HandyHarryGuy: Sound advice on the plumbing in this episode. It’s great to see a real pro online! Keep up the good work!

DonnaMeagleIsMyHero: Maggie fans, rumor has it she and Dean are in Kinship, Idaho! That’s only an hour from my house! Hmmm, roadtrip?

5

5

Toby Keith crooned about Solo cups from the speakers on the outdoor patio at Dive Bar. The night was a little cool, but Kinship residents were the hearty, outdoorsy type and didn’t mind layering up in sweatshirts and circling their chairs around the gas heaters near the outdoor bar.

“So, you and Michelle get back together yet?” Michael, Silas’s stepbrother, asked over the rim of his snooty Shiraz.

Silas snorted. “I told you, man. We’re done. Stick a fork in it. Call time of death. D-O-N-E. Done.”

Michael shoved his glasses up the bridge of his nose and shook his head.

On the surface, they couldn’t have been more opposite, and not just because Michael was Black and Silas was white. Michael was shorter, quieter, and always dressed like it was Sunday brunch. If he had to spend the day outside, he’d prefer it to be under an umbrella at a wine bar. Silas was bigger, taller, louder. He’d loved sports all through school and preferred his pastimes to involve some level of physicality.

“I’ll believe it when I see it. You’ve been on-again, off-again for a hundred years.”

“Five,” Silas corrected him. “And it was mostly off. And it’s been a month since we called it quits.”

“I thought you two were going to end up married by default,” Michael said.

Silas sighed. Dating Michelle had been easy. But a relationship based on convenience wasn’t much of a relationship at all, they’d finally come to realize. Knowing all the same people for the same amount of time wasn’t exactly a reason to march down the aisle.

“Not happening. She’s a great girl. But she’s not my girl. It’s time we stopped wasting each other’s time.”

“Five bucks says you two are back to kayak picnics in a week.”

“I’ll take that bet,” Silas said, raising his pilsner. “And you know why?”

His brother leaned back on his barstool, looking smug. “She finally wised up and met someone better than you?”

Silas gave a dry laugh. Razzing was the family’s second language. “Don’t forget that your love life is up next for scrutiny, Mikey. And no. But I might have finally met the one.”

“The one what?” Beneath Michael’s plaid, pressed button-downs lived the heart of a pragmatic man.

“Come on, man. The One. I heard wedding bells when I saw her for the first time.”

“You sure it wasn’t just low blood sugar, or maybe you were standing in front of the fire station?” Michael posited with a frown.