Chapter 14
Elias
She’s been at it for hours. I’ve given her space and helped Silas around the bar for as long as I can stand, but I’m ready to blow this popsicle stand.
I grimace at another one of Goldie’s sayings. At this point, I’m just an old grandma in a younger man’s body.
“You out?” Silas asks as I toss him a rag after cleaning off a table. “You know I’m a sucker for free labor.”
I snort at that. It was more of a way to pass time than a favor. “I think I need to get some food in her,” I say, gesturing upstairs. “A woman cannot live on iced tea alone.”
Silas’s lips curl into a devious grin. “How gentlemanly of you to look after the new girl in town. Are you sweet on her?”
And I thought my mother was bad.
“Shut it,” I grumble. “Just more free labor around here.”
He sniggers and I ignore him, making my way upstairs. I find Nora standing at the window, a tired expression on her pretty face. Her cheeks are pink and damp. All the letters from the ottoman have been stacked neatly on top and tied together.
“Ready for some fried clams?”
She spins to look at me, her blond hair dancing around her, and a smile tugs at her lips. “I thought you’d never ask.”
I forget, for a moment, that she’s not my favorite person. In fact, I’m mesmerized by her long lashes as they blink against her apple cheeks. Dragging my gaze from them, I find my eyes lingering over her smiling mouth for far too long.
Get it together, man.
As she gathers up the letters, I take her empty iced tea glass. I deliver the glass into the dishwasher bin on the way out and she heads to the bar to talk to Silas. By the time I exit the kitchen and round the bar, I find him hugging her.
A spike ofsomethingshoots through me. It’s unfamiliar, and whatever it is, I don’t like it. Gives me the willies.
“Ready?” I ask, voice a little louder and firmer than I intend.
Silas shoots me a knowing look. “She’s all yours.”
I shift uncomfortably at that statement. There’s nothing about Nora Everhart that’s mine, but there’s a small part of me that’s glad they’re done with their hug.
“Come on,” I say as we pass a loud table full of tourists. “We can walk. I doubt there’s any parking up that way.”
Once outside, the late afternoon sun burns hot against our skin. I squint at the brightness and wonder if I could make it all the way up Wing Whirr Way with my eyes closed. I’ve only gone up this path a million times.
But, with all these extra people in town, I’d inevitably run over some little kid or an escaped budgie or something, so the eyes remain open.
“Want to put your letters in the truck?” I ask when we pass my vehicle.
She stops long enough to toss them inside. I lock it back up and we continue our trek. Nora hugs her purse to her and walks close enough to my side I can smell her perfume. I don’t hate it.
“Is that a bookstore?” she asks, pointing across Wing Whirr Way.
“Yup.”
“Don’t go in there much?” Her eyes glimmer as she teases me.
“Actually,” I say grumpily, “I don’t. And not because I don’t read.”
Her eyebrows hike up. “You can’t leave me on a cliffy like that. Why don’t you go in there?”
“I don’t like some of the staff.”
