“Yeah, things aren’t going as well as I’d like.”
“For how long?” Shoot, I sounded so forlorn.
“I’m not sure. Keep in touch, all right?”
Did he know what he was inviting? I would never leave him alone.
“I will.”
“I have to go meet some people. I’ll talk to you soon.” He paused, then said something I didn’t catch.
“What?”
“Nothing,” he said quickly. “I have to go.”
“Bye, Luke.”
“Bye, Emily.”
I sat looking at my phone for a few minutes, tracing my finger lightly over his name in my call list. Luke.
Charlie and Darby came pounding into the kitchen, water pouring off them. Tara wasn’t far behind. “Whew!” she said. “Cats and dogs.”
“Was the movie just what you expected?” I asked, as I collected rain jackets, boots, and umbrellas, and hung them on the back porch.
“It was so good,” Darby told me. “So good!”
“Perfect,” Tara answered. “I feel refreshed.”
“Check it out!” I turned on the tap. “Ta da!”
“Ooh la la, you do know how to live large. Real hot water and everything,” Tara said. “Jason fixed it?”
“Replaced it,” I told her. “For a song!” I felt like dancing around the kitchen. Luke called! I had hot water! Tara looked at me strangely.
“You feeling ok?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.
“I’m just so happy about the hot water! Charlie, go say hi to your mom and tell her about the movie,” I suggested.
He trotted to the living room but came back quickly. “She’s asleep.”
“Darbs, we’re out of here,” Tara announced. “Let’s get home and see what Daddy’s cooking for dinner.”
“Thank you, Tara, for the movie! Charlie, let’s start cooking too,” I told him. “First wash your hands in the hot water!”
∞
My good mood carried me into the next day at the NGS. I was practically singing, which was not a good thing if we wanted to keep customers in the store. Hot water and Luke. Luke and hot water. I had to physically fight my hands away from the phone to stop myself from texting him. After a while I gave in to the impulse. I ran outside to take a picture of the forbidding rainclouds and sent it with the caption, “It’s grey here too.”
A minute later he sent back a picture of a sink. “Lots in common. I also have hot water.”
“Honey, you have on a smile that brightens up the whole store,” Martha told me.
“It’s a great day!”
She looked at me with a funny smile, head twitching a little. Uh oh.
“Well, then maybe this won’t bother you so much. Carl’s brother is coming back into town next week and he’ll need the Bronco back.”
