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Until tonight.
That kiss was the one that held everything I’d never said.
All I could do was hope that he’d heard it, because I wasn’t sure I’d ever have the courage to say it myself.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN – HALLEY
Animals > People
I put my key in my front door and turned it. The click of the lock was satisfying, and I kept my hand on the doorknob when I spun to face Preston. He’d followed me home from the fair because he insisted on ‘walking’ me to my door.
“I had fun tonight,” I said softly. “Despite my reservations.”
His lips twitched. “Thank you for the inappropriately named fish.”
“I had nothing to do with the name. It was all you.”
“I am stupidly proud of it.”
“I figured you would be. Thank you for the raccoon—that I will keep safely inside so Boris doesn’t get ideas.”
“Boris?”
“The daddy raccoon. He can get randy. I saw him getting off with a branch once.”
“Your life is a never-ending thrill ride, isn’t it?”
“Only if you consider horny trash pandas thrilling.”
Preston paused. “I’m not sure I do, actually.”
“Well, there you go then.”
He laughed and took a step closer to me. “What do you think? Is a second date on the cards?”
“Ask me tomorrow when I’ve witnessed you kissing fifty-something different women.”
“You don’t have to witness anything. That’s what the curtain between us is for. I’m not exactly looking forward to you kissing other people, either.”
“I didn’t make you sign up for the booth.”
“I’m glad I did. If I didn’t, I probably never would’ve asked you out.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m glad you did.” I dragged the side of my bottom lip through my teeth as I smiled. “And I guess it was a date in the end.”
“It was always a date.” Preston tugged on a lock of my hair, but instead of letting his hand fall, he brushed the back of his fingers across my cheek. The slight curve of his lips was reflected in the brightness of his eyes, and I instinctively leaned in as he dipped his head.
Our lips touched for the second time tonight.
“Goodnight, Halley,” he whispered against my mouth.
He released me and walked to his car that was parked at the end of my drive. My lips were warm where he’d kissed me, and I touched my fingers to them as I waved him goodbye.
His headlights lit up my street, and I waited on the doorstep until they were gone and the road was left in near darkness again.
Then, and only then, did I step inside my house.
I was barely inside for two minutes and removed my shoes when the clunk of my trash can falling over filled the air.
Goddamn those trash pandas.
I unlocked the back door and stomped outside. The back porch light clicked on and lit up the culprits. Two gray raccoons with black beady eyes and bushy tails jerked their little heads toward the porch where I stood with my hands on my hips.
“Boris! Rufus!” I scolded the two grown-up raccoons. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Neither of them moved. They were so used to me at this point that they knew I meant food, and the food I served was far better than the rotten banana skins and God knows whatever else was in my trash.
“You two sit there for two minutes, and I’ll make your sandwiches. You really need to learn some patience, boys. It’s unbecoming!”
With that, I turned back into my kitchen and set about making half a dozen sandwiches for them. There was no way my mom had come by earlier, and I could have kicked myself for thinking she would have.
She was flakier than a bakery full of pastries.
I pulled out a new jar of peanut butter and set to slathering six slices of cheap bread with yesterday’s sell-by date with it. There were no signs of mold, and I wasn’t buying those little freeloaders expensive, fresh bread, so they had what they were given.
I slapped the sandwiches together and cut each one into squares. I really wasn’t all that sure when this had become a part of my life as easily as it had, but at least I was a sandwich pro by now. Maybe I needed to leave the library and open my own sandwich truck.
Aimed solely at hungry, trash-pilfering wildlife.
I could guarantee there was a market for it.
I put the sandwiches on a plate and carried it outside, plus a bottle of mineral water. I didn’t usually water the little heathens with anything this fancy, but I really couldn’t be bothered to take the bowl inside to the tap.
They were drinking like kings tonight.
I knelt down in front of the bowls and distributed the sandwiches between the empty ones, then filled up the water one. Three more raccoons came out of the shadows of the woodland my yard backed up on to. One was Betty, the family matriarch, and the other two were adolescents.
