CHAPTER THIRTEEN #2
“If you think of anything more, go ahead and pick it up,” Lance said as she grabbed her purse and phone from the counter. “Can you cover the bill, Will? I’ll settle up with you later.”
“Yep. That’ll work.”
After they said goodbye to Isabella, Will led the way out to his vehicle. He opened the passenger side door for her and with a sweeping motion of his hand, he said, “Your chariot awaits, milady.”
Smiling, Amy climbed into the passenger seat and buckled her belt as he shut the door.
I don’t want to live where the winters are cold. I don’t want to be involved with a man who has loved so deeply before. I don’t want to have to compete with a dead woman. She kept running the reminders through her mind as he slid behind the wheel and started the engine.
As they headed for the highway, Amy recognized the song playing as one from Josh and Cami’s latest album. She hummed along as Will turned toward Collingsworth.
“I’m looking forward to their concert,” Will said. “It’s great that they give one every year when they come. I know I’m not the only one who enjoys it.”
“I always like it when they give a concert at our church in Dallas. Of course, they have a pretty hard time topping their first concert there.”
“The one when Josh proposed?”
“Yep. I was so excited I could hardly keep it to myself. In fact, I avoided Cami most of that day after Josh told us his plan so I wouldn’t spill the beans.”
“I hear she was quite surprised.”
“She told me later that she was beginning to wonder if he’d ever propose. She knew what she wanted, but it seemed to be taking him forever to get to that point.”
“Sometimes guys can be a little slow, but we get there eventually.”
Though she really didn’t want to know, Amy figured that asking about Delia might help break the hold this man still had on her heart. “How did you propose?”
Will’s head jerked around, and their gazes met for a moment before he turned his attention back to the road.
He didn’t say anything right away, and Amy wondered if perhaps he wasn’t going to reply, but then he said, “I didn’t do anything formal like Josh did.
We just both kind of decided we didn’t want a long distance relationship, and the only way we could be together was if we got married. ”
His response surprised Amy. For some reason, she had envisioned a super romantic proposal on the beach at sunset or something. “Not everyone does it up big like Josh did. He’s just lucky Cami agreed. I can’t imagine anything worse than proposing publically and then having the lady say no.”
“I’m sure it’s happened a time or two. While it was great to witness Josh’s proposal to Cami, I feel it’s a more private thing. The wedding is public enough.”
“So you wouldn’t want your guy to propose to you on the Jumbotron at a football game?”
Amy laughed. “No way. I’d say no and make him do it again privately. But I would hope that any guy that I was that serious with would know me well enough to know how to do it right.”
Will didn’t say anything more as he pulled the vehicle into the Walmart parking lot and found a spot. Amy opened her car door before he could get around to do it for her. His gentlemanliness was one more attraction she needed less exposure to.
They walked side by side to the entrance of the store.
Once they were inside, she asked, “Do you think we need two carts?” she asked.
“Let’s start with one. If we need another one, I’ll get it,” Will said.
After Will found a cart, Amy directed him to the first aisle. It quickly became apparent that Will didn’t know the store any better than Amy did.
“Don’t you shop here?” Amy asked.
Will shrugged. “On occasion. Usually I get one of my sisters to pick up what I need. I don’t do a whole lot of cooking, to be honest.”
“Your mom didn’t make sure you knew how to cook before flying the coop?”
“I didn’t say I didn’t know how to cook. Just that I don’t do it a lot.” Will grinned. “And yes, my sisters spoil me. Usually they take turns feeding Isabella and me.”
“I guess I can’t say much since my mom does most the cooking for me, too.”
Will leaned on the cart as she picked up two cans of spaghetti sauce. “Do you know how to cook though?”
“Oh yes. My mom made sure all of us, including the boys, knew how to cook all the basics.” Amy put the cans into the cart and then added two more and a couple of large packages of spaghetti noodles. “She was determined none of us would ever starve because we didn’t know how to cook.”
The trip continued slowly as they had to backtrack to pick up items they’d missed.
A couple of times they were stopped by people who recognized Will and wanted to chat.
Each time he introduced her and then while he chatted, Amy would wander off to get a few more items. It was over two hours later that they finally pushed two carts out to his car.
“I’ve never bought so much food in my life,” Amy said as they began to load the bags into the back of the Escalade. “This is crazy. I almost fainted when the total came up. I’m glad you were the one taking care of it. Not sure my credit card could have handled that.”
Will laughed. “My credit card has had more of a workout the past two weeks than it’s had has in a very long time.” He put the last bag in and shut the door. “Go on and get in. I’ll take the carts back.”
Amy nodded and went to the front passenger door and climbed in.
She rested her head back against the leather seat and closed her eyes.
I don’t want to live where the winters are cold.
I don’t want to be involved with a man who has loved so deeply before.
I don’t want to have to compete with a dead woman.
The two hours they’d just spent together had not been helpful in guarding her heart.
Something about both being new at the task had brought about a camaraderie between them.
And there had been moments... She’d turn to find him watching her, an unreadable expression on his face.
Or he’d tease her about something in a way that made her smile.
And then there had been the times he’d laid his hand on the small of her back as he’d moved beside her to reach something on a shelf that was out of her reach.
It was all just too much intimacy for her.
The driver side door opened. “You okay?”
Amy opened her eyes but didn’t look at Will. “Yep. That was just a bit more taxing than I’d thought it would be.”
Will fiddled with the controls on the dash before pulling out of the parking spot and back out onto Main Street.
When he turned right onto the street instead of left, Amy glanced at him. “Are we making another stop?”
“Nope. I’m just going to take the scenic route home. I figured since you like my car so much I’ll give you a bit of a longer ride.”
The ride would have been great if she wasn’t already feeling way too vulnerable to him.
And she was starting to wonder if maybe he did feel something for her, too.
That would make a difficult situation almost impossible, because how he felt for her didn’t change how she felt about the situation.
No matter what his feelings for her were, there would always be Delia. Nothing could ever change that.
Thankfully Josh and Cami’s voices filled the silence in the vehicle as Will steered it out of Collingsworth onto the highway that headed east out of town instead of north to the manor.
Amy looked out the window, watching as rolling green hills passed by them.
Soon he turned off the four lane highway onto a two lane road that went up and down like a rollercoaster.
Amy pressed a hand to her stomach as they crested a small hill and started down the other side of it.
Will guided the vehicle expertly up and down the hills and around the curves.
If it weren’t for the tension she was feeling, Amy would actually have enjoyed the ride.
Suddenly, as they came around another curve, he slowed the car and turned onto a road that entered a park. It wasn’t the one she’d been to, but it looked similar.
He parked the car and turned to her. “Want to walk to the water?”
“What about the food? We have some cold stuff back there.”
“I think it will be okay. I cranked the air in the rear. We won’t be long. I just thought you might like to see the sunset here.”
Amy nodded and unbuckled her seatbelt. She knew this was a mistake, but she couldn’t exactly tell Will that without going into a long explanation.
After she got out, he closed her door and locked the car.
There were a few small groups of people at picnic tables that they passed on their way to the water’s edge.
The sun was just beginning to turn beautiful shades of pink and orange as it dipped behind the trees. It wasn’t completely dark yet, but Amy knew it would be before long.
They stood in silence for a moment then Will said, “Hey, would you like to go out on a date?”