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I continue restocking the hanging shelf, rubbing my lips together as I decide how much to tell Huxley. He’s the first person to show any interest in me, and so far, my dad hasn’t scared him away. I’m sure that will happen sooner or later, so maybe I should enjoy this time while I have it. A little indulgence. At least I’ll have an exciting memory to get me through the rest of my caged existence.
“It’s been the two of us since I was five,” I start. My voice is so quiet that I’m unsure he can hear me. It’s like I’m telling a secret, and my father could walk in at any time and berate me. “My mother was in a house fire. I was… Well, it was awful.” I swallow thickly, not wanting to relive that painful night.
“I’m right here,” Huxley murmurs, his hand resting over mine on the rung of the ladder. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that at such a young age. I can’t even image.” He pauses, brushing his thumb over my knuckles. “You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to.” I nod while he squeezes my hand. “Thank you for giving me part of your story.”
I look down at him from my position on the ladder, my eyes wandering over his thick brow, angled cheeks, and strong nose before finally landing on his teal gaze. “Why are you being so nice to me?” I blurt without thinking.
Huxley holds out his hand to help me down the ladder. I take it, letting him pull me closer once my feet are on the ground. The enigmatic man lifts my hand to his lips, brushing the sweetest kiss to my knuckles.
“I hate that you even have to ask,” he whispers, placing my hand over his heart. “Do you feel that? Do you feel how fast my heart is beating?”
I nod, biting my lip.
“You’re the only one I’ve ever had this reaction to. I…” He trails off, looking at the ceiling as if he can find more words up there. After a beat of silence, he takes a deep breath and meets my eyes again. “I’m a little rusty when it comes to asking beautiful women on dates, but I have to shoot my shot, as the kids say these days.”
I blink at the most handsome, kindest man I’ve ever met, dumb-struck for a second by his words. “Kids these days?” I ask with a grin. I’m focusing on that because the idea of him asking me on a date simply doesn’t register in my mind. It’s ridiculous. A fever dream. “How old are you?” I ask in a playful voice.
“Old enough to know what I want when I see it,” Huxley replies, his gaze locked on mine. He tilts his head to rest his forehead on mine. “Jordan, will you accompany me on a date to the carnival in Eagleton tomorrow night?”
I breathe in his cedar and smoke scent, trembling slightly from being this close to him. “My dad—” I cut myself off, realizing how lame it sounds to tell Huxley my dad won’t let me. He’s had a whole life in the military, seen and done things I can’t even dream of, though I know not all of his experiences were good. I’m just… me. The lonely, pathetic, scarred girl who works at her father’s hardware store in a dying town.
Huxley doesn’t see me that way, though. My heart pounds against my chest as a bolt of energy shoots up my spine. Unlike my father, who tries to take away my power at every turn, he makes me feel bold and capable of doing anything.
One look into those hopeful teal eyes, and I know what my answer is. “Yes,” I say, pushing up on my tiptoes to kiss his cheek.
Huxley’s eyebrows fly up to his hairline, and I worry for a second that I took things too far. I start to step away, but Huxley loops his arm around my waist, pulling me close once again. He leans down, tickling the shell of my ear with his lips. Each breath fans over my skin, pricking every single inch with awareness.
“I can’t wait for more of that, but we’ll go at your pace, sweet girl.”
I nod, finding it hard to catch my breath. Huxley places the lightest kiss on my temple, breathing me in as if he’s savoring my scent.
When I hear the back door to the shop open, I jump out of Huxley’s arms, unsure of how my dad would react to seeing us like this. He certainly wouldn’t let me open the store on my own ever again.
“What time is the carnival tomorrow?” I ask in a hushed voice.
“I was going to pick you up around seven?”
“I’ll meet you at the coffee shop, Walnut Street Cafe,” I interject.
“I’m more than happy to pick you–”
“Walnut Street Cafe, tomorrow at seven,” I tell him, my eyes pleading with Huxley to trust me on this. It’ll be hard enough to convince my dad to let me out for the night. He’ll lose his shit if he discovers I’m going out with a man at least a decade older than me.
“Tomorrow at seven,” Huxley confirms, seemingly understanding that this is how it has to happen. He looks like he wants to hug me again or maybe kiss me for real, but when my father coughs in the back room and rummages around, we both know our time is up. “See you soon,” he says with a smile.
I watch him slip out the front door and realize he never even bought anything. Did he come all the way here just to see me? To ask me out? It feels like a fairy tale.
“Who was that?” my dad asks as he steps into the front store area.
“A customer,” I automatically reply.
My dad grunts, staring daggers out of the front store window as Huxley hops into his truck and pulls out of the parking lot.
“We don’t need any customers like that. You stay away from him. All men are only after one thing.”
“You can’t ban me from seeing all men,” I say with an exasperated sigh. “Don’t you want me to be happily married someday?”
My father grumbles something under his breath and turns his attention to organizing a box of nuts and bolts. I roll my eyes but decide not to press the subject. If we get into a fight about it now, there’s no way he’ll let me leave tomorrow, no matter what lie I come up with.
