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It would have been well-deserved, but at the same time I was willing to take that risk because from the moment I first laid eyes on this woman, I knew I had to have her by my side. Even if it is only for the next few days before I ship out again.
But I got lucky. She sank into the kiss, moaning against my lips, and she’s here with me now.
And her eyes light up when I lead her through the bookstore to an inconspicuous door marked Supply Room. I put my hand on the knob and Nora says, “Are we about to trespass?”
I just smile at her, then push the door open.
Inside, there’s a short hallway, and at the end, a second door. As we get closer, jazz music begins to bleed through the cracks, and Nora’s got this magical look on her face like I’m taking her to Narnia on our first date.
“Is this a speakeasy?” she asks as I open the second door for her to reveal a moodily lit bar, complete with bartenders in period dress.
“Yup,” I tell her. “It’s actually called The Supply Room. My sister, Chelsea’s mom, told me I had to check it out while I’m in town. What do you think?”
“It’s amazing,” Nora says, actually spinning around to take it all in. “I’ve lived in Golden Creek all my life and I never knew this was here.”
“It’s new,” I say, taking her hand and leading her over to an open table.
A server in a pinstripe vest and a fedora comes to take our orders. We decide on a whiskey flight to share, and a sampler of the speakeasy’s best canapes. While we wait, Nora leans across the table and says, “Okay, you brought me Watership Down because of Chelsea. What’s the story behind the Shakespeare and the Fitzgerald?”
I smile. I knew books would be better for a librarian than flowers. “My mother loved the sonnets. She used to make my sister and I memorize them when we were on summer break, so our brains wouldn’t atrophy, she said.”
“And The Great Gatsby?”
“‘You see, I usually find myself among strangers because I drift here and there, trying to forget the sad things that happened to me,’” I quote, my chin resting in my hand as I look into Nora’s beautiful eyes. “Everything you need to know about the world you can learn from Fitzgerald.”
She smiles, the color that started in her cheeks subtly radiating out, and I struggle not to follow it into the inviting depths of her cleavage. “You’re very well-read.”
“Sometimes I find myself with a lot of time on my hands,” I say, and before our food has even arrived, I stand up and extend my hand to her. “Dance with me.”
This bar is an easy place to lose yourself in. It’s all dark corners and velvet upholstery, and the jazz music, played by a live band on a stage in front of the dance floor, makes me want to twirl Nora and pull her into my arms. She surprises me with a few steps of the Charleston, then I surprise her right back by pulling her into a Lindy Hop. The dance floor clears out for us and by the end of the song, we’re laughing and completely consumed in our own little world.
I only come back to our surroundings when people start clapping for us and the color on Nora’s cheeks deepens. Then she looks to our table and says, “Look, our food is here.”
“Let’s eat,” I say, leading her back to the table, feeling drunk and wonderful although we haven’t even touched our whiskey flight yet.
Just before she sits, I pull Nora into my arms again and kiss her. Caramel. She tastes like caramel, and it reminds me of a long-ago deployment in Portugal.
I just can’t get enough of this woman.
5
Nora
We spend hours at the speakeasy, talking and dancing and yes, getting a little tipsy. I can’t remember the last time a date went this well—no awkward silences or personality mismatches. Things with Nash are just… perfect.
I tell him about how I became a children’s librarian because I always knew I wanted a job that would surround me with kids, where I could make a difference in their lives and teach them the love of reading that has always sustained me.
And he tells me how he’s gotten to see the world thanks to the Army.
“That must be wonderful,” I say after he lists off all the places he’s been—Hawaii, Japan, Kuwait, even Australia. “I’ve never been too far beyond Golden Creek.”
Nash smiles at me, flashing those hungry eyes at me in a way that wakes up my core. “Do you ever think about leaving, traveling?”
“Traveling, yes,” I say. “Leaving, never. My family’s here—my whole world is here.”
He grins, making me want to run my fingers along the scratchy stubble on his jaw, and says, “There’s a lot more out there, Nora. I wish I could show it to you.”
