Why? I didn’t need to stay with her. The sheriff had just confirmed that no one was coming after me for what I’d done. I could leave her to run her errands on her own. Hell, I should be getting back to work or even helping Alyssa find someplace to stay.
Yet, I was still standing here, staring at the gorgeous woman with blue eyes as she smiled up at me like it was a sunny day in the middle of summer.
It annoyed the hell out of me the first time I met her. And the second and the third, but now? Now, I couldn’t fucking resist it.
“Well, we’d better get going, then. If we arrive too late, Mrs. Bennett will make us stay for dinner.”
“Question,” I said as we headed down the street. “Why are we walking?”
“Because I love to walk around town. The only time I take my car for my deliveries is when the weather is too bad. But it’s practically spring now. Look, I even see a small speck of green!” she pointed at the median running down the center of Main Street.
“I think that’s garbage.”
“It’s not garbage. It’s very clearly grass.”
“Even if it is, it’ll be dead next week when the cold front comes through.”
Her smile took on a look of satisfaction. “There isn’t going to be a cold front.”
“Yeah? Then why did I hear the weatherman state it just this morning?”
“Because you were listening to Cliff. He’s the wrong person to listen to. If you want the real weather, you have to go by what Shannon says. She’s over at KVLI.”
“And Cliff’s weather reports are made up?”
“No. He just follows all those meteorological charts.”
“You mean science. And what does Shannon go by?”
“Intuition,” she grinned. “And she’s never let me down.”
I rolled my eyes as we continued down the street. Never in all my life had I heard such an idiotic statement, but I wasn’t about to start an argument with her. Not over weather patterns.
“So, will Alyssa be staying with you?”
Curious, I glanced over at her. “Why so interested?”
“Oh, nothing. Just wondering if my place on the couch is going to be taken. Maybe I’ll need to find another couch to stay on.”
“My couch is permanently open to you,” I answered, feeling better than I had in weeks.
It was odd, to not feel angry when I should. I had spent weeks being annoyed with this woman, and yet, right now, I found that strolling down the road with her and making jokes was actually…enjoyable.
There had to be something seriously wrong with me. Maybe I had a brain tumor or some strange form of stomach cancer that sent bad blood into my head, making my thoughts twist into?—
“Is there something wrong?” she asked.
“What?”
“You’ve got this pained look on your face, and I’m not sure if you’re having a heart attack or if you’re constipated.”
“Neither.”
“Not that you would tell me if you were constipated.”
“No, I most definitely wouldn’t.”
“So, you could be constipated at this very moment, yet I wouldn’t know because you wouldn’t share it with me even if you were.”
