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Especially when the twinkle in her eyes made his heart race.
“I’ve always admired hard work and a man with strong hands. Especially the strong hands. A girl can come to get attached to a good pair of hands and nimble fingers.”
“I...” The doorbell stopped him from saying anything more, which was fine, because he was stumbling over what flirty thing he could offer in return. Flirty wasn’t something he had much experience with.
“I’ll see who’s at the door.”
“Don’t forget that I need use of those hands when you get back,” she said with a wink before turning back to the counter.
Levi had again been too busy trying to think of something flirty to respond with to wonder who would be on the other side of the door, but he hadn’t expected to see Dennis.
“What’s up, man?” he said as he stepped aside.
“I need a break from home,” his friend answered. “What smells so good?”
“Mina’s making stew. Do you want to stay for dinner?”
Dennis took off his jacket and hung it on one of the hooks by the door. “Brook’s mad at me, so dinner’s chicken nuggets. Which the kids are excited about.”
“Whatcha do to my sister?” Brook was just as likely to be in the wrong as Dennis, but she was his sister, which trumped Dennis as best friend.
“Nothing.”
Mina looked up as they got to the kitchen. “Hey, Dennis.” They’d met each other at the grocery store last week. Dennis had been friendly. Brook had been herself.
“Hey. Stew smells good.”
“You’re welcome to stay for some, but it’ll be a while.” God, she looked cute standing next to the stove, poking around in the pot. Her cheeks were flushed from the heat of the stove, and a couple of strands of hair stuck to the side of her face.
He could come home every night to Mina standing in his kitchen and die a happy man. Nothing else required. She didn’t even have to be cooking.
“Thanks,” Dennis said, reaching into the fridge for a beer. “I’ll do that.”
Between the click of the bottle cap being removed and the way Dennis settled himself against the kitchen counter, he was going to be here a while—well past dinner.
“Brook’s making chicken nuggets, huh. And you didn’t do anything.” Brook prided herself on making home-cooked meals for her kids, nightly proof that she wasn’t going to up and leave them like her mother had done.
Dennis took a long swallow of his beer. “She’s mad that I applied for the job in Bozeman. She’s mad that I interviewed for the job in Bozeman. She’s mad that I think the interview went well, and one of my references has been called.”
Mina set the lid on the pot, then turned to look at Dennis. “Didn’t you talk about moving before you applied?”
His friend shrugged, which was answer enough.
“Come on, man,” Levi said, getting his own beer out of the fridge. He’d need it for this conversation. “That was dumb.”
“Doesn’t it ever bother you that the whole reason we’re in Missoula is because of the mine accident?” Dennis’s face was tight and hard. “Fuck. Everything I’ve done for the past three years has been because of that accident. This is for me.”
“But you’re married,” Mina said, confusion crinkling her face. “And you have kids.”
She didn’t know—she couldn’t know—what it had been like to be trapped in the mine, then to feel trapped in the town, where everyone knew and asked and commented and pitied. Pitied him for Kimmie’s death and pitied Dennis because they knew about his lungs. They’d moved to Missoula to get away, but neither of them had really left the accident behind.
“I don’t get why you didn’t tell Brook, but I get why you want to leave,” Levi said.
It was Dennis’s second chance, one where he didn’t sit across from the friend he’d been trapped with every Friday night, coughing and reliving the experience. Levi looked over at Mina still standing next to his stove, the way her head was cocked making her neck look long and kissable. She was his second chance, one he hadn’t thought he was ready for until now.
