe keeping the place?"
"Umm, that's an idea." Bailey had daydreamed about it.
He noticed that Joey didn't comment on that and he realized he was trying to look under the porch. "Don't get under there. Matt is going to be fixing the porch for us."
"I wanna watch," Joey said.
"You think porch fixing is exciting stuff?" Bailey asked him.
"Maybe?" Joey said.
"You can be my helper if you're around for it," Matt told him. Then he looked at his phone. "I might be able to do it tomorrow afternoon so you guys can drop by."
"That works for us," Bailey said, but if he kept spending any more time with Matt, he wasn't sure he could hold back this hopeless infatuation that was building inside him.
Chapter 6
The next day was sunny, and Bailey was working by the hotel pool while Joey practiced his swimming. Then his cousin Carrie called and Bailey talked to her about the beach house, how she wished she could bring her two kids there but she didn't think she could get the time off.
"We're getting the place into shape, so it will be ready if you can come," Bailey told her, and he hadn't put it up on the market yet so there was still time for her to use it.
"Who is we? You and Joey?" Carrie asked.
