Maybe this time around I should just try to be happy too.
I slipped my phone from my pocket and sent Travis a quick text letting him know I’d made it to Mystic Hollow without any issues. He might have only just started college, but he had an old soul, and ever since Rick’s cheating had been outed, he’d worried about me like he was the mom instead of me.
After a few minutes, I got a thumbs up back.
So articulate.
Touching my mother’s locket, I tried not to think about the toads in my garden, the clothes tossed behind a fast food restaurant not far from my house, or the car that I’d parked in his spot in his new apartment complex; or at least in the spot I thought was his. It wasn’t like I murdered them. It wasn’t like I did anything.
But then again, I thought I turned them into toads, so who knew what I’d really done?
I tossed the dusty sheets and blankets in the wash, unpacked, and went to get a snack. Every piece of food in the fridge was labeled with Henry’s name, all still on his half of the fridge, just like it had been when it was the two of us living together. I grinned and decided that it’d be better just to head to the store.
Well, it would have been if I wasn’t exhausted from driving most of the day with a braced shoulder.
Take-out it was. The store could wait until tomorrow. It wasn’t like I needed breakfast to survive, and the take-out would get me through lunch if I managed to sleep in.
Now the big question. Pizza or burgers?
That may have been the big question, but the real question was whether or not I’d be able to stay awake long enough to actually eat it. I hadn’t realized how late it was or how tired I was.
* * *
Outside once more,I took a deep breath of the late morning air, letting the salty scent fill my lungs before I drove the relaxing path to the closest store in town. There were only a few spots out front, but I managed to catch someone backing out. I turned on my blinker and waited, but when they pulled out, another car swooped in and took the spot.
My mouth dropped open. I unrolled my other window and shouted, “I was waiting for that spot!”
A lady with a bad perm turned around and grinned. “You don’t own a parking spot.”
When she whirled away from me, I glared and narrowed my eyes.
Suddenly, a loud sound, followed by three more big pops, made me jump. The woman turned back around, and we both stared at her four flat tires. Her jaw dropped. My jaw dropped. I stepped on the gas and decided to head for the other store in town.
I was shaking a little when I reached the store a few minutes later and parked. Tires pop all the time. Right? It wasn’t because I was glaring at her. It wasn’t anything I did. No one could possibly blame me for it.
Grabbing my purse, I awkwardly put it over one shoulder and headed inside. Pushing the darn cart ended up being harder than I thought as I tried to shop and do it one-handed. As I tried to push it unevenly through the people leaving, I ran into one person, who cast me a dirty look, and then another. When I turned to apologize to the second person, the front of my cart hit a pile of cans, and suddenly they were raining down on the ground like gunfire going off.
When the last can rolled and stopped in front of my cart, I felt every eye in the place on me. Wincing, cheeks burning hot, I started trying to pick up the cans. Which was another thing that was surprisingly hard to do one-handed.
“You need some help?”
The man’s voice was deep and filled with amusement. Even before I looked up I was preparing myself for someone hot, but when my eyes met his deep green eyes, I wasn’t ready for what I saw. Since becoming single, I’d found that most of the men I saw out and about were either way too young for me, happily married, or looked like they were my ex. But this man? He washandsome, especially with his auburn hair that had grey peppered at his temples, and a slight scruff of beard with the same grey peppered in it. He was probably my age, but he didn’t have the same signs of flab that I had at my arms and belly, the flab I couldn’t seem to get rid of. Instead, he had big arms and the kind of hard chest and trim waist that made my mouth water.
“You must be married.”
The second the words left my lips, I winced and looked down at the cans, continuing to put them flat on their bottom, in a sad pile.
I heard him laugh, and he had the sexiest laugh I’d ever heard. “Actually, no.”
And then he knelt down beside me and started to add to my stack. Our hands brushed once, and I knew I had to be imagining the electricity that seemed to course between us.
“I’m a widower,” he said. “Nearly ten years now.”
Oh, damn. But I couldn’t help but wish Rick had died. Was that too mean of me?
Meh, I didn’t care even if it was. He was a dick.
“I’m Daniel,” he said. “Daniel Arthur. I’d shake your hand but you only seem to have one to use at the moment.”
