Here And Now (American Valor 2) by Cheryl Etchison

But Brenda and his dad really wanted to have him over for his birthday, and to make sure he didn’t have a reason to refuse, Brenda invited Rachel as well. Not that he minded at all.
    When they pulled into the driveway, his father was standing in the middle of their large yard, an ax in one hand, the handle resting on his shoulder.
    “What is he doing with the ax?” Rachel whispered.
    “You really don’t want to know.”
    Duke waved hello and made his way across the grass to them. “How’s my birthday boy?” he asked, one arm stretched out wide to embrace him.
    “I’d be doing a lot better if you put the ax down.”
    Duke chuckled as he placed the ax on the ground. “I can do that.” Not one to settle for a polite, manly handshake, Duke wrapped his arms around Lucky and gave a few hearty thwacks to the middle of his back before letting him go. “So tell me, how does thirty feel?”
    “It feels a lot like twenty-nine to tell you the truth.”
    His father then made his way to a smiling Rachel, greeting her with a kiss on the cheek. “Rachel, it’s good to see you again.”
    “Same here.” She held up the covered Tupperware bowl in her hands. “Is Brenda inside?”
    “She sure is. Just head on in there. You know the way.”
    Lucky watched as she made her way up the front walk until she disappeared around the corner. Only then did he realize his father had been watching him watch her.
    “You two seem to be spending a lot of time together.”
    “A product of circumstances, I guess,” he said with a shrug. “It’s not like there’s an abundance of people our age to hang out with.”
    “Mmm-hmm . . .” His father looked skeptical, but wandered back onto the lawn anyway, the ax once again resting on his shoulder, his eyes scanning the grass in front of him for any movement.
    Lucky followed. “Got moles again?”
    “Brenda came out this morning and noticed a bunch of her annuals were sitting all cockeyed. Little sucker ran a tunnel from the tree to right underneath them last night.”
    Since his father moved in, he’d become the mole hunter. Having tried traps, poisons, and just about everything else out there on the internet, he decided to try something a little more low-tech. Armed with a shovel and an ax, he’d spend a few minutes tromping down the tunnels the moles had made and the next few hours watching the grass, waiting for it to shiver. Then he’d start chopping away at the soil in the hopes of getting his mole.
    At first, he thought his old man was nuts. Come to find out, he’d been pretty successful.
    “So you two aren’t dating or hooking up or whatever you kids call it these days?”
    Lucky shoved his hands into his pockets and shook his head. “Jesus, Dad.”
    “I’m just looking out for you. I really like Rachel, but the girl has spent her whole life in this town.”
    “And?”
    “For most people that wouldn’t be a problem. But you’re like your mother, not that it’s a bad thing. You’re smart and adventurous. Definitely just as pretty.”
    “Will you stop with that?”
    “Every time after we see you, Brenda is always going on about those long, dark lashes of yours. How it’s a crying shame that God gave a man such eyelashes.” His dad laughed and smacked the middle of Lucky’s back.
    “Jesus. I can’t take anymore.”
    He was on the verge of heading inside and hanging with the womenfolk. Anything to get away from this conversation.
    “Now hang on. Before you run off, listen to me for a second because this is important. Like I said, you’re just like your mother. You’re willing to go wherever the wind blows you and if the wind doesn’t blow hard enough, you’ll get there on your own. But Rachel, her roots are dug deep and I doubt she’s going anywhere.”
    “We’re strictly friends. Neither of us are looking for a relationship because we both have other things going on at the moment.”
    “I hear ya. But I also know that things change sometimes. Especially