Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
A n hour later, I had frosted cupcakes until my fingers were puckered from the buttercream that leaked from the piping bag.
“Thanks for the apron,” I said, looking down at the white smudges across the front of the red fabric.
Euetta, one of the cooks, had draped it around me when they’d given me the task.
“You’re welcome, dear,” she said from behind me. “I’m awfully glad Bram brought you along to help. You are so much faster than Mary.”
“Hey!” Mary’s shrill yell sounded from across the kitchen, and we both laughed.
“My best friend owns a bakery, but that’s my closest claim to fame,” I replied. I set the last cupcake on a serving tray and turned around.
Bram was alone in the doorway of the kitchen, leaning against it. His eyes smoldered as he stared at me with his handsome grin. He had clearly been watching me.
“He’s been watching you for five minutes,” Euetta teased, elbowing me, as if she’d read my mind.
“That’s enough,” Bram replied playfully and kicked off the doorframe, walking toward us. “I think it’s almost time, sweets, isn’t it?”
I had been so immersed in the conversation with the ladies that I’d forgotten Hunter was coming to pick me up.
“Oh. Right. That.” I stuck my hand in my dress pocket and pulled out my phone, checking the screen with my sticky fingers. Sure enough, there was a text from my date.
Hunter: Hey, Julianna. I’ll come in and get you, I guess? I’m 10 minutes out.
The text was from twenty minutes ago!
I scrambled to throw the apron off, realizing too late that I hadn’t properly cleaned my hands. In my haste, prominent white sugared smudges swept the front of my blue sundress.
“I gotta—oh no—” My hands went up and out to the side as if I was being robbed.
I looked around, but Bram was already on it.
He grabbed a clean cloth from the side table and ran it under water.
I reached for it, but he had no intention of giving it to me.
I watched, stunned, as he softly cleaned the dried frosting off my fingers.
Our eyes met briefly, and I tried hard to show him my appreciation for what he was doing through a look. He averted his attention back to his task. Euetta had stopped whatever she’d been doing and was watching us intently.
“Take a picture. It’ll last longer,” Bram laughed at the older woman, who did not look the least bit chagrined.
“If I knew the first thing about those new phones, I’d do it,” she replied with a shrug. “Far be it from me to look away from a moment of sparkin’ happening right before my eyes.”
Sparking?!
“He’s just helping. I’m going on a date,” I blurted, my blunt words startling both Bram and Euetta. Bram’s soft ministrations stopped, and regret flooded my chest.
“Yeah. A date,” Bram reiterated, and with only slight hesitation, put the wet cloth into my hand, leaving me to grab it. Dejection was written all over his face, and for the first time, I realized he honestly didn’t want me to go.
I stared at the rag in my hands, not able to watch Bram walk away from me. He went toward the serving area.
“Well, can’t say I’m not disappointed,” Euetta said, slicing through the uncomfortable moment. “Hope this other fellow is a good man because you won’t find any better than Bram. His father is a piece of cow manure, but Bram is the best of ‘em.”
“He is,” I confirmed, swallowing the lump in my throat.
“Let me tell you a thing or two you may not know then,” Euetta said, taking the cloth from my hands. She went straight in for my dress, so close I could smell the talcum powder on her tender skin. “I don’t know what a quarter of those people would do out there if it weren’t for Bram.”
My brow furrowed. “What do you mean? I know he volunteers, but—” I was afraid for a moment that she was privy to the information about the new community center. If she was, and the secret was out, Bram needed to know.
Her wrinkled hands stopped wiping, and her squinting eyes met mine.
“He’s not told you,” she said, her mouth quirked.
She lowered her voice. “He pays people’s electric and water bills.
Buys groceries for people every other week.
Gets Christmas gifts for so many kids, coats in the winter, lawn mowers in the summer.
All kinds of little things that are a big deal to so many out there. ”
“Oh,” I replied. It was the only thing I could think to say. It wasn’t surprising to me that he did this, but why hadn’t he told me?
“He does it on his own?” I asked.
Euetta nodded. “Lots of those people never signed up for all the government programs when the plant shut down, so they’ve struggled, even so many years later.
But Bram has his ways of finding out who needs things, usually through Gladys.
He thinks no one knows, but people talk.
Don’t keep some from disliking him because of his daddy, but that number dwindles all the time. ”
My heart swelled with pride. It was never plainer to me that the boy I knew fifteen years ago wasn’t the same man I was going to marry.
