Chapter 22 Wes
Good lord, she is beautiful.
Just sitting in my truck with the window down, wind blowing her hair and talking about tea . . . I think I may be ruined for other women. She’s got a hold on me and she doesn’t even know it. I catch myself constantly looking from her to the road and back again. She clears her throat.
“I grew up going to the park here, as you know, and some of the older rangers actually remembered me, so it helped when I interviewed.” I smile at her, but see that she’s frowning.
“You were here for an interview? How long have you been in town?” She looks down at her hands and starts to fiddle with her purse straps.
“Um, that was about two months back. I got here—like moved in and started working at the park—almost two weeks ago.” I can see where this is going and I’m not sure what to say. “I see now that I was wrong, but honestly I wasn’t sure that any of you would be interested in seeing me. I know it was so long ago that we were friends.”
“We were more than friends,” she says, barely above a whisper. I have to turn away as she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. I wonder if she’s feeling another wave of memories, or panic, coming on. Chloe coming by today makes a lot more sense now. I didn’t think talking things through once would fix everything, but it does have me wondering if I’ve made a mistake in asking her out tonight. Maybe this was pushing things too fast.
Luckily, the turn for the restaurant has come and I say pointedly, “We’re here.” I look over at her after parking the truck and she opens the door slowly. “Wait, are you okay? Are you sure you’d still like to get dinner?”
“I’m okay, and of course, let’s go.” Her eyes snap up to mine with a shake of her head, and her hair flips around her as she offers a slight smile. We move towards the restaurant and ask for a spot near the music on the patio. The afternoon sun warms us and basks everything in a soft glow. Lights are hung across the patio and glowing walkways line the shoreline. She looked gorgeous before, but in this light . . . she’s everything.
We sit opposite one another at a small table and open our menus. I keep glancing up at her to see if I can glean even a hint of how she’s doing. She doesn’t give much away and I end up noticing her tight tee and full lips again. My mind begins to wander but is brought back when our waiter stops by and we’re both surprised to see it’s Joe.
“Hey, how are you doing, Joe? I thought you might be in the back tonight,” I say, giving him a friendly slap on the shoulder as leans down to hand us our menus. Erick had mentioned Joe might be here helping out his dad tonight before I left. He doesn’t seem too happy to see us, though. He looks from me to Rose and back again. Did I miss something?
“I’m doing fine, what are you both doing here? Meeting up with friends?” he asks coldly, eyes darting back and forth.
What’s his deal?
“No, just a dinner out,” Rose chimes in. “And we’re excited for the live music! How do you two know each other?” She’s bounced back from her quietness earlier, so she must be feeling a bit better.
“Through Erick.” He gives us that same back and forth look, like he’s trying to figure out what’s going on here. “What can I get you?” Joe runs down the specials and different menu items. Rose struggles to decide, even though she’s had everything here, but I find it adorable.
After ordering, Rose and I fall into the comfortable ease of catching up more, after so long there’s a lot to share. She tells me more about all that went into opening her shop, her time away at college, how her family is doing. We still avoid discussing my leaving, but talk about how high school was for me, how I felt out of place in the bigger city, my job working for a landscaping company to help make ends meet for my parents, college, and the road that brought me back to Raspberry Falls.
Conversation feels easy and I’m always at home around Rose. I think most people feel that way.
Joe stops by a lot more than necessary and I’m beginning to wonder what the story is there. “Random question, does Joe have a thing for you? Or did you two date or something?” I scoff, not really believing it, or maybe just wanting to deny that something was going on.
“We actually dated a few months back. It was brief, but ended quite badly. I still try to be cordial with him.” She purses her lips and looks towards the music. “Wes, would you dance with me? Just one dance? As friends, of course.”
I can’t hide my surprise at her question. “I would love to, Rose.” The music is slow and soft, and I’m already anticipating holding her close as we make our way to the dance floor.
I marvel at the way her eyes sparkle under the strings of lights—the way the dusk light shines around us and makes the lake feel like the edge of the world. “So what’s next for you, Rose? If I know you, you’ve already got the next adventure planned.”
“I’d love to do the Superior Trail, but I need to find someone to do it with me.”
“Yeah, I remember you talking about that before, you would be awesome at that. Would Elle go with you?” I’m concentrating with all I have on our conversation as the feel of her in my arms, us swaying softly. It’s almost too much.
“I’m not sure, we’d have to train, and with all of her commissions coming in right now, she’s pretty busy.” We dance for three more songs, talking about hiking, reminiscing about stolen kisses behind the school, and movies on Friday nights.
On our way back to the table, I ask, “Would you like to come over to the park for a while? We have an extra ranger on call every night just in case and it’s my turn tonight to stay at one of the sites and be ready for any emergency.” Before I can hear her answer though, Joe is on the dance floor and walking right up to us, clearly upset.
“Excuse me, Wes and Rose. It’s customary to pay your bill before leaving your table. I’d like to ask you to take care of this right now.” Joe’s face turns into a scowl and I turn towards him.
“Hi, Joe. I just forgot to pay before we came to dance. I think a lot of people here probably do that. You know us, come on, do you actually think we’d be trying to walk out on you?” He gives a little shove on my shoulder, pushing me towards the table and definitely harder than needed. “Whoa, buddy, what’s your problem?”
“My problem is that you think you can waltz back in here and take everything that doesn’t belong to you. You can pay for your bill at the front desk. I’ll meet you there.”
His words hit my chest like a barrel and I almost double over. I look quickly to Rose to see how she’s handling all this. Her mouth is wide open in shock and I feel the same way. I’d never think Joe could act that way, but since they had been together, I guess I can understand some jealousy. This must be why he’s been weird towards me.
“Rose, I’m going to go take care of this. Are you okay?” She moves slowly away from Joe, clearly taken aback by his outburst.
“I’m okay. I’ll meet you at the car.” She nods to me, taking the keys as I slip them into her hand, and I follow Joe to pay as he heads to the front of the restaurant. Joes takes my card and as I’m signing my name I feel his eyes on me once more.
“I thought we were becoming friends, Joe. What happened?” He’s friends with Erick, so I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt. He just caused a hell of a scene, though.
Joe turns and starts walking away and I think he’s just going to ignore me but then I hear, “Nope, we are not friends, and I’m going to ask that you not come back here again.”