“Hmm,” she hums, leaning back against her shopping cart. She’s wearing a pair of dark blue scrubs and bright yellow and pink sneakers.
Her hair is pulled back into a messy ponytail, and she has very little makeup. It looks like maybe she had more on earlier in the day, but after a long shift, most of it has vanished.
She must catch me eyeing her up and down because she smirks. “Like something you see?”
“If I’m looking at you, I’m always going to like what I see.”Okay… damn.That was smooth even for me.
“What a line.”
“Is it a line, though, if I mean every word?”
Her head cocks to the side as she thinks about it. “Have you said that same thing to other women?”
My response comes immediately. “No.” I haven’t ever said that to any woman I have talked to, and there have been a lot of them. I love women.
“Then I guess it isn’t just a cheesy line.”
I step a little closer, so we’re less than a foot apart. “I do like this look on you.”
She glances down at herself in disbelief. “Really? This?” she asks, gesturing up and down her body.
“Yeah, just like that. It reminds me of how smart you are on top of being beautiful.”
“Again with the lines.”
“Again… no. It wasn’t.”
We stare at each other, neither one of us willing to break eye contact first. The issue is forced when Linc, Kane, and Oliver round the corner at the end of the aisle.
She starts to step away from me, but her back is already pressed to her cart, so she can’t go anywhere. Reluctantly, I take a step back.
“Oh, hi, Abby,” Kane says. There’s a wariness in his gaze as it moves between me and Abby.
“Hey.” That single word carries more emotion than I’d expect from someone who’s only met her child’s friend’s father once.
Kane told us about meeting Abby and Maverick at a park. The way they are staring at each other leads me to believe there might be more to the story than what he originally shared.
Abby shakes her head, looking down at Oliver. “Hi, Oliver.”
He gives her a small smile. Then, she looks up at my brother, who’s standing there like his perpetually broody self.
“Hi, grumpy one.”
It would be easy to miss, but the corner of his mouth tilts up the slightest amount.
“Hi, fiery one,” he says in the most deadpan voice.
Oliver steps over, grabbing the boxes from my hands. He steps around me, sliding the rotini back onto the shelf. He holds the bowtie noodles up with wide, expectant eyes.
“Yeah, we can get those,” I say, grabbing them from him and tossing them into the cart Kane is pushing.
“Good choice,” Abby tells him. “Those are Mav’s favorite, too.”
At the mention of his friend, Oliver lights up. I don’t know what kind of magic this Maverick kid has in him, but I love him for it.
Seeing the life drain from my favorite little kid over the last year and a half has been heartbreaking. He might not be my kid, but I love him like he is.
Kane has been my brother in every way that matters for a long time. When Linc and I had nowhere else to go as kids, we always ended up at Kane’s house.