Fake marry. Get a hold of yourself.
“He is pretty special,” was all I could think of to say.
At that moment, Bram walked back into the room, followed by Hunter.
With my heart racing, I watched the two men stand next to each other. Bram was taller, broader, and more rugged. Hunter was suave, sleek, and classically handsome.
Hunter’s piercing blue eyes met mine. Nervous energy spread throughout every cell in my body as I drank in the sight of him. He was so handsome.
But Bram was, too. And he was familiar and warm.
“Julianna,” Hunter said on a breath as if I was a sight to behold. Euetta stepped back and smiled at Hunter.
“Isn’t she a sight?” Euetta preened, and my cheeks heated.
“Beautiful,” Hunter said in his clear voice, charming.
Bram’s eyes met mine over Hunter’s shoulder, but his expression was blank. No smile. No frown. Just consideration.
I had the wherewithal to smile politely at Hunter, introduce Euetta, and grab my small crossbody purse from the counter.
“Well, I guess we’re off?” I said, my hands shaking.
Hunter was waiting patiently, eyes still on me, but Bram was leaning against the doorway, dividing his attention between me and the back of Hunter’s head.
I wanted so badly to read his thoughts at that moment, but I still couldn’t tell anything from his face.
I knew somehow that he did not want me to go on this date.
But I’d initiated the contact with Hunter, and I’d agreed to go.
I couldn’t back out due to an errant thought that held little to no weight.
I stared at Bram, trying to let him know with my gaze that all he had to do was say the word, and I’d call the whole thing off.
His dark eyes intensely assessed my own. But then he shook his head slightly and turned away from me.
That was how I left my first Mill Creek Aid community dinner—analyzing Bram’s last movements and my hand looped through Hunter’s awaiting arm.
Being out with Hunter in downtown Roanoke was the equivalent of being on a date with a celebrity.
Everywhere we went, people spoke to him without reservation.
He was always friendly, but I could tell by the time we’d made it through dinner and had moved on to the local soda fountain for some ice cream, he was growing weary of the attention.
“Does this happen everywhere you go?” I’d asked before sipping my chocolate malt.
He’d nodded. “How has your back been lately?” The switch in subject was a clear indicator that he didn’t want to discuss my observation any further.
“It’s been okay,” I replied. “Not a lot to do during the days, considering I’m out of work at the moment. I do have a virtual interview in Charlotte, where I’m from. But of course, the surgery is a priority.” I was rambling, but he said nothing to show he was put off .
“That’s good to hear,” he said, and then pivoted the conversation again to my old life in Charlotte.
Hunter was a deep thinker and insightful. His answers were concise, and his gray eyes mesmerizing. He had everything I could have ever wanted in a man, and he (a handsome medical professional) had asked me out without significant prompting.
I should have been soaking up every moment, yet the night felt very much like a friend date, and I knew why.
Bram’s face when he left the kitchen at the aid dinner would not leave my mind, no matter how hard I tried to push the image away.
When I went to use the restroom before we left the soda fountain, I checked the muted texts on my phone.
Kallie: How’s the doctor date?
Me: Again, not a doctor. And good. I think. Can’t stop thinking about a certain vampire.
Kallie: That’s not how this is supposed to go.
Me: The heart is a fickle organ.
Kallie: Focus on what is in front of you. Bram Winchester doesn’t deserve your headspace.
Me: I think he was jealous. I can’t stop thinking about it.
Kallie: Of course, he had to go and fuck this up for you.
Me: *eye roll emoji*
I went back to a visibly tired Hunter. He was in the tiny red-leather booth, wiping at his eyes.
“Hey, it’s a long drive out to my friend’s house.
Maybe we should go?” I felt the words slip from my lips, slithering out like I was lying even though I wasn’t.
It was a long drive. But the whole night felt off.
Off, in an unexplainable way. Hunter must have thought it as well, because he offered no protest and got up from the booth.
Driving to the farm in the dark countryside was quiet, interrupted only by the occasional landmark comment and random question. It was comfortable, even in silence, but not anything like a drive with Bram.
In the driveway of Bram’s house, Hunter opened my door, and I climbed out of his SUV. He didn’t try to take my hand as he walked me toward the front door. The porch light had been left on for me, though, and for the first time since the night had begun, I was nervous.