“No.”
Hayley huffed again, and again he couldn’t decipher if the sound was exasperation, amusement, or a little bit of both. “I have never needed an interpreter for the simple wordnobefore, but here I am. Levi, do you mean, no, you don’t mind stopping by the store, or no, you won’t take me?”
He slipped the thumb of his left hand into his palm, wrapped the rest of his fingers around the stubby digit, and squeezed. “You don’t need to go to the store. I have everything at the house.”
She raised a skeptical brow. “You have an extra toothbrush lying around?”
“Yes.”
She seemed to think a minute. “What if I need ... other things?”
Other things? Oh. Right. There were some products that wouldn’t normally be stocked by a bachelor that a woman might need. Lucky for her, Levi was prepared in that department too.
“I have feminine hygiene products if you need them, and if that’s what you’re referring to. Sisters,” he said by way of explanation. His siblings didn’t visit often, but he was always prepared for when one of them decided to descend upon him.
Hayley’s mouth parted. “That’s the most you’ve spoken at one time since I’ve met you and it was about tampons.” Laughter trickled past her lips.
A warm blanket of comfort wrapped around his shoulders at the sound, releasing some of the tension that had been gathering in his chest. Her laughter was like sunshine on a brisk autumn morning, seeping into his skin and soaking into his bones.
His gaze pulled toward her, and he stared in wonderment. In bewilderment. This woman was unarguably having a rotten day. Her vehicle had broken down. She was stranded in a backwoods town until who knew when, with none of her own things, forced to stay with a stranger who had the personality of a grumpy hermit, and she was laughing. He had made her laugh. How had that even happened?
He caught himself staring and forced his gaze back to the road. No need to make her even more uncomfortable around him by his unwanted attention.
“And look at you, you’re not even a little embarrassed by talking about the functions of the female reproductive system.” She tapped her chin, her eyes gleaming. “Oh, there is definitely a story, and I can’t wait to hear it.”
“Sisters,” he reiterated.
“Mm-hmm,” she agreed, more placating than anything.
Let her think whatever she wanted. Didn’t matter to him as long as she didn’t walk around his house smelling like some grandmother’s poisonous potpourri. It had taken him long enough to figure out which men’s brands and scents didn’t cause him to have a reaction; he wasn’t about to welcome a return experience with an unwanted houseguest staying an interminable amount of time.
Even if her laughter was the strands that sunshine danced to.
After what seemed like hours but was only the time it took to travel twelve miles, the silhouettes of Turkey Grove’s fewestablishments dotted between the trunks of red maples and sweetgum trees. Besides his service station and Jack MacDonald’s general store, there was also Aunt May’s Diner, Hillman’s grocer-slash-pharmacy, and, of course, the church.
“Your town is so quaint.”
Levi grunted. Turkey Grove wasn’t really big enough to be considered a town, but that was just semantics. Plus, he liked his community the way it was. There weren’t many places left where the big cities weren’t expanding, becoming obese with the growing population and spilling over into suburbs and what were once small towns. He liked the fact that cell phones didn’t get reception in this neck of the woods. That Wi-Fi was a luxury and not a necessity and that some of his neighbors still referred to the internet as “the interwebs” and had zero social media accounts. He liked that instead of interstate traffic, he could awaken to soft birdcalls on a still morning with dew fresh on the ground. That instead of listening to noisy neighbors through a thin apartment wall, he could hear the twigs snap in his backyard when a young deer family came to nibble on the tender shoots of grass.
He liked that he could go days without interacting with another human being. That, he liked the most.
“How long have you lived here?”
He flicked her a glance out of the corner of his eye.
She held up her hands in surrender.
Hmm. Maybe his glance had been more of a glare.
“Sorry. My daddy says I can talk the legs off a chair, and Mama calls me Chatty Cathy.”
Levi squeezed his thumb again. Her parents weren’t wrong on either account.
He slowed the truck as he neared the mechanic shop, released his hold on his thumb, and returned both hands to the wheel. He watched his side mirror as he took the turn wide, making sure that the bookmobile attached to the towrigging would clear the ditch on the side. He swung the tow truck around and lined up the rear of the bookmobile to back it into the garage bay.
“Do you need any help? Should I get out and direct you, maybe?”
Levi threw the gear into park. Hayley reached toward the seat belt clipped at her side and unfastened it while Levi jumped out of the cab and marched around the hood of the truck. He could use her help. By giving him just a few moments when he didn’t have to process her unceasing chatter.
