Chapter 3 #2
At stop signs, she plucked her brows while looking in the mirror.
A car horn honked out of nowhere, and she jumped.
“Oh my God!” Before she could even put her foot to the pedal, the truck blazed by her into the oncoming lane and cut her off.
She screamed, squeezing the steering wheel.
Her heart was in her throat. “Alan Moffet! I hope Hunt gets you on his radar!” She pulled through the intersection.
“At least I don’t have to worry about your ass tailgating me. ”
The Chevy truck hit a horrible pothole and almost swerved off the road.
“Serves you right!” She laughed and swerved to the right to miss it but ended up behind a tractor and drummed her fingers, leaning over her steering wheel.
She waited through a construction zone and rocked out to Journey.
Then her tire pressure warning went off. Likely from hitting that pothole too many times.
“Oh, you have got to be freaking kidding me right now! Ugh!”
Evelyn looked up and around and saw the only gas station in sight. It was some random one that looked like no one would ever go to unless they were desperate, kind of like her. “Please have air. Please have air. Please have air.” She was still breathing heavy from the truck incident.
Circling the parking lot, she saw the one lone air pump and jumped happily, pulling right up to it.
But as she got out, her dress immediately caught the wind and whipped about her so fanatically that she had to keep her hands on it.
It was horrible! That damn spring wind was ruining her hairstyle and getting strands stuck to her lip gloss.
She pulled it away with one hand and tried to lean over to get her pressure checker out, and her panties were almost exposed for the whole world to see in a matter of seconds.
Surely the truckers nearby may like a show, but she wasn’t up for that.
The busy highway sounds whizzed off the intersection, and she let go of her hair to grab the pressure gauge.
And soon enough, she tried to squat down to check the pressure.
The wind was everywhere, and so was her dress!
“Dammit! It wasn’t this windy this morning,” she mumbled to herself.
She stood up and tried to configure her dress somewhere between her legs to hold it together with her thighs, but it made squatting nearly impossible, and even when she leaned over, the back end would fly up. Evelyn stood upright and tried to sit down to tuck her dress underneath.
Before she could, a voice called to her, “Ma’am? Would you like some help?” It had a little bit of a snicker in it, as if the person asking the question found her situation humorous. And even to her, it was…now that someone was there to help.
She pulled her dress down and stopped before she ever sat down. “Thank you so much!” she said happily. “I wasn’t expecting this wind today and-”
Turning, her breath left her lungs.
The wind blew her hair back behind her with the direction she was facing, and her eyes went amiss with seeing him…again.
He chuckled in that boyish smile with those expressive and kind eyes. “There’s no need for a lady to be sittin’ on the ground in a dress. Here, let me see that gauge.”
Evelyn felt her heart racing, pounding harder than it already had been from the truck incident. “I recognize you,” she said as she handed him the gauge. “You’re the man from the drugstore. You helped me back then. Do you remember?”
He scratched his scruffy cheek and rolled up the sleeves of his blue plaid shirt and grinned. He knelt and felt her tire. “Oh, I remember alright. You’re the short girl with the tomato face.”
She chuckled. “I had a fever that day, you know.”
He felt her tire for wear and tear. He returned the grin, squinting from the sun. “Sure, you did.”
Evelyn fumbled her hands to hold her dress down and sucked in her stomach and tried to straighten up her back.
But as he worked, he looked at her again and laughed once more.
“You straightened up like I was your momma telling you to.” Then he stood and towered over her.
Even in her full figure, she still felt small next to him.
His presence was wonderful, comforting, welcoming, and inviting.
She swallowed hard and looked at him again, fumbling to hold her dress and make eye contact.
And she never cared to look for the ring again.
Her heart was too caught up in the moment to be broken by seeing it. His dimpled smile came again.
“Your tires are bald, and they suck,” he declared with a laugh.
The blunt comment rose a laughter from her. She put a hand to her mouth and felt a girlish giggle flood her whole body. The way he kept looking at her, she felt the burning to ask him out regardless of the ring. She could play it off as a gesture of gratitude.
He glanced at her momentarily before pulling away to check the other tires. “It’s pretty windy out here. Why don’t you sit inside the car, so you don’t ruin your hair?”
She followed him around. “It’s no biggie. I have about ten pounds of lip gloss stuck in my hair anyway, and I think the wind gods have done all the damage they can.”
“Don’t say that. You’ll challenge Missouri and we’ll get a tornado.”
“Right?” she giggled. “Or given how bipolar our weather is, it could be another blizzard suddenly even though it’s sixty-five degrees.”
He laughed. He actually laughed. Evelyn kept her dress held down and said meekly, “Thank you for doing this. I didn’t even get your name last time.”
The handsome stranger finished the last tire then stood up and ran his hand through his light-brown hair. He gave her the gauge back. When she took it, he shoved his hands in his pockets and smirked. “Now if I tell you that, you gotta promise me you’re not gonna get all weird on me.”
“Why would I do that?”
“’Cause your pawpaw knew me, and so did your dad.”
Her eyes widened.
The ad. The man in the drugstore. It was him. How was she so dumb not to put the two faces together? To her credit, he was wearing a suit with a scruffy face in the ad and a flannel shirt and a smooth face at the store.
Wait a minute. How did he know who she was? She thought to ask him.
But Evelyn decided against it. She wanted to play na?ve. He was obviously nervous about the relation in some way, and so she didn’t want to jeopardize anything. “That’s what Pawpaw and Daddy knew of you. I don’t know who you are.”
He outstretched his hand and smiled. “Caleb Wright.”
She pulled her hair behind her ear in a nervous grin and extended her hand out to his.
The roughness made her feminine skin drip with yearning.
His large fingers curled around her plush and soft hand deliberately with a gentle squeeze.
