On their second dinner date, Chinese takeout at his place, and—booyah—a break-in at the store had to be addressed in person.
Beryl propped her elbows on the table, her chin in her palms and batted her eyelashes at him. “What do you think—cloud of locusts signaling the end of the world or a freak natural disaster for tonight’s possible interruptions?”
“I don’t know. I’m going to go with natural disaster. Are there hurricanes in Arkansas?” Jake asked.
Beryl laughed. “I don’t think so, but I’ll never say never for this conversation.”
After that, Jake had spent an amazing week with Beryl. They had seen each other every single day for lunch or dinner. A couple of times, they shared both meals together. They had met at places all over town and Beryl had introduced him to all manner of wonderful foods he’d somehow forgotten existed. How did you forget the taste of food?
A week to the day after the break-in at his store, they had dinner at his house again. It was the perfect end of a lovely seven days together.
As they cleaned up the dishes and put away the leftovers, they talked about their workdays like an old married couple, which he knew they would never be. That didn’t stop him from enjoying her company.
Jake was about to suggest the sit on the sofa and talk or watch a movie. Beryl had a different plan. She slipped her arms around his neck and kissed him like she didn’t plan on stopping. He was totally fine with that.
But then she started to move. She danced them slowly toward the bedroom door he always kept open. Jake decided quickly that he was totally fine with that, too.
For a long while, he didn’t need to make any decisions other than what it took to make Beryl sigh.
A long time later, Jake opened his eyes, unsure of what had startled him from sleep. He blinked in the darkness. It felt like the middle of the night. He looked over at his nightstand. His alarm clock said it was after two in the morning. The warmth next to him calmed him. Beryl.
He breathed in deeply and with it came her lovely scent.
Jake didn’t know what his life had been like before he woke in the hospital, but he was so utterly content in his life as it was right now, with Beryl, even if she didn’t want to get married. While he understood why she felt the way she did, he promised himself that someday he’d convince her that they were meant to be together, whether they made it official or not.
He could not imagine his life without her. She made every day better. She made everything about his life better.
He intended to do the same for her.
The next night, Jake worked later than he’d intended in his shop. He wanted to get ahead of several orders that had come in over the past few days. He was grateful for the projects, since it could be feast or famine with small businesses like his.
He felt himself letting his guard down a little more each day as he waited for something to happen. Nothing happened. Not this whole week. Not even a sideways glance from anyone.
Aside from having Beryl in his day-to-day life, Jake spent the first several days after the store was broken into paying very rapt attention to everyone and everything around him, even in broad daylight.
His home was broken into, he was almost snatched off the street by two hooligans hired by some mysterious being and then his workplace had been broken into. He wasn’t keeping a close eye out for no reason.
He practically had Wyatt Campbell on speed dial and had recently added Chance Hollister, the sheriff of Alienn, Arkansas, to his phone contacts.
Though he tried to stay on high alert all the time, his stamina was waning. He knew he was relaxing. He would bewalking in town and realize he was thinking about work—no, that was a lie; he’d be thinking about Beryl—and not paying attention to anything around him.
He looked forward to seeing Beryl each and every chance he got.
Today, a work issue meant she’d had to cancel their lunch plans. After work, she was going to the nail salon with the girls.
Beryl did manage to pop into the shop quickly midafternoon while running an errand. “I hate to miss dinner with you after missing lunch, but I’ve canceled this nail salon date once already. I feel like I can’t blow them off a second time.”
“No need to explain. I know I’ve monopolized your time this week. Please, go have fun with your sister and your friend. And just for general information, I’ll be eating a late dinner over at Cosmos Café. Join me for dessert if you want. I’ll even spring for coffee to go with whatever you choose. But if you can’t make it, I completely understand.”
Beryl kissed Jake and he kissed her back. Then she did it again and he didn’t stop her. If a new customer hadn’t shown up, it was possible she would have missed yet another date with Jade and Ivy for Nebula Nail Salon mani-pedis and gossip.
“What color are you doing this time,” Jade asked Ivy as her nail tech removed a vibrant shade of green from her toes.
“I used to have Spare Me a French Quarter, but this time maybe I’ll do, Purple With a Purpose. How about you?”
