And that was fun!
Once the smoothie king was gone, the place cleared out pretty quickly. A couple of minutes later, Percy and I were out the door and on our way back to the car. Juggling a smoothie, a cupcake, a purse, and a leash was already borderline manic—and just to keep things interesting, my keys had staged afull-blown game of hide-and-seek at the very bottom of the purse.
Thankful for Percy’s crumb obsession, which kept him occupied as I continued my hunt for the keys, I led him absently through the outdoor seating area. Percy licked up every crumb he could find while I focused on the hard-to-reach corners of my purse. By the time I found my keychain, we were next to the last table and Percy had wound his leash around my legs and a couple of chairs.
“Hold on, Bud. Let’s get untangled,” I said, trying unsuccessfully to free myself from Percy’s accidental booby trap. I set my things on the table and lost my balance as I tried to pull my leg free.
“Whoa, there,” a deep and familiar voice said from behind. “Want a hand?” Fireworks went off in my stomach as a hot hand came to rest on the small of my back. I scooted away, shocked at the way my skin sizzled athis touch. How was that even possible? I was wearingtwolayers of clothing.
I mulled over his question about hands. Um, yes. I wanted to take his hand and put it right back where it had been to see if the first time had been a fluke. I needed to prove that there was no way one hand could hold so much magic inside it.
“Nah, I think I’ve got it.” Wriggling around to face my new acquaintance, I stood on one foot and worked to untangle my ankle from Percy’s web-like leash trap. My flamingo stance proved useless when Percy decided to lunge for a discarded cupcake paper some sloppy patron had left behind on one of the tables. The leash tightened, dragging two chairs with it and slamming them into the table beside me. The jolt was enough to knock me off balance. Again.
Fortunately for me, the smoothie king was there to break my fall.
Unfortunately for him, I knocked into his extra-tall green smoothie justabout as hard as the chairs had knocked into the table, splattering it down the front of his hoodie.
I gasped, equal parts mortified for ruining his shirt and amazed at the way his steadying arm fit around my waist so perfectly. “I am so sorry,” I said, taking a hobbling step backward and still working to free myself from Percy’s mess. “I mean, green looks good on you, but I think your shirt has seen better days.”
“Hmm, give up a team hoodie for a chance to help a lovely lady?” He said with a lopsided smile. “I’d say I just traded up.” The spark in his eye hit me right in the gut, sending tingles all the way to the tips of my toes.
Don’t you wobble. Don’t you wobble!I demanded of my knees.
“I think I know how to help,” he said, looking down at the leash, which was tangled more than ever around legs of various kinds: table, chair, and my own. He reached into thepocket on the front of his hoodie and pulled out a bag of beef jerky. “What’s his name?”
“Lord Percival Pennybone the First. But you can call him Percy.”
The crinkling bag was enough to recall Percy from scavenging for crumbs at the end of his leash. “I’m Zane, by the way.”
“Wren,” I said, shivering when his hand brushed mine as he reached for Percy’s leash.
“You can let go. He’s not going anywhere.” Percy’s nose was all over Zane’s hand holding the jerky.
I dropped the leash, releasing the tension keeping me bound up. It was simple enough to reel it in with Zane keeping Percy distracted.
“Thanks,” I said. “I owe you one.”
“Oh, yeah?” The glint in his eye told me he was thinking of ways to collect.
“This should settle the score.” I picked up the cupcake.
“So, you’re going to pay me back by giving me myowncupcake?”
“No, I’m going to pay you back by giving youhalfofmycupcake.” I took off the paper and broke the cupcake in half. He took his half like a good sport, and I held mine up as if giving a toast. “Cheers.”
“Cheers.”
We pretend-clinked our cupcake halves and then took a bite. Zane’s face scrunched before motioning for me to follow him to a nearby trash can, both of us groaning with disgust. We both had mercy on our taste buds and spit out our bites.
“What kind of sick joke was that?” Zane said.
“I don’t know,” I said, hurrying back to my smoothie to wash the taste out of my mouth. “It tasted like grass clippings.” I picked up the cupcake paper and read the label on the side. “Lavender cornmeal with wheat grass.”
Zane burst into a wholesome laugh that soaked into me like sweet, warm honey. “Itwasgrassclippings.”
Our laughter died down, and I turned my attention back to his hoodie. “Your poor shirt.”
He shrugged. “Hoodies are a dime a dozen. You, on the other hand…” He paused, taking his lower lip between his teeth. “Like I said, I traded up.”
