Good with His Hands Read Free

Grayson?”
    Dani smacked her hand against the steering wheel. “Bryce, yes! I knew it started with a
B
. Thank you.”
    â€œI’ve caught glimpses of him.” Meg gave a low whistle. “Nice. I mean, I only have eyes for Nolan, of course, but...
damn
.”
    â€œExactly. I worked hard not to notice him while I was with Tate, but now I am a free woman.” A free woman with a healthy sex drive.
    Bryce was going to smile at her soon, and the natural next step would be conversation. With any luck, they wouldn’t stop there.
    Â 

2
    S EAN G RAYSON WINKED conspiratorially at the perky woman in yoga pants. Between the cartoon character on her T-shirt and her braided pigtails, she looked more like a teenager than his twin brother’s secretary. “I really appreciate your taking time out of your Saturday to let me in.”
    She shrugged. “This is on my way to the gym. Just promise to lock up when you leave or Bryce will have my head on a platter. I’d better scoot, or I’ll be late for Zumba.” Pausing in the doorway, she asked over her shoulder, “You know what would be hilarious? If Bryce had the same idea and
he’s
secretly at
your
office right now, setting up a surprise for Monday.”
    Bitterness stabbed at Sean, an unpleasant sensation somewhere between loss and anger. Alone in the spacious offices of Bertram Design Associates, he tried to imagine stepping into the trailer on his current job site and finding it filled with balloons and streamers.
Never in a million years.
He and Bryce might be identical twins, but these days, they had little in common besides looks and a shared birthday.
    Bryce, older by nine minutes, had always been more studious, diligently making A-honor roll and graduating high school as valedictorian. Sean had excelled in different areas, like industrial arts and varsity football...and making time with the varsity cheerleaders. Despite different interests, the two brothers had encouraged each other. They’d been close. Then Bryce had been awarded a major scholarship to a college out of state.
    Sean stayed behind, working for their dad’s roofing company and pooling his money with his parents’ to afford a trade school degree, eventually working his way up to supervising construction crews. When their dad suffered a heart attack—minor, but alarming—Bryce had been too busy with finals to come home. There were holiday breaks and summers when Bryce chose plans with his frat brothers or staying on campus for intern opportunities over visiting his family. After graduation, he’d returned to Georgia, but he’d been different. He was more polished and educated than anyone else in the family, and he never let Sean forget it.
    Most of the time, Sean told himself it was natural for siblings to grow apart, no big deal. But his last girlfriend had accused him of being jealous of his successful, intelligent brother.
“He has the prestigious degree, the loft condo and the class. You’re a glorified handyman. No wonder you resent him.”
    Was Sean here in part to prove her wrong? To try to recapture some of the old camaraderie?
Knock off the introspective crap. You’re here to hang some balloons and heckle him about being old.
    It was only fair, considering how often Bryce had lorded his nine-minute head start on life over his “little brother” when they were kids. Sean also had a gift to leave on his brother’s desk. He’d scanned a section of one of Bryce’s first blueprints and paid a friend with graphics art talent to turn it into a one-of-a-kind multicolored kaleidoscope print. Sean had framed the resulting artwork and wrapped it in black “over the hill” paper. He hoped Bryce would hang the print in his office.
    Or was the customized art too funky for the uptight man Bryce had become? Although Bryce was a decent architect, his main role in the company was getting permits