Instead, I turn slowly. His gaze meets mine as he takes a few short steps up the curb and toward the store I am standing in front of. His eyes grow wide with shock. I try to smile a friendly welcoming sort of smile and hope my nerves aren’t showing too much. I must have failed, because he gives me a look I used to see when he was on to me and could see right through my act.
With a sly smirk, he stops in front of me and listens to the conversation on the other side of the phone. I go to leave, but he grabs my arm and pulls me back. Shaking his head at me all the while smiling that panty-dropping smile of his, he holds his finger up and mouths to me, “one second.”
“We can talk about that later. I’ll be there tonight, I got to go, though. Something, or rather someone, just came up.” He says smiling. I look around him for a possible escape if this goes bad. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Alright, catch ya later.”
Ending his call and putting his phone back in his pocket, he looks up at me with an inquisitive smile and doesn’t speak. I cock my head to the side and question his silence. He laughs, and my heart instinctively melts.
“You know, one of these days, we are going to have to stop this whole ‘lost for words, you speak first’ chance meetings thing,” Noah says, coming a step closer.
Smiling, I cross my arms in front of me and take a playful stance. “Is that so?”
“Mhm,” He sexily insists. The sound of his voice is a seductive rumble as he comes a little closer. “You see darlin’, you’re in my neck of the woods now. I’m not the one with any explaining to do.”
His closeness makes my knees a little weak remembering last night and the way he held me up against the wall. There is a playfulness about him. The cold shoulder I’ve received since being in Kentucky is gone. I can’t put my finger on what has changed, but I’m thankful for whatever it is.
“Your neck of the woods, huh?” I ask a little too boldly. He only nods and steps closer. “Well, I was just uh..” I stutter trying to find words to speak. “I was out walking, you see Gwen is tired and..”
He smiles and glances down at the coffee cup in my hand. Figuring it was almost gone anyways, I throw it into the trash container to my right.
“A little tired, I mean. She didn’t sleep too well after last night,” I mumble.
“I know the feeling,” Noah admits, coming to a stop in front of me. Inches away from my grasp, our shirts lightly touch as both of our breathing quickens. Time slows, and just when I’m about to say some sort of excuse to break up the tension and leave the way I came, Noah says, “You ever been down a Kentucky back road at sunset?”
Trying not to read too much into what he’s said, and the promise I hope is behind his statement, I just shake my head no. He smiles, then grabs my arm and laces it around his as he leads me back to his truck.
“Well, what kind of a southern gentleman would I be if I didn’t show you one of God’s most beautiful masterpieces, Darlin’.”
Noah winks as we round the side of his truck.
“I thought you needed to get something?” I ask as we step up to the passenger door. He turns on me, and my back hits the truck as he takes a step closer.
“Oh that, I’ll send Jolene. She’s picking up Anna May in about an hour anyway.”
Noah reaches behind my waist and opens the car door. He ushers me up inside and lets his hands linger on my waist. Closing the door, he stops for a minute at the rolled-down window and takes his phone out of his pocket, sending a text to his sister. When he’s done, he glances back up at me, hesitation lingers in his eyes.
“You ready to go for a ride?” he asks.
“If you’re the one driving, you can take me anywhere, Mr. Stewart,” I tease. He laughs as he rounds the side of his truck and jumps in the driver’s side. Pausing for a moment, he looks over at me in the passenger seat.
“What?” I ask. I look down at myself and smooth out my shirt. Looking back up, his stare captivates me.
“Just never thought I’d see you here in my truck, Eva.” My heart skips a beat. “Kinda throws me a little. It’s still hard to believe.”
“I never thought I’d be here either,” I confess as I search his eyes, and wonder it accepting a ride off into the sunset is a bad idea. From the sound of it, we’d be a long way from town, and I am not so sure I could find my way back if I had to walk. “But I am sure glad I am,” I whisper.
He smiles at me before putting the car in drive. “That makes the two of us, darlin’. Buckle up. It’s time I showed you my world.”
Chapter Forty-Four
Eva
Speaking briefly as we left town, neither one of us uttered a word once we hit the outskirts. The radio played “How Country Feels”. With the windows rolled down, we fell into a comfortable silence as we drove along.
In awe, I looked out the window at the country all around us. Small rolling hills swept up only to sweep back down and start all over again as we drove through the Kentucky countryside. Rock walls older than anything I had ever seen in California lined the road between us and the greenest Kentucky bluegrass. Horses ran in the distance where big old southern homes sat. They were complete with huge white columns like something you’d see out of Gone With The Wind.
Huge southern front porches and big tobacco barns completed the picture. At times, the rock walls would give way to beautiful white or black picket fences. A low fog hung around as when we would dip low into a sort of little holler on the back roads, only to evaporate as we’d drive up the next rolling hill. The mist was a magical sort of leftover spell from the rain an hour or so before. The humidity was light and barely noticeable as we drove. The breeze drifting around us through the cab of the truck was refreshing. Soothing. Tranquil.
Noah smiles and taps his fingers along with the beat on the radio. There’s a comfortable peace about him I had never seen in California. It’s the kind of peace that settles over me as we drive this back road in a state I never thought I’d ever visit in my life. For the first time in a long time, I can breathe. Just like my pier in Huntington Beach.
