Burris nodded. “We know, you’re always right.”
She looked at Anelya. “Sometimes they can learn.”
Her laugh helped ease some of the tension that had grown inside of me since we’d first seen the lump on Harris’s head.
Anelya kept us talking about our work with the company and what we liked about the town all the way to her car.
She turned and gave each of us a quick kiss.
“Can we see you again this weekend?” I asked. I wasn’t used to feeling so unsure with women. Usually I knew when women were attracted to me, and my dates proceeded along an expected path with discreet dates, gifts, and overnights.
“That would be nice. Do you guys do normal things like bowl or mini golf?”
I didn’t know how to respond. I couldn’t even remember doing sweet dates like that, and then I realized she was teasing.
“Tell you what,” Burris said, chuckling. “You can plan any date you like, and we will be happy to attend.”
“Burris.” I wasn’t sure I wanted to relinquish total control.
“Deal.” She opened her car door quickly.
“Wait,” I said. “We will follow you. Give us a minute to pull out behind you. We have Burris’s red pickup tonight.”
“Carolina lives in those townhomes beyond the forest. It’s really not far.”
“That’s remote. Please humor us. Let us be gentlemen.”
Something in my face must have let her know I was serious, so she relented, nodding.
“Anything she wants, Burris?” I said to my stepbrother and best friend as we hurried to his truck. “What if she likes line dancing or something like that?”
“Then you’d better find boots, brother.” He pulled out and was soon near her car.
“This was a good idea,” he said, once we were following her. “I’m suspicious of everything now.”
I knew what he meant.
Chapter five
Anelya
“That’s odd,” I said the next morning to Carolina as she served me a strawberry waffle at the diner.
“What’s odd?”
It was ten in the morning and there was a lull in customers. She’d already been at work before I woke up so I hadn’t had a chance to fill her in on my date. I’d come in to tell her, and to be honest, to get strawberry waffles, and realized I had a voicemail.
“I have a request for an interview today for a paramedic job here.”
“Here? As in here in my town?” Carolina smiled. “That would be wonderful!”
“I only applied yesterday. I’ve barely even received acknowledgements from the other applications.”
“Yes, but those were larger towns. Things are different here. But you’re going, right?”
“Yes.” I’d be foolish to skip it. “I need to learn about the department, quickly. I’ll call one of my professors and do some quick research.”
I took a bite of my waffles. “The food here has a lot going for it, though.”
