Chapter 5 #2
“My stepdad.” He glanced over at me. “You mentioned you grew up in Chance. Are your parents still here?”
I shook my head. “No. Well, yeah. But they spend summers and major holidays in Florida. They’ll be back up this way in August.”
“So they spend their summers at the beach in Florida … and you spend your summers in Chance.” He paused. “Interesting.”
I snickered. “I hear judgment.”
“I’m not judging. I’m observing.”
I pointed at him. “Aren’t you also on vacation in Chance?”
“No,” he disputed with a smirk. “I’m on vacation in Spring Hill.”
I gestured around and comically peered out the window at the abundance of trees as we drove down the two-lane highway. “From the looks of things, we left the nothing in Chance, and we’re headed to even more nothing in Spring Hill.”
“Now who’s judging?”
Innocently, I widened my eyes. “I’m not judging. I’m observing.”
He let out a deep rumble of a laugh as he approached the first stoplight. “Well observe this.” He smiled. “Spring Hill Square.”
Spring Hill had evolved since I was a teen.
There were stores and restaurants where trees used to be.
Although they had modernized, it was still a small town and looked every bit of it.
There was maybe a six- or seven-block assortment of buildings and then nothing but trees and farmland.
But the sign that said WELCOME TO SPRING HILL SQUARE listed businesses below in fine print.
“There are thirty businesses over here,” he told me, reading my mind. “This is like the downtown area.”
“And three restaurants. Okay, I see you!”
“And a fourth one, the nice one, is down the street by the water.” He pointed to the right proudly as he parallel parked on the street. He turned the engine off and shrugged his shoulders. “I know you’re not used to the big city, being from Chance and all.”
“This is damn near New York City,” I joked, reaching for the door handle.
“Whoa…” His hand wrapped around my wrist. His touch sent a jolt of electricity through my arm.
Gasping at the unexpected sensation, I whipped my head around to face him.
“I’ll get your door,” he told me.
I swallowed hard. “Okay.”
His fingers lingered on my flesh for a second longer than necessary as he held my gaze.
Licking his lips, he dropped his hand from me and climbed out of the SUV.
I exhaled loudly. Pushing myself up in my seat, I watched him circle the hood to get to the passenger side. When my door opened, he offered me his hand.
“You’re quite the gentleman, aren’t you?” I remarked, allowing him to help me out of the vehicle.
His lips spread into a slow smile without answering. Looking back and forth to make sure there was no oncoming traffic, he put his hand on my lower back and ushered me to the other side of the street.
“We’re going to start here…” He smiled as we approached the first stop.
“A bookstore,” I cooed as he opened the door for me.
It was called Edwina’s. The bell announced our arrival, and we were greeted by an older woman with graying hair and a slow, dawdling walk.
“How can I help you?” she greeted us.
“We’re just going to look around for a minute. We’ll let you know,” Lamar replied.
There were people milling around the store, but it was surprisingly quiet. I gravitated to the collection of journals on a shelf. I ran my fingertips over the leather-bound ones while I made my way down the aisle.
“Are we looking for anything in particular?” I wondered as I paused on a brown vintage journal with a rope closure. The hundred-dollar price tag helped me to move on from it. “Or are we just here for the tour?”
“You mentioned you taught English, so I planned for Edwina’s to be our first stop.” He headed down the first aisle. “They have rare books and a bunch of other stuff that might pique an English teacher’s interest.” He looked back at me. “And I already know you can’t find books like this in Chance.”
I snickered behind my hand, trying to keep quiet. “You’re not wrong.” Reaching up, I pulled a book off the shelf. “Have you ever read this?”
He read the title and then shook his head. “I don’t think so. Should I?”
“For your program to help incoming rookies who are heading into the league, yes.”
“And why is that?”
“Well, when I teach it, I tell my students that it’s about the journey from a poor childhood into a privileged adulthood, and about how money and social status have the power to change you.
” I offered the book to him. “A lot of talent is found in people who don’t have a lot, and when you don’t have a lot and get thrust into that life, it can be overwhelming.
So seeing it from an outside point of view could help them process it in a different way. ”
A small smile played on his lips. “You were thinking about my program?”
“Well, yeah.” I lifted my shoulders, shrugging the question off. “You said you wanted to get together and talk about it today, so it crossed my mind.”
