Mabel shook her head. “Well, we’ve already established that the girls in your high school didn’t know what they were missing. But to answer your question, we actually pronounce it ‘Boe Core’ around here. It’s named for the French fort-slash-trading post established along the river here in the 1600s.”
“‘Beautiful heart,’” he translated. “That’s nice.” His accountant’s brain wasn’t often seized by the poetry of words.
Mabel hummed an agreement, then tipped her face up to the sun. “I love being outside this time of year, even when it’s hot. It’s the end of September, which is practically October, which is basically the dead of winter, so I need to soak up as much warmth as I can before Illinois becomes a frozen tundra.”
She slipped off her sunglasses, closed her eyes, and reclined her body toward the sky, which meant Jake could stare as much as he wanted at the dip of her collarbone, the curve of her cheek, the swell of her lips. He didn’t even care that he was uncomfortably warm in his suit.
Then her eyes opened and she smiled that bold smile of hers—not the plastic, for-the-public one he’d watched her take on and off like a scarf or a pair of earrings all day, but a big, generous, eye-crinkling smile that he’d only seen her give Dave. He’d bake under the September sun in a wool overcoat and long johns if it meant spending more time with Mabel like this.
Then she sighed. “We should probably head back. I’ve got a couple of things to wrap up today before my obnoxiously early bedtime.”
The mention of her schedule jostled the new schedule to the front of his mind, and he fished for more information about just how badly she’d take a possible work upheaval. “Those hours must suck.”Be more obvious, idiot.
“Yeah, the four-thirty alarm’s the low point of my day, and I miss out on lots of things. Primetime TV, moonlight strolls, going to the movies after the sun goes down. You know, traditional adult human activities.” She smiled and took a final sip of her iced tea.
“You don’t ever wish for a different shift?” He held his breath as she shrugged, hoping she’d be interested in a change.
“Sure, I occasionally think about what a normal schedule would be like. It’d be nice to live like the rest of the world, but right now it’sso, so, soworth it to do what I do with Dave.”
And there it was. The pinprick to the happiness balloon in his chest. This lively, lovely woman would be crushed when Brandon upended her work life, and he wasn’t allowed to breathe a word to her.
Before he could fully spin out into full-blown career guilt, they were interrupted by a twentysomething guy who stopped short when he walked by their bench.
“Holy shit, you’re Mae Bell.”
Jake felt Mabel’s body go stiff before she relaxed into a self-consciously casual pose.
“In the flesh!” she chirped.
The kid’s eyes widened, and Jake didn’t blame him one bit for looking like he was staring directly into an event horizon after suddenly coming face-to-face with Mabel. He felt a little like that himself most days.
“Oh cool! Is Dave here too?” His eyes traveled over Mabel’s shoulder to land on Jake.
She instantly leaped to her feet and put her back to him, facing the newcomer. “Nope. We aren’t actually attached at the hip. It just seems like it sometimes. Wanna grab a selfie?”
As the kid juggled the foil-wrapped burrito and soda in his hands to reach for his phone, Mabel guided them a few steps away, and Jake shoved his clenched fists into his pockets. She hadn’t been joking, of course. Here she was going out of her way to keep from giving anybody the wrong idea about her private life. Then again, the privilege of actuallybeingpart of her private life wasn’t all bad.
The thought pulled his eyes back to her. She was goofing off for the camera while the kid grinned broadly and slung his arm around her shoulder and Jake quietly marinated in jealousy.
Before Mabel and the kid parted ways, he said, “See you at the bar on Saturday?”
“Wouldn’t miss it!” she called as he strolled off.
Once he and Mabel were alone again, they deposited their trash in the nearest garbage bin, then turned toward the side street where he’d parked his Jeep.
“Bar on Saturday?”
“Yeah. Dave plays in a band, and they’ve got a show on Saturday.” She nudged him with her hip. “We’ve been promoting it on air all week, if you’d bother to listen.”
He hip-checked her right back, heart bumping hard at the contact. “Oh, I heard it. I was just waiting for you to ask me to show up.”
When he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and saw her smile, he couldn’t help it. He turned to face her, and she leaned in to create a pocket of stillness in the middle of the busy lunchtime crowd.
“Would you meet me there on Saturday?” she asked. “It could be fun to do something outside work.”
Her expression was nervous and hopeful, and it was all he could do not to kiss her right there. Instead, he reached for her hand.
“I’d love that.” He ran his thumb over her knuckles, and they both shivered.
