Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
REECE
B ooker loaded the groceries into the back of his truck, then waved me to follow him down the sidewalk. I took a moment to marvel that he wasn’t even slightly concerned someone would steal them and then followed with one last look back at Val, who had only cracked open one eye and then immediately gone back to sleep.
Where were we going?
I’d tried not to listen to how much the groceries came to. The guilt over the fact that this was one more thing Booker had to do for me was nearly more than I could take.
I had to admit though, knowing that the cottage was set up for me to look after myself was helping. Especially with how much being out in public was freaking me out.
Stepping into the grocery store had been tough. The first person I saw commenting on the bruise on my face was nearly enough to floor me. But I’d pushed through. I kept the smile on my face and forced myself to act like I used to. Maybe if I tried hard enough, one day it would feel real.
And it had.
By the time we got to the register, the warmth I’d found in every person I’d met was starting to sink in. Everyone had been nothing but nice to me. The comments on my bruise were genuine concern. I hadn’t experienced anything like this before, and the way that Booker had been so ready to help me was making more sense. This was just how people seemed to be around here.
“Where are we going?” I asked, quickening my steps to catch up with Booker and hoping it didn’t look like I was running after him.
Why were his legs so unreasonably long? Who walked this fast?
“We’re going around the corner,” Booker said, and I mimed throttling him from behind.
This was past the point of cute now.
Booker came to a stop and then looked at me from under the brim of his cowboy hat as he hooked his thumbs in the pockets of his jeans.
He had to know what he was doing.
Then he nodded to the door beside him, and I looked up at the sign. Books and Beans.
My heart thumped in my chest, and a squeal built inside me that I tried to swallow down.
“A bookshop!”
Booker looked at me warily, and when I took a step toward the door, I swear I saw him flinch.
“What is wrong with you?” I laughed.
“I thought you were going to hug me,” he complained, then he grabbed the door handle and held the door open for me.
“We can save the hugs for later,” I told him, patting his arm as I squeezed.
Holy biceps!
I should have been scared of Booker. He wasn’t exactly the most open person in the world. In fact, most people would probably say he was an ass. But this was a guy who helped when he saw I needed someone. He rescued horses no one else wanted and rehabilitated them.
And the most important thing was that he was absolutely nothing like my ex.
That beautiful bookshop smell hit me as I walked through the doors, and I felt actual tears in my eyes. The coffee machine bubbled to life with the sound of milk being steamed.
“This is amazing!” I whispered as I took in the cozy coffee shop vibes with the neat lines of bookshelves at the back. “Can I…”
“Knock yourself out.” Booker laughed at the look on my face, and my eyes widened in awe. An actual goddamn laugh. “How do you want your coffee?” he asked.
“I’ll take a caramel latte, please?” I asked politely, making sure that I kept a tally in my head of everything that Booker spent. I wouldn’t let him try to wave this off as nothing, which I had a feeling he would.
I headed to the romance section and got lost among the spines of second chances and love at first sight. I’d stood there for far too long looking between the books I held in each hand when I felt a presence behind me.
“What are you doing?” Booker growled, and I jumped about a foot in the air with a squeal.
“You scared the bejeebers out of me!” I swore, and the corner of his mouth ticked up again in that way I was starting to crave.
“Booky bear!” someone gasped behind us. “Are you harassing that poor woman?”
“Oh lord, what did I do to deserve this?” Booker muttered before he turned to look at the pink-haired woman standing and grinning behind him. “Blake.”
“Booky bear!” she cheered and then threw her arms around him. “I didn’t know you came into bookshops,” she whispered, looking from side to side dramatically like she was in on some kind of secret.
I looked around Booker to get a better glimpse at the woman I was pretty sure was destined to be my friend. He practically squirmed with discomfort.
“Ooooo, new friend!” she squealed.
“I’ll be with the coffee,” Booker growled, taking the books from my hands and then storming back to the table he’d found.
“Hi, I’m Reece.”
“Blake.” She smiled gently and shook my hand. “Booker will look after you,” she said.
I frowned, confused, and she shrugged. “Whatever you’re running from, whoever did that to you, Booker will make it right.”
“It’s not really his…”
She hugged me before I could finish. “That doesn’t matter. We look after our own around here, and I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other.”
“Thanks, Blake.”
She smiled and then pointed in the direction of Booker, who was sitting down again with a small bag that he put next to my coffee. Of course, he’d bought them both. “I’ve never seen him out in the wild like this before,” Blake told me. “Maybe you can help each other.”
“I don’t think Booker needs any help. He’s the most put-together person I’ve ever met.”
She laughed then. “Not everyone wears their bruises on the outside, Reece.”
I really looked at Booker then, but I already knew what she was talking about. Booker was closed off from other people for a reason. His gruff attitude was a defense mechanism he’d used to protect himself, and that was how I’d repay him for pulling me out of that car.
I’d show Booker that he didn’t have to be alone anymore.
“You should have a coffee with us,” I told her as we moved to the table.
I saw the way Booker tensed as he overheard us and then wilted in resignation.
“That sounds like a perfect idea,” she crowed, moving to the counter and the man standing at the register who couldn’t take his eyes off her. What should have just been a quick order turned into a whispered conversation, and then she turned back to us with a grin.
I smelled a secret brewing. Hey, I was transitioning to small-town life like a pro.