He flipped the book over in his hand. “Okay, I’ll get it.” He paused for a moment. “Will you read something that I pick out for you?”
I eyed him suspiciously before I smiled. “Yeah. But if it’s terrible, I won’t take a book rec from you ever again.”
He chuckled. “Oh shit, the pressure is on.”
“And to be clear, Great Expectations popped in my head as a teaching tool for your business. My reading recommendation for you would be completely different.”
We walked through the small store, discussing books, movies, and entertainment in general. Once we’d examined every inch of the place, we found ourselves back where we’d begun.
“Oh, hold on.” He hooked his arm around me, his hand on my side when he squeezed behind me. His fingers skated over the extra fat on my side as he passed. “Wait right here. I’m going to get you a book.”
Heat flushed my face, and I wrapped my arm around myself reflexively. I wasn’t self-conscious about it; it was a mixture of surprise, curiosity, and attraction that jolted through me. He was on the other side of the store, and I could still feel his touch on that intimate spot.
My body stirred.
Pushing that thought out of my mind, I wandered back over to the journals and notebooks.
I had a couple of blank journals at home, so it wasn’t a necessity.
But my eyes and hands locked with the brown leather-bound beauty that had caught my eye the moment I’d walked in.
There was no way I could justify spending a hundred dollars on a notebook.
But I imagined writing my first novel in that thing.
“Based on what I’ve learned about you today, I think I got a winner,” he said as he appeared next to me.
I put the journal down and grinned. “What is it?”
He looked so pleased with himself. The gift bag he handed me was pretty, and the book inside was wrapped in brown paper. “You’ll have to open it later and see.”
“You just don’t want me to know the title and determine right this second if I trust your book recommendations.”
Letting out a stifled chuckle, he put his hand on my lower back and ushered me toward the exit. “You’re not about to reject my book and embarrass me in front of Edwina.”
With a giggle, I shook my head.
We spent an hour and a half window-shopping and exploring the square.
Proving that Friday night hadn’t been a fluke, we fell into an effortless conversation.
He was funny and interesting, but it was his demeanor that made him easy to talk to.
His energy and personality meshed so well with mine that I could exist in the moment with him without having to deal with any of the hardships of my life. I could just be.
“I don’t know why you’re laughing that hard,” Lamar commented as he opened the door of the antique store for us to leave.
“That man bumped into you so hard. It’s not…” Cackling, I waved one hand while wiping the tear from my eye with the other. “It’s not funny. But why did he scream like that?”
The man hadn’t been paying attention to what he was doing and had run directly into Lamar. Then he screamed as if Lamar jumped out to scare him. It startled both of us because that man was the one who’d come out of nowhere and then let out a shrill sound.
“The better question is why did the scream sound like that?” he retorted.
We were both still laughing as we made our way to his vehicle. After he opened the door for me, he circled around and climbed into the driver’s seat. “Time for lunch,” he announced, starting the engine.
We had been having so much fun, I hadn’t realized I was hungry until that moment. My stomach rumbled, and I prayed he didn’t hear it.
Clearing my throat, I shifted in my seat. “Where are we headed? One of the big four?”
He laughed. “I’m not going to let somebody from Chance—”
I shook my head. “I don’t claim Chance.”
Pulling out of the parking spot, he turned right and traveled down a long, winding road.
In the seven minutes it took us to get to the restaurant on the water, we recapped the situation with the man in the last store, and I had literal tears in my eyes.
We didn’t compose ourselves until we were parked and heading into the restaurant.
“Your laugh is funny,” he pointed out as we climbed the stairs to the entrance.
I made a face when I looked at him. “What’s funny about my laugh?”
“It’s just…” He grinned. “It’s in surround sound.”
“Are you saying I’m loud?”
He opened the door for me and waited until I walked inside. “I didn’t say that.”
Glancing over my shoulder, I eyed him suspiciously. “You implied it.”
He put his hand on the small of my back. “I like that you’re loud,” he whispered.
I inhaled sharply.
Before I could fully process what he’d said, he moved toward the hostess. “We have a reservation for two under Anderson.”
The hostess told a man in all black, who then escorted us to the second floor, to a table overlooking the water. The man attempted to pull my chair out for me, but Lamar sidestepped him and intervened.
“Thank you. I got it,” he insisted, lining the chair up behind me and pushing it forward as I sat.