It wasn’t a rushed handshake and so she felt herself fighting the urge to look, but she had to.
There was no ring on his left ring finger.
Fight it. Don’t ask. Be respectful. Don’t be nosy. It’s none of your business.
She fought for a breath. She could have fallen into his arms then and there, and the loud thrum of the interstate would have been mute and her interview obsolete. It wasn’t just a handshake; it was healing to her.
“It’s nice to meet you, Caleb.”
“And you are?”
“Oh!” she said as she laughed nervously. “I’m sorry. I’m uh…”
He leaned closer to her. “Tomato-faced? Feverish?”
She let out the stupidest laugh she could have ever done. Immediately she tried to shut herself up, because it was a clear sign that giddiness was making her feel dumb, immature, and childish. “Oh, no, um… I’m Evie Morgan.”
“Christmas tree girl! I saw your post back in December and I see your posts all the time now. That’s how I figured out who your grandpa was. You asked the discussion page how to donate to Crest Hill Cemetery in honor of your grandpa. I thought it was super sweet. Did you ever a tree, though?”
He crossed his arms like he had no intention of leaving. She fumbled to think of a way to keep the conversation going. “I did, thanks! Did you have a good Christmas?”
His eyes rolled. “It could have been better, but maybe in hindsight it was okay.”
The separation must’ve happened then, she thought. Or she hoped it was a separation. She hoped his wife didn’t pass away. She knew too well how badly that hurt. “I’m sorry it wasn’t better. Maybe this year will be better, right?” she asked tenderly, trying to be the caring person she was.
He scoffed with a smile. “You’re kind of new around here, aren’t you?”
She nodded with sincerity in her eyes. “I am. I moved here about two years ago.”
“Do you like it?”
She shrugged. “It’s okay. Do you like it?”
He looked away. “Not really. I live outside town on Highway 42. People in the town can’t seem to keep their mouths shut, you know?
Everyone’s always complainin’ about something.
Or they’re gossiping about someone or something.
Or always moanin’ about something not being fixed in the town or yelling at each other.
That’s why I refrain from interacting on the page as much as possible. ”
“Wait, aren’t you a contractor? I think I got your ad in the mail.”
He nodded proudly. “Yep! I like to send out pictures with my big ol’ fat head for fire tinder.”
She leaned over in laughter. They both shared the laughter for a good solid minute before she gasped and wheezed to joke, “If you think you’ve got a fat head it’s a good thing my ass ain’t on an advertisement or it’d take up both sides of the paper.”
He clapped his hands in the sheer hilariousness, and she placed the back of her hand to her mouth to stifle the laughter.
The humor was a much-needed release for both of them.
A diesel slowly trudged on in and released its air brakes.
She straightened up and tossed her hair away from her neck. “I heard you used to be a realtor. It’s a shame I didn’t know you prior to buying my house. I could’ve gotten you a nice-sized commission.”
“Oh yeah? Where did you move to?”
She rolled her eyes playfully and sarcastically said, “The white bungalow off of 129 with the dilapidated steps.”
He brightened up. “Oh, you traitor. I could’ve retired on that commission.”
“All $3,300 of it?”
“Exactly! I could be rolling off the coast of Kokomo in a yacht right now. But no, you had to be selfish.”
She gave a glittering smile. “I can be kind of selfish.”
“You don’t seem selfish to me,” he stated. There was a touch of seriousness in his tone. “I saw the county’s post about how you bought cinnamon rolls for the entire sheriff’s department for no particular reason.”
She looked off in reflection. “Well, it wasn’t only to be nice. Deputy Hunt changed my tire for me when it blew out on the side of the interstate, and Deputy Buckley gave me a ride when my car broke down.”
He rocked on his heels, grinning. “And that merited $200 worth of cinnamon rolls?”
She looked down at her fumbling hands. Maybe she was a bit ridiculous. “I don’t know how to change a car tire, and my pawpaw wasn’t in any state to help.”
“Wait,” he interjected as he held up his hand. At first, he was charmed by her sweet act, but something else crossed his face. “You don’t know how to change a car tire?”
“No,” Evie replied shamefully.
He spoke again in that smooth Midwestern accent, “That’s insanely sweet of you to do that for the department. They all seemed like they loved it.” She could have likened his voice to black velvet. Deep, luxurious, smooth, handsome and sexy with the right amount of masculinity.
She smiled and nodded. How badly she wanted to ask him out. Her face rose to meet his gaze. “Thank you, Caleb. I better get going. I’ve got a job interview to get to.”
He cocked his head and shifted his stance, shaking her hand once more. “You’re welcome, Evie.”
She tingled all over with how he said her name. It was deliberate and succulent, like a ripe peach being slowly bitten into to savor every drop of juice.
He walked to the front door of her car and opened it for her.
She paused, smiled, and thanked him before slowly approaching it.
His eyes followed her with a soft grin and acute observation, watching her every movement.
Once she was in, he placed his hand on the car’s roof and leaned over while she buckled her seatbelt. “Oh, and Evie?”
She looked at him, heart pounding in her throat and stomach.
“You don’t need to suck in your stomach around me.” He winked and closed her door. Walking away, he yelled, “Good luck on your interview!”
Evie quickly rolled down the window and called back, “Thank you, Caleb. Have a great day!”
Although she smiled when she drove off, she nearly cried with both sadness, regret, and happiness at the moment.
If only she could have had the courage to ask him out.
It was difficult to concentrate on her interview and the long drive home.
And once at home, she snuggled up with Teddy on the couch to catch up on the latest drama on the discussion page.
To her surprise, she saw she had a friend request from a man with a t-shirt on, gently muscled arms blanketed with tattoos on one side, and he was leading a quarter horse.
It was Caleb Wright.