“Oh, very fucking funny, you two. Can we just get this done so I can fuck off for the afternoon? Thank god it’s Friday, as they say. I don’t have to see your sorry ass again until Monday.” He tries to sound like he hates his job, which I know is the complete opposite. The truth is this job is exactly what he wanted, building and something to use up his energy every day. It keeps him out of trouble, or so his mom tells me.

“Okay, so it’s not like you’ll see me in the next thirty minutes out in the surf or anything. I swear, I wonder where your brain is some days.” Picking up the last of the power tools, I stand surveying the deck to make sure everything is safe before we leave. Although the Barris family aren’t living here, they will come to check out what we have done over the weekend, that is guaranteed.

“Just some days?” Jodie pipes up from around the corner.

“That’s it! You two are on your own. That’s enough picking on Ricky for one day. I’m out.” He’s smiling as he heads towards his old beat-up Volkswagen bus, the quintessential young surfer-guy vehicle. He’s got his board strapped to the roof racks, the curtains on the back windows, and the mattress in the rear of the van. Oh, to be twenty-one again, living life without a care in the world.

“I’ll miss you, little Ricky, it just seems too long until I’ll see you again,” I yell to his back while he’s walking away.

“And that is why I never surf on your side of the break. You think you’re cool and you’re so not, old man!” he says before he slams his driver’s door shut, starting the engine, revving it to keep it going. He leans his hand out the window, giving me the finger with a huge smirk on his face as he pulls away from the curb.

Jodie, leaning against the side of my truck, bursts out laughing.

“Well, I can successfully say, my work here is done for today. I’ve annoyed Ricky and given my sister her daily entertainment. I’d say that’s a good day.” I stow my tool belt in the lockbox on my truck and close the lid, locking it tight. The amount of money in tools in this truck is huge.

“You know he idolizes you, even though he pretends to hate you.” She looks at me with those eyes that I still can’t read, and I have no idea what she’s thinking when she talks about Ricky.