Page 73 of Help Wanted

She smiled when he took her hand as they crossed the street. He let go as soon as they were on the other sidewalk. Despite his slight impairment, he was very responsible.

They chatted while they ate. She asked him questions about his favorite movie and what color his bedroom was.

“I have two bedrooms. One at home that I sleep in on Saturday nights, and one at Elmhurst where I sleep all the other nights.”

“So Brady picks you up on Saturdays and takes you back to Elmhurst on Sunday night?”

“Yep. Except when we go on vacation in the summer. Then I stay with him the whole week. Sometimes we go camping, and sometimes we go on a boat. You can come with us.”

While seeing Brady with his little brother had made him less intimidating, Kenley knew he wasn’t for her. Her heart belonged to the surly owner of the company, no matter how much she wanted to pretend otherwise.

* * *

Brady was prepared to apologize to Kenley as he rushed into the shop at ten past four. He hadn’t planned to be that late, but of course he couldn’t catch a break. Neither delivery had gone as planned.

Maybe he’d take her out to dinner to thank her for her help. He was all ready to make his invite sound friendly instead of flirtatious when he opened the door to the office and found his brother… working.

“What are you doing?” he asked Hunter, but looked at Kenley for an answer.

“He wanted to help, so I gave him something to do.”

“Oh.” He wasn’t sure why he had a problem with it, but for some reason he did. “Well, we need to get going.”

“Can we wait just two minutes so I can finish this one?” Hunter asked, taking his exploitation seriously. Brady watched as Hunter rubbed the hardware, his tongue sticking out the side of his lips as he concentrated.

It didn’t take him the full two minutes to finish. When he was done he smiled and held it up to the light, taking in the sparkle from the freshly buffed metal.

“All done?” Kenley asked as she stepped over to the table.

“Yep.”

“You did good work today. Here’s your paycheck.”

Brady’s eyes widened in surprise. Brady wasn’t expecting that. It was clear that Hunter hadn’t expected it either. Brady knew his brother so well he could read every expression on his face as he went through them.

First was confusion. Kenley must have understood that one as well because she said, “You worked hard, so I talked to Zane and he said we should pay you.”

The expression that took the place of confusion was one Brady saw only once in a great while. It was utter joy.

“Brady, look! I got a paycheck! I can pay bills now, like you!”

Brady chuckled at the route his mind took.

“How much is it? Maybe you could do something better than pay bills with your money.”

He opened the envelope and held it up.

“A hundred dollars!”

Brady nodded and held out his hand. “I’ll hold it while you go wash up.” As soon as Hunter left he turned to Kenley.

“That was really nice of you.”

“He did good work. At first I thought it would just be something to keep him busy, but he’s very thorough and he seemed to enjoy it. I took him for lunch too.”

Brady realized he’d jumped to the wrong conclusion. Kenley wasn’t taking advantage of his brother, she was encouraging Hunter to excel in something.

“I’m not leaving until Tuesday, but I’ll be in Ohio by Thursday afternoon to deliver the boats to the new shop. I’ll take you out for dinner.”