Chapter 3
ELIAS
The blue lights of the police chief left my parking lot to go onto its next assailant, not before the chief giving Abigail his testimonial of my good character.
”Wait here, and I”ll get my pickup. Then we can get you loaded up. We”ll be on the road as the sun comes up tomorrow.” I smacked my hands together and pulled open my desk drawer to grab my keys.
Abigail leaned forward with both hands on my desk, giving me what looked like her stink-eye. Most of her hair had fallen from whatever hairdo she started her day with today. Those red-tinted lips now looked blush pink, and I wanted to lick them. Pull it together, man. You”re saving her, not planning an assault on her. No wonder she felt a creeper vibe.
I must have made a sound because she cocked her head again to the side. This time, though, I saw the red flag and stepped back immediately. ”What did I say?”
After a deep breath, she stood straight and pushed her hair behind her ears with those delicate fingers. Stop!
”That might be your plan, but it isn”t mine. I must be in Mystic by Friday morning, not Friday night.”
”Mystic? As in Connecticut? That”s almost four hours away.” She gave me a no-shit-Sherlock look.
She shoved her hands onto her hips and shifted her weight aggressively. ”Where did you think I needed to go? To the Walmart the next town over? I have a deadline, buster, with or without you.” Pressed lips and large puffs of air pumped out of her body like a dragon. Note to self—Beware of the Dragon Lady.
ABIGAIL
WTF? Who was this guy? First, he douses the impending flames of Little Red, and then he lights a damn fire inside me moments later. Next, he offers me kindness with a cloth tissue. Who uses shit like that anymore? Ah, yes, he told me. Gentlemen. I wouldn”t have known what one of those was because, remember, no dad. Not even a goddamned distant cousin. I did have an uncle, though. Let”s call him a relative, not family. I remembered Uncle Ted as a cool guy when I was younger. When I turned twelve, he bolted, and I”d never seen him since. When questioned years later, Aunt Eleanor said he had some business. For five years? Sounded more like a prison sentence.
The final insult this Elias-guy made was that his offer had a radius attached to it. After I thoroughly assessed his caramel-colored eyes and long lashes, his too-small-for-his-face ears, that silky-soft beard, tree-trunk arms, thick thighs, and his rock-hard chest, I determined that, if he killed me, the view would be spectacular.
”Elias. Thank you for the offer to drive me. I”m sorry you offered without knowing the specifics of this trip, though it was naive on your part not to ask before offering. Here is what you need to know. I have an inheritance to claim, and, for reasons I don”t want to get into, it has to be claimed by this Friday. Today is Thursday—afternoon. We have to leave now. Not tomorrow morning. The Office of Deeds closes at four o”clock on Friday, and I have to claim what”s mine before then. So, what”s it gonna be?”
I eyeballed him, challenging him to back out of his offer. I may be tiny, but I can be a force when pushed.
He rolled his eyes and then located his keys in the drawer, dangling them in front of my face.
He scrubbed his face aggressively. ”I”m in. But we”re leaving tomorrow. I have a car to finish this evening, and it can”t wait. Go ahead and start grabbing stuff out of your car. I”ll find some boxes or tubs to throw them in so they don”t slide around the pickup bed. After that, you can either wait for me to finish working, and then we”ll eat, or take a half-mile walk down the road and eat at the diner yourself.”
Five minutes later, Elias returned with three boxes and two giant tubs for me to start packing my stuff—alone. Without so much as ”good luck,” he went back to work, and I spent the next twenty minutes figuring out how to Tetris my stuff into the truck bed so it wouldn”t fly away driving down the highway. When I arrived at Mel”s Diner, the sun was beginning to set. The walk down was calming, and my nervous system began to relax. I felt like Little Red Riding Hood walking over a sparkling stream via a covered bridge. The spots of red and yellow wildflowers that sprung up along the side of the road promised better times to come.
An older woman in a pink uniform and white apron cracked her gum while asking me for my drink order. ”Lemonade, please.” I smiled back. She didn”t deserve my foul attitude. I was down to my last seventy-five dollars and didn”t want to waste it on food. Who knew how much money it would cost to claim the deed and how long it would be until I saw a dime from the inheritance?
My drink and french fries arrived. ”That”s all?” the waitress asked. ”Yeah, for now.” I had no intention of getting anything else. I still had some Fritos I got from my front seat that I could rely on later. A large, ominous shadow appeared behind me. ”Get her a burger, too, Bev. I”ll have my usual.” It didn”t take a genius to know who overruled my decision, though I was hungrier than I let on.
Elias sat down and winked at me. He sure knew how to disarm a girl. ”Just because I”m letting you drive me to Mystic doesn”t mean you”re the boss of me.” I tried not to laugh and instead pouted. A big-barreled laugh sang through the air and felt like a stereo subwoofer humming through my chest. It felt good. Ticklish.
”Trust me, sweetheart. I don”t want to be your boss. You”re boss enough. I was being selfish when I ordered you a burger. I can”t imagine spending hours with you hangry.” He laughed a little softer, but still, that ticklish feeling permeated my chest.
I gave him a demure look and delivered a smartass snipe: ”I”m sure you”re no prize either.” I drank deeply from my lemonade.
He had the decency to nod and looked out the window, avoiding my gaze. He was unavoidable. A goliath of a man blocked my vision of the rest of the restaurant. I may not be worldly, but this guy must pull tree trunks out of the ground with his bare hands with such powerful-looking arms. It was a struggle to keep my hands at my sides, envisioning what his full beard felt like. Wavy and somewhat kinky in texture, not that I could see him up close, but it didn”t lessen my desire to keep looking at him.
