Chapters (38)
- one
- two
- three
- four
- five
- six
- seven
- eight
- nine
- ten
- eleven
- twelve
- thirteen
- fourteen
- fifteen
- sixteen
- seventeen
- eighteen
- nineteen
- twenty
- twenty-one
- twenty-two
- twenty-three
- twenty-four
- twenty-five
- twenty-six
- twenty-seven
- twenty-eight
- twenty-nine
- thirty
- thirty-one
- thirty-two
- thirty-three
- thirty-four
- thirty-five
- thirty-six
- thirty-seven
- epilogue
“It kills me, to be honest with you.” Rick stared at a bird flying low across the lake, tracing its path. “I want to tell you a story,” he said.
“Okay.” I wondered why he wouldn’t look at me. I was probably in for thirty minutes of how wonderful his kids are.
“A few months ago, I was standing in a corner of the bank, hidden like they want me. Maybe peeking through a fern. High-level surveillance near the end of a Friday shift.” He took a sip of beer. “In walks this girl. She’s wearing ripped jeans and a faded black t-shirt, so I know she’s not too concerned with impressing anyone. Gets halfway to the counter before remembering to take off her sunglasses. I caught a glimpse of her eyes as she said hello to the teller and they reminded me of a late-afternoon winter sky. She smiled as she slid a piece of paper through the window and laughed at some joke she made. In that moment...God, she was pretty.”
He paused, still looking at the lake.
“Anyway, the girl cashes a check and turns to leave. She notices this old couple fifteen feet away, trying to open the door. She sprints over and swings it wide and holds it for them. The old lady is leaning on the man, so she takes the lady’s arm and helps them all the way to the counter. Then she waits, introducing herself and talking quietly to the woman, while her husband finishes his business. A full three or four minutes. She takes the lady’s arm again and slowly walks them all the way to their ancient Buick, then stands and watches to make sure they pull out into traffic okay before walking to her own car.” Another sip, and he turned to smile at me. “A maroon Honda.”
I bit my lip and looked up at him. “And?”
“And I called a buddy to run your plate. Because your eyes are beautiful and you wear awkward ripped jeans and I loved the part of your heart I saw that day. And no, I didn’t stalk you, outside of a quick Facebook and Twitter search that didn’t tell me much. But I sure watched for you to come back into the bank.”
“You could have...”
“I could have placed myself in your path a hundred different times, but it felt wrong. Then that kid did me the enormous favor of scraping off a bunch of your car’s fender. Kinda felt like I was in that place and time for a reason.”
“But you waited for me to ask you out.”