“I do. I like working with my hands and being my own boss. That way when someone asks me along on a road trip, I’m free to go.”
They shared a smile for a lingering moment.
“What do you do in your spare time?” he asked.
She lifted a shoulder. “Hang out with friends, go to the park, go garage-saleing. And as I mentioned before, I volunteer at the zoo. That’s fun.”
“They didn’t teach you angry-raccoon management?”
“Strangely enough, no. The raccoons at the zoo are cute and cuddly.” She slid him a smile, maybe flirting a little. Would that be so terrible?
“What about boyfriends? Seeing anyone special these days?”
She met his eyes, her smile falling, and got stuck there for a hot minute. Like, literally hot. Her skin burned and her face was probably turning twelve shades of pink.
“Um, not at the moment.” Her heart rate was reaching rabid-raccoon-evasion levels. “How about you?”
He leaned forward, elbows on his thighs. “Nope, no boyfriends.”
She nudged him with her shoulder.
“I was dating a girl from Ellijay for a while, but it didn’t work out. We broke up a few months ago.”
“Who broke up?”
“I guess I did, but I think it was pretty mutual.”
Sure it was. Allie gave a wry huff. Men like Luke—capable, mature, responsible, and fun—did not come along every day.
“What was that for?” he asked.
“What was what for?”
“That huff. You huffed.”
“I didn’t huff.”
“Yes, you did.”
“Well, if I did, I’ve forgotten why.”
Walter, having finally found the perfect spot to relieve himself, lifted his leg at the base of a pine tree. But this was just the beginning. He always seemed to have enough reserves to water several trees.
“I don’t have an anniversary gift for your grandparents.”
“They won’t expect you to. I can add your name to mine if you want.”
“That’s okay. What’d you get them?”
“I had their wedding photo made into one of those canvas prints. It turned out really beautiful.” She stared up past the canopy of treetops to the blue skies beyond. “Fifty years... can you even imagine?”
He leaned back, his shoulder brushing hers. “Yeah...”
At the reflective note in his voice, she looked at him. Gazing into those mysterious green eyes, she still saw the boy he’d been. But they were more solemn these days, as if life and its trials had drained away a bit of the fun. She made a note to fix that.
But something else simmered in those depths too. Something warm and inviting. Something that made it hard to breathe.
The air seemed to crackle around them, electrified. It had been this way before. But no other man had made her feel the way Luke had. All these years she’d written it off as the flush of adolescence. That magical elixir of hormones that somehow allowed a person to reach emotional levels never again achieved.
