Chapter 10 #2
He gave my hand a squeeze before he turned it loose, and I got lost in stacks and rows of colorful books and some of the most amazing artwork I’d ever seen.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Nyx with his phone pressed to his ear, then I went right back to focusing on the shelves and picking out some things to read.
Now I was really grateful for that cart, because I exited the store with the two titles I’d planned to pick up along with six others that would certainly have grown heavy after a while if I’d had to carry them.
Settling them in beside my tank tops, I was reminded that pants might be a good idea, since I was down to a pair of jeans and swim trunks until we finished washing and drying what we’d salvaged from my motel room.
We probably should have at least started a load before we left this morning, but after yesterday, we’d just been eager to get to the beach.
#adultingfail. Oh well. Sometimes it was just that way.
“Thank you for introducing me to my favorite booth; my wallet will never forgive you,” I said as he held out his hand.
The crowd had grown some since we’d come in, and it was already packed then.
I took his hand, not just because I didn’t want to get separated from him with no clue how to get back to their, well, I guess it was our house now, but because I was already starting to fall in love with walking beside him that way.
His hand not only kept me grounded in a building filled with way too many things I wanted to check out, but it was also a connection to one of the people who was coming to mean the world to me.
Guess there was something to be said for the whole clingy tentacle thing.
“Lani called,” he said, leaning to speak in my ear.
Pressed up close to him, we created a momentary roadblock that people were forced to maneuver around.
“They are going to be able to start earlier than they expected, which means he’ll be home by eight at the latest. He’s looking forward to sprawling out and watching a movie with us after dinner, which I told him we’d already picked up.
Needless to say, he’s ecstatic and asked if we’d grabbed something for dessert, so I told him we’d snag some gourmet popcorn before we headed home to go along with our movie. ”
“They sell gourmet popcorn here too, holy shit.”
“Yup, somewhere; I always forget where the booth is at,” Nyx said. “He also asked me to bring home pickled papaya, which is not as easy to find as he seemed to think when he sends me to look for it.”
“I’m beginning to sense a pattern.”
“Oh yeah, you’ll see, Lani is unlike anyone I’ve ever known,” Nyx explained.
“We probably would have lost touch if he hadn’t been the most persuasive pen pal in history.
He wrote actual letters, like, that he sent through the mail.
It’s the only time in my life that I ever received mail that wasn’t an advertisement or a bill.
He kept up such a constant stream of texts and videos that he finally convinced me that the distance between us when we moved away from here was only miles that didn’t mean anything. ”
“And he was right.”
“But please don’t remind him of that,” Nyx said. “He generally is anyway, which he never lets me forget. Shocked he doesn’t have a scorecard hidden somewhere.”
“Who says he doesn’t?”
“True. Somehow, he still finds ways to surprise me, and I’ve known him more than half my life.”
“Something else I’ll discover in time.”
“Just picture the shenanigans,” Nyx said.
“I am, and I can’t wait,” I replied as I finally found a booth with a variety of board shorts and basketball shorts that would do just fine for now, because four pairs in, I realized that our wagon was beginning to run out of space.
The colors and patterns made it hard to stop though, so I grabbed two more before calling it good. With the three he’d found, we were reaching peak wagon capacity.
“We might have to pick up a few cloth sacks while we’re here,” Nyx said. “I don’t think either of us is done shopping yet.”
Giggling I eyed the wagon, trying to play mental Tetris to see if there was any way we could get anything more in there.
“We may be able to get one more bag of fruit in there,” Nyx said, rubbing his chin. “As long as it’s something like plums and not a sack full of melons.”
“Why are you eyeing me like you are expecting me to upset the applecart?” I asked. “Or in this case, the shopping wagon.”
“Because you haven’t found a fruit stand yet that you’ve been willing to walk past without grabbing something.”
“Because fruit is delicious.”
“Lani will be happy to hear you say that because he loves it too,” Nyx said. “I’ll take both of your words on it and happily enjoy my fruit when Lani presents me with it surrounded by pastry and cream.”
As if to prove his theory about me and fruit stands, the universe decided to put one right in our path as we rounded the corner, and right there on top were star fruits and tangerines. They had honeydew too, and as I reached to smell a melon, I caught him shaking his head at me.
“I’m about to upset the shopping wagon,” I told him.
“I’ll get the bags,” he said, chuckling while I picked out a variety of fruit. “It won’t be the first time. We have a bag of bags on the back of the laundry room door. Not that they are doing us any good there. I just keep forgetting to put some in the jeep.”
“I’d say put a message on your dry erase board to remind you, but I noticed you don’t have one.”
“Another of those things we’ve been meaning to get but keep forgetting.”
“Didn’t we just pass a stall with kitchen supplies and decorations?” I asked as I finished bagging five pepino fruits, which were mini melons that tasted delicious, especially cold.
“I think so.”
“Then let’s go back and get it,” I suggested.
Reversing was hard, especially with a cart and bags, but we managed it without bumping anyone and found the booth, with several dry erase boards to choose from. As soon as I spotted one with sand dollars and sea stars making up the border, I knew it would go perfectly with their beach décor.
“Better grab an extra pack of pens while we’re here,” Nyx said. “And potholders, Lani is always running out of them. I swear he loses more of them than I do socks, not that I’m a fan of them.”
“How do you lose potholders?” I asked. “By the very definition of what they are used for, they aren’t supposed to leave the kitchen.”
The light in the aisle was dim, but not so much so that I missed the blush slowly creeping across his nose.
“He doesn’t lose the potholders, does he?” I asked, eying him up and down. “You do.”
“Okay, okay, you got me,” he said, sighing and running a hand through his hair. “I don’t even know how it happens. I just turn my back on them for a moment, and poof.”
“Are you trying to imply that they just got up and walked away?”
“No, that would be completely absurd,” Nyx replied, face splitting into a grin that morphed into laughter. “Oh man, now all I can picture is a potholder growing two little legs to match its hook and scurrying off on them.”
I couldn’t hold back the snort that bubbled to the surface or the snickers that spilled out.
We must have looked pretty damned ridiculous laughing as we picked out potholders and bobbed them around in the air between us like they were walking, but it was fun and funny, and we needed that after yesterday.
“So, where do they usually vanish without a trace?”
“My workshop,” he admitted.
“Which means they aren’t lost; they’re just buried,” I pointed out. “Why don’t we make sure this batch stays in the kitchen before Lani is forced to come hunt for them and wreak havoc upon what I’m sure is a complex organizational system?”
“If by complex you mean I know where everything is, then yeah, I’m proud of myself for that. There’s not anything I can’t find when I need it.”
“Except the potholders,” I said as we paid for four of them and the whiteboard.
“Fair.”