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8
GERRY
Malia surprising me at the diner was something that I definitely was not expecting. Yet I was delighted that it happened. I caught sight of Wendy during the conversation and saw her at the counter watching us as she spoke with Finn. This whole situation must have been cooked up between the two of them, but I wasn’t going to complain. Finn knew I tended to eat my lunch there that day of the week, and Wendy must have gotten the story out of her as well.
She was stunning, too. Absolutely ravishing in every way, her hair falling down over her eyes occasionally and brushing it back behind her ears in a movement so sexy that I had trouble concentrating on the words coming out of my mouth. Her red lips matched her perfectly manicured nails, and I suddenly saw what Wendy had been saying about her wanting to be on television. She absolutely had the looks.
Malia was sassy, too, and extremely intelligent. At just twenty years old, she was a firecracker of a personality and smarts. Sweet too, with a smile that was incredibly disarming and a voice that sounded genuine and light.
She was exactly the type of girl I would be interested in, had she been five years older.
“Are you sure you don’t want something to eat?” I asked.
“You know what,” she said. “Actually, I do. I have to confess. I didn’t know if this was going to be a situation I wanted to stick around for, but frankly, I am hungry, and you’re super nice. So, burger it is.”
“Burger it is,” I said, smiling.
I made a tiny wave in the direction of our waitress, a woman named Janet, who came over quickly and took her order. When she walked away, we began to awkwardly segue our conversation to the diner itself and the town.
“So, how long are you thinking of staying in Ashford?” I asked, after Janet returned with Malia’s burger.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” she said. “My original plan is kind of shot to hell right now, but I can circle back to it. Until then, I mostly plan on focusing on figuring out how to walk with a prosthetic and maybe taking a year to figure myself out.”
She took a giant bite of her burger, and I smiled. I always loved when a woman wasn’t afraid to eat in front of a man. I found the whole fussy, dainty salad pickers to be so annoying.
“Well, I don’t know how much of Ashford you have seen, but it’s gorgeous here,” I said. “The mountains are the most wonderful scenery, and there are thousands of little creeks and lakes and things to explore if you’re the hiking type.”
I snapped my mouth shut. How could I say something that stupid?
“Oh, I love hiking,” she said, surprising me. “It’s one of the things I’m most looking forward to once I have my prosthetic. I’m not like an avid hiker or anything, but I love getting out into nature.”
“Good,” I said, feeling like I had been let off the hook. “As a surveyor, I see a lot of it. It’s incredible.”
“I’m sure,” she said. “But that’s a ways off for me, I think. Right now, it’s a hike just getting up the steps of the diner.”
I laughed.
“Fair enough.”
The conversation remained light and friendly, and when her burger was done, I paid for our meal and stood, waiting for her as she made her way out of the booth. We shook hands, and she walked away, joining Wendy, who was making a face I couldn’t quite figure out as they left. I made my way to the front, where Finn was standing, leaning over the counter.
“She’s nice,” Finn said.
“Malia?” I asked.
“No, Wendy, the woman I am engaged to,” Finn said sarcastically.
“Right,” I said, suddenly realizing I hadn’t taken my eyes off Malia as she made her way back out to the car. I had an impulse to run out there and hold the car door open for her that I had to restrain.
“I’ve only met her a few times,” Finn said. “But Wendy told me about why she was here. I would venture to say that was a one-time thing from her.”
“Oh, I’m sure,” I said, turning and finally giving Finn my full attention. “She was a very nice girl. Everyone has a bad day sometimes, especially when they are so young.”
“Yeah,” Finn said, leaving the follow-up blank. It was like he wanted to say something but held it back.
“Well, I am going to get out of here,” I said. “See you around?”
“You know it,” Finn said, snapping off a quick salute.
I drove back to work that day fighting with my mind. The thoughts that were bubbling up to the surface about Malia that were wildly inappropriate. While legal, what twenty-year-old-girl would want to have anything to do with a man in his thirties? Especially after dealing with something so tragic as what she had gone through. I was probably bordering between being a random background person in her life and a potential creep.
