Free Third Time's a Charm by Virginia Smith

all the way back to stare up at Ryan.
    “A restaurant where they serve fancy coffee.” Ryan leaned down to look into the side mirror and brushed a bit of sawdust out of his hair. No time to shower, but he’d better at least wash his hands. He straightened and called over the top of the car. “I’m taking off, Walt.”
    Walt knelt on the grass measuring a piece of plywood. “You coming back Wednesday? I’ll get some guys to help us raise that wall.”
    “I’ll be here.”
    He opened the car door and Cody jumped up. “Can I drive to the house? Please?”
    The kid had a snaggletooth grin that never failed to bring an answering smile to his uncle’s face. Ryan glanced over at Butch, whose attention was fixed on the measuring tape he held for his dad. With luck, he wouldn’t notice the privilege his younger brother was getting, or they’d have a fight on their hands. “Yeah, sure. Come on.”
    Ryan slid into the driver seat and let Cody climb onto his lap. The boy gripped the steering wheel with both hands and, while Ryan operated the pedals, steered the car down the dirt drive. The kid executed a perfect turn at the far end of the cornfield and guided the car to a place not far from the front door of the singlewide mobile home.
    “Thanks, Uncle Ryan!” He didn’t wait for the door to open, but planted his sneakers on Ryan’s jeans and launched himself through the window.
    Ryan got out of the car and brushed at a footprint on his thigh. “Hey, you little rat. Now I’ve got to go see a girl with dirty clothes.”
    The boy’s high-pitched giggle floated behind him as he pounded up the metal stairs and jerked open the door. “Mom, Mom! Uncle Ryan let me drive, and now he’s gonna go drink fancy coffee with a girl.”
    Great. If that didn’t get Loralee’s attention, nothing would.
    Sure enough, his sister-in-law appeared in the doorway, a look of delighted interest on her face as she wiped her hands on a kitchen towel. Her belly looked bigger today, rounder than the last time he saw her.
    Meddlesome interest sparked in her green eyes. “You have a date? Anybody I know?”
    Ryan shook his head. “She lives in Lexington. Hey, could I use your bathroom to clean up a bit? I’m supposed to meet her in twenty minutes.”
    “A’course.” She waved the towel toward the bathroom, and when Ryan headed that way, she trailed him. “Where y’all going?”
    Cody’s shout came from the small bedroom the boys shared. “The Hub!”
    Ryan rolled his eyes. “No secrets in this family.”
    He closed the bathroom door and rummaged in the narrow closet for a clean washcloth. While the water warmed, he buried his fingers in his hair and shook, dislodging a shower of sawdust.
    “Great.”
    He brushed the dust off of his shoulders. Why hadn’t he thought to bring a change of clothes? No time to run by his apartment, so he’d have to meet Tori Sanderson covered in sawdust and sweat.
    But hey, brothers share, right? He opened the medicine chest and rummaged among the bottles and tubes for a comb. There it was, right next to a bottle of Walt’s aftershave and a stick deodorant. He lifted an arm and shoved his nose underneath.
    “Phew!” The June sun had done a number on him this afternoon while he’d helped his brother work on the house. He raised his voice and called, “Hey, Loralee, does Walt have a clean shirt I can borrow?”
    The closed door muffled her voice. “Yeah, sure. I’ll get it.”
    He peeled his T-shirt off and did the best he could quickly with a wet washcloth. He even ran it over his jeans and made them look almost clean. When he opened the bathroom door, Loralee stood in the hallway with a shirt in each hand.
    “You can go casual”—she held up a blue University of Kentucky T-shirt—“or dressy.” The golf shirt had a Wildcat basketball insignia over the left breast, but at least it had a collar. Walt never went to college, but that didn’t stop him from joining in the rabid fanaticism