Our food arrived, and the waitress forgot to leave the ketchup. Luckily for me, Elias extended his eagle-length arm over to the following table, making his bicep pop to attention. Whoa! What kind of routine does this dude do to make muscles like that? I was just about to ask him when my mind kicked into gear, alerting me that I would say something inappropriate, and I shoved a french fry into my mouth. Occasionally, my impulsivity could be controlled when I only had one thing to focus on, and I could concentrate on those arms all day.
”Abigail?” Elias stared at me in concern.
I shook my head like a bobblehead, ”Uh, yeah?”
”Where did you go? It looked like you spaced out for a minute. Are you okay?” His forehead, etched with fine lines, shared his concern. Reading nonverbal cues had always been difficult, though it became easier as I got older.
I drank some water, looking at him over the rim of my glass and assessing his concern.
”Sorry, I, uh, sometimes do that. I”m sorry if it made you feel uncomfortable. A lot has happened these past few weeks. The stress must be catching up to me.” Not wanting to talk more about it, I took a bite of the burger, and my eyes rolled back in pleasure at the taste. It was so good. My last regular meal was almost a week ago, and this one bite produced a visceral response I couldn”t have held back.
”Wow! This burger is amazing!” That sounded more like drunken, slurred speech. ”So good!” Juice dripped down my chin, forcing me to set the burger down and wipe my lips.
He stared at me with a look that could only be described as perplexed. I don”t know why, but I picked up my burger and dove in for another tasty bite.
”You have a . . . drop.” He pointed at his cheek. Not understanding, I pointed to my cheek and cocked my head to the side.
”Yeah—not there, but . . .” He pointed to my other cheek, and I wiped again. Still not happy with my attempts, he licked his thumb and reached across the table, brushing his wet digit across my cheek to remove whatever was there. Torn between disgust and lust, I sat there in awe at the gentleness of this massive man and the kindness he offered in helping me get whatever it was off my face. Most people I’ve encountered would have shown annoyance or thrown a napkin at me, yelling to clean it off.
”There. Some juice splattered on your cheek.” He grimaced, sitting back, perhaps realizing what he did invaded my personal space. Or maybe he was stunned too that he touched me without permission? Either way, he was freaking adorable. Shyness in such a big person was sexy. I liked it.
”Thank you.” I dabbed at my cheek once and looked back at my food.
We ate silently as the dinner crowd picked up, and the room became noisier. My knee started bouncing with the inferred tension between us. I needed to hurry up and leave before I combusted. It wasn”t just him that added to my tension; it was the idea that I would be stuck in a vehicle with him for over four hours tomorrow. I wanted to touch his beard and see firsthand how his face felt in my hands. I wasn”t a shy person without things to say. What could I say that would be interesting enough for a guy like him?
”Abigail? You”re doing it again.” He held his sandwich inches from his face when he spoke; a smile crept up at the corners.
”You”re sitting too close.” What did I say? ”I mean, you don”t know me well enough to . . . well, anything.” I jumped up, unable to sit another moment. ”I”m going to the bathroom,” I stormed off in the wrong direction of the restrooms, forcing me to about-face and walk past his smug face again. Argh!
This was all too much for me. I opened a stall, threw down the seat cover, stepped up onto the seat, and crouched, making myself as small as I felt. Did I think I could pick up and move across the country without a million things going wrong? Who did I think I was to deserve a ginormous inheritance, let alone from a family I never knew existed? Now, I have a complete stranger extracting a feeling I also never knew existed within me. I needed a therapist. I needed medication. I needed a friend, a mother, a father. I had none of it, and I was terrified. The tears began seeping from my eyes, creating a puddle on the cover, and I covered them ashamedly. I was spiraling downward, and, even though I knew it was a bad thing for me to do, I couldn’t help it. Minutes went by, and the stall whipped open—crappy lock.
”I knew you weren”t okay; you were gone too long.” He barely got through the door and stepped inside the stall with me. Like before, he gently pulled my wrists back so he could see me face-to-face. ”It”s going to be alright. I”ve got you.”
My whole body shuddered to hear his words. I”ve got you, he said. I felt what he was saying for the first time in my life. He had me. I wasn”t entirely sure what that entailed, but a wash of calm passed through me, swallowed my tears, and shot back so I could pull myself together. I reached for some toilet paper, but he pushed my hands aside and pulled a long wad off the roll for me. That simple act was what I hoped he meant by, ”I’ve got you. To think, this was the second time in two hours, this man did what had never happened in my whole life—showed me compassion.
”Thank you, Elias.” I wiped my eyes and blew my nose, feeling more together. He stepped back and offered his hand for me to step down, albeit wobbly for crouching like that for so long. He backed up and out, letting me pass around him to the sinks, where I splashed some water on my blotchy face. ”I”m a wreck, Elias. Are you sure you still want to drive me to Mystic? I can”t guarantee this won”t happen, or something worse, again.”
His jaw ticked under that blanket of wavy, kinky hair, and he palmed his beard thoughtfully. ”I”m still in. You are an enigma, Abigail, and I like a good mystery. So, if you don”t mind me trying to unravel you, let”s keep to our plan. Wait! That didn”t sound right. I don”t want to physically unrav . . .” His cheeks blushed, and his eyes looked horrified.
I chuckled and put my hands on my hips, ”I knew where you were going with that. No worries. I”m still hungry. Let”s finish eating and go.” I didn”t wait for an answer, marching past him and out of the bathroom.