Page 25 of Promise Me Sunshine

“Definitely.”

“Honestly, Ainsley will probably be the easier sell. She doesn’t seem to care one way or the other if I’m around. Reese is the one I’m worried about.”

“No way,” I disagree. “You know what they say, hate is not the opposite of love. Indifference is.”

“Oh, thanks,” he says caustically. “Glad to know that Ainsley opposite-of-loves me.”

“No!” I laugh because even though that’s kind of exactly what I just said, it’s not what I meant. “I meant that I think you’re probably closer to connecting with Reese than you think. From the way I see it, you’re probably like one great joke away from endearing yourself to her.”

“It’s just that…It’sreallynot my skill set.” He’s scrubbing a hand over his buzzed hair. “Look, my mom, she just always kind of got me. So I just thought that it was easy. That if my intentions were generally good, people would get me. But obviously it doesn’t work that way and, I guess, sometimes I bring out the worst in people. Without meaning to. So. Yeah.”

I consider this. “Well, maybe we should give ourselves some homework. Yours is easy. Watch all the Indiana Jones movies and brush up on your Madonna discography. Endear yourself to Ainsley a little bit. It’ll give you something to talk about. What’s my homework? Find a priest and scare the pants off him with my bleak outlook on life? Wait, do priests even wear pants? Oh, my God, are they naked under their robes?”

He handles me like a pro by completely ignoring me. “If I just start bringing up Indiana Jones and Madonna she’s going to see right through me. She’s a smart kid. Trust me. I’ve tried to suck up to her before.”

“True…okay, well, what are youactuallyinterested in?” I turn to study him.

His brow furrows and his chin drops. A ladybug lands on his knee and he gently brushes it away. I grow more astonished as the seconds pass.

“You can’t think of a single thing you’re interested in?” I demand. “Well, what do you like to do around the city? Eat? Jog?”

He shrugs. “I’ve actually only been here for a little bit. I grew up upstate. Near the Adirondacks. I never thought I’d live in the city. I’d only been here twice before I moved here…still getting used to it. I guess? But I guess generally…I like nonfiction. Reading it, I mean. Let’s see…Ilike watchingJeopardy!…I like dogs…I like music from the nineties…I’m not opposed to other music, I just don’t spend a lot of time looking for new stuff.”

“Cool! Okay…and for work?”

He sighs and crosses his arms. “I’m not going to even bother telling you about my job. You’re going to think I’m lying.”

I poke his thigh. “Midnight radio DJ?” I guess. “You play the oldies for star-crossed lovers?This one’s going out to Jan, Gary is sorry, come back to him?”

“Yeah, that’s me,” he says flatly. “You got it in one.”

“Ex-pilot? You lost your license because you banged a flight attendant in the cockpit while landing the plane? Just looking for a thrill wherever you could find one? Anything to feel alive?”

He makes a face that I’m almost positive is an attempt to keep himself from laughing.

I clap my hands. “Got it! Botanist. You’ve spent your career attempting to splice two different kinds of orchids together. When you finally achieve it, you’ll name it after the girlfriend who dumped you in high school. When she findsout, she’ll show up on your doorstep and reveal she never got over you. Aw, Miles, that’s so sweet!”

This time he does laugh, scrubbing a hand over his face. I open my mouth to hazard another guess, but without even looking up he reaches over and stop-signs his hand two inches from my face. “I’m a bricklayer.”

I blink, flutter my eyes as I try to assimilate this information. “Come again?”

“You heard me.”

“Thoseexist? In the twenty-first century?”

“Someone has to lay the brick, Lenny.”

“Well, shit,” I say, leaning back on the bench and staring into nothing. “I guess so.” After a minute I turn and eye him up. “Doesn’t seem like you’re…doing much bricklaying these days?”

“Yeah.” He crosses his arms over his chest again. “My business was upstate, really. My neighbor taught me the trade. But then I…recently came into some money. New thing for me. So I moved here. To try to…you know…get to know Ainsley. It’s not exactly going well. I’m bored out of my mind. I’m used to getting up at five and starting my day, working my ass off, and falling into bed after dinner. I miss it. Working. But what it would take to start a business in this city…maybe I’ll just bleed my bank account dry and drag my ass back upstate in a couple years.”

We sit side by side and chew on that.

“MaybeJeopardy!”

“Hm?” he asks, pulling himself out of some reverie.

“I don’t think there are gonna be many opportunities to teach Ainsley about bricklaying. So I guess let’s try theJeopardy!angle. I can see her being into it!”

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