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“Canada But it’s a Native American sport I think it’s been around for five hundred years and—oh, I love this song” I broke off to sing along to NSYNC’s “Bye, Bye, Bye,” flipping pine nuts on the stove and sliding across the hardwood floor to boogie next to hi off the burner

Asher grinned at lasses Knowing I’d cracked his serious façadeI was reed onover Star Wars comics in wonder his brain bandwidth then or now He was happy to be in the moment And I felt the same

We piled chicken salads onto our plates and sat next to each other at the island, alternately chatting about boy band lyrics and singing along to whatever popped up on , but Asher didn’t mind I could almost see his shoulders relax as he became more and more comfortable

I couldn’t convince him to leave the dishes and cleanup for after we’d tackled the bookshelves, but hey…that was expected So I turned up the usto, andthe entire cleanup ordeal He did

And he still had a smile on his face when I pulled outroom floor

But then he got serious again

He kneeled beside lasses nervously “How does this work? Shall I copy you?”

I read the instructions and shrugged “You can This is pretty basic construction First thing I like to do is organize the bolts and screws We need an Allen wrench, a screwdriver, and a hammer”

“What’s an Allen wrench?”

I tore open the plastic bag included in the packaging and held up a thin wrench “This Okay, step one, we insert the cao”

“What’s a ca his bottom lip

I held up the screw and the screwdriver and showed hihten it “Want to try it on the other bookshelf?”

“Oh, I don’t think I’m ready for that I’ll watch you”

“You mean ‘help me’ That’s what you wanted to do, remember?”

Asher grunted “Yes”

“Hey, this is the fun part It’s just adirections Roll your shoulders back and relax” I gave hilance “Want to take your shoes off?”