“The girls.” I rolled my eyes. Remi was definitely in cahoots with Winnie and her besties to get back at us chumps by calling Hunter and Damien to help with the sink repair. “Speaking of, where’s Hunter?” I looked around for the elder of the two.
“Oh, Hunt is out there parking the van. He’s super anal about the sidewalk you have out there. Might find him pouring concrete before the day is out.” Damien shrugged, dropping his tools to the floor.
“Hmm.” I figured Hunter would find something to fix or tinker with if he got banished here with the rest of us.
“All right, Doc, get out from under there before you hurt yourself. Preacher boy and I got this.” Damien gave Chase’s leg a light kick before he crawled out from under the sink, looking pissed. His head also looked like it was going to swell into a nice goose egg if we didn’t put some ice on it.
I slapped Chase on the back. “Sit down at the counter and put something on your head before the girls get back and think we beat you up.”
Hunter came into the house and put down his tool box. “You know that sidewalk out there could use some—”
We didn’t even let the poor guy finish.
“You going to Home Depot or am I?” Damien called from under the sink. They grunted in unison.
“I’ll do it.” Hunter left again and that was that. Looked like Chase was getting a new sink and sidewalk whether he liked it or not.
“So tell me about this d-bag teacher the girls had to deal with and how you got your holier-than-thou ass kicked out of class,” Damien snarked while he tinkered with the sink connection.
Of course, nothing was sacred in our group, and Chase grinned like one of his puppy patients getting a treat.
“Well, this dude-bro got a little too friendly with Winnie and Remi. So I signed us up for class, until this prick”—I pointed at Chase—“decided to get that stomach virus going around and bail on me.”
Damien chuckled. “But you got kicked out of class. The goody-two-shoes cop. Son of a preacher man. Who even does that?”
“You going to let me finish this story or would you like to tell it, Demon?” I snapped.
“Nah, I’m good. I’ll probably leave some key points out so pray tell, please continue.” Damien waved at me from under the sink, and I gritted my teeth, holding it up as he fitted the pipe into place and wrenched it back together.
“He made Remi feel uncomfortable so I may have told him what he could do with his turkey baster and a few other kitchen tools.”
“Ouch.” Chase grimaced, holding up the bag of frozen vegetables he’d been holding up to his head when I gave him a dirty look.
“Anyway, he didn’t like it and asked us to leave. Remi was mad.” I felt bad now that I’d retold the story. No wonder she thought I was an idiot.
Damien huffed. “That’s unusual. Nothing ruffles her feathers.”
“I know.”
“Except you being a dick.” He chuckled and wrenched the pipe again. This guy lived to make my life difficult.
I rolled my eyes and reminded him, “I like your wife. How about you don’t provoke me to drop this sink on your face, buddy.” That was the worst I could come up with. I did like Kristen, not romantically, but I knew it would irk Damien because we did have history.
“Police brutality, I swear.” Damien grumbled.
“Criminal activity, I’m sure.” I grumbled right back. We were at a stalemate and that was fine. He had my back when Remi’s ex came sniffing around, and for that I would be forever grateful, but even I had a limit dealing with Damien Hart’s level of snark. I still had a ticket in my book I could issue him if he pressed things any further, but I did what I could to maintain the peace for Kristen’s sake and because Remi would be the first one to tell me to let it go.
“All right, you two, give it up.” Chase hopped off the bar stool and walked around the counter to check on our work.
“How the heck does a fork get caught in the grinder?” Damien pulled out the offending object, holding it up for view.
“Winnie.” We all said together before laughing.
Damien sighed handing the fork to Chase. “Might want to frame that shit. It looks like that nouveau abstract art stuff.” He mumbled.
Poor girl wouldn’t live this one down, and we all knew it was an innocent accident. Or at least that was the story we were sticking with out of deference to her feelings. Like my Remington, I could tell Winnie was trying. Cooking just wasn’t her thing and that was okay. Neither of us guys cared about gender roles and who did what in the house. We were all working together as a team and saw they were trying. I just crossed my fingers I might be luckier than Chase.
“So when do they expect you back?” Damien continued tinkering under the sink.
“Later.”
My phone dinged with a text from the Mrs., and I juggled the sink in my hands so I could view the screen once I pulled it out of my back pocket.
“Hey, Romeo, careful with that thing.” Damien poked my leg with his wrench.
“Pfft, I got it.” I ignored Damien and read her message, unable to stop the smile on my face.” Remi asked me to pick her up some mangoes, orange juice, and more bacon. It was an odd request, but I was happy she was back to asking me for little things. I’d make sure I grabbed them before going home and slipped my phone back into my pocket.
“Let’s barbeque, then. Hunter just got this amazing grill, and he won’t let me play with it. He said I had to buy my own and since I know Kristen got me one for Christmas, I have to pretend I don’t know.”
“How do you know?” I asked, curious about this facet of Damien I’d never seen before. I always pegged him as a mouthy inconsiderate jerk, which he was most of the time, but in these small strange moments regarding Kristen, he mellowed and was more apt to do the right thing. I had to admire him for that even if I didn’t understand why he continued to let people think he wasn’t smart. If anything, I was pretty sure Damien hid that part of himself on purpose.
He sighed and explained. “Because I opened the credit card statement. I had to call them and ask them to send another one so she wouldn’t know I opened this one. Man, you should have seen her panic when the bill didn’t come on time. I had to have them rush it overnight and then act like we’d never gotten it. Way too much stress over a grill, I swear.”
“No kidding. Maybe next time don’t open your wife’s mail, idiot.” Chase said, but I had to admit it was funny and clever.
“Tell me more about this grill.”
“It has a smoker on it, but I like the fact that you can basically grill like half an animal on it in a snowstorm if necessary.” Damien made it sound like he hadn’t eaten in days.
“We can text the girls and reconvene at Hunter and Taylor’s for dinner. They have that fire pit we can sit around and pretend to feel up our wives under blankets when it gets cold later.”
“Whose pretending? I’m totally gonna—” Damien didn’t get to finish because Chase was already making loud noises so he didn’t have to listen to the dumbass under the sink say gross things about his little sister.
“La, La, La, La, La!”
“What did that jackass do now?” Hunter walked into the house, wiping sweat off his face with his T-shirt. The man probably hauled all the concrete he needed by himself because he was savage. He also didn’t need much of an explanation to know what stupid thing Damien said because it happened often enough after growing up in the house with him.