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Out In The Open
“Thank you for taking me,” Heather said to Luke when they pulled onto the dealership parking lot two weeks after her accident.
She’d gotten the money from the insurance company and had been searching for the best vehicle to get. Daisy offered to do it, but she wanted to spend time with Luke.
They’d been talking or at least texting daily since her accident. They hadn’t had a date yet since this was her first outing besides the doctor’s office. Pretty pathetic, but she didn’t like the way she looked.
Her bruises were gone to the point that she felt good enough to put a few layers of makeup on with her glasses and the reflection didn’t show the coloring that much. Which was more a yellow-brown in some spots now.
“Not a problem,” he said. “Consider me your taxi. Maybe when you’re done we can get some lunch?”
“Sure,” she said. “We might be seen out. Are you okay with that?”
“I didn’t know it was supposed to be a secret,” he said, frowning. She noticed he frowned more than normal, but when he joked or smiled it felt more sincere than before too. She couldn’t put her finger on the change and wondered if she was imagining it or not.
“It’s not. But we are sure to see someone and, once the girls at work know, then it’s out in the open.”
“I told you Trace and Zane knew or suspected.”
“Oh my God, I forgot to tell you. Or maybe you know. Violet and Trace got engaged.”
“I heard,” he said. “Zane texted me last week. Said we need to go out and have a beer again with everyone.”
“Guys or girls?” she asked.
They were making their way toward the car she was interested in. Luke had parked as close by as he could. A nice sturdy midsized SUV. Her brothers got in her head that she might not have been as hurt if she was higher up and not so low in her car.
“I got the feeling it was for everyone,” he said. “I’m sure you’ll hear.”
“Not if it’s couples,” she said. “If no one knows we are together. If we even are.”
He laughed at her. “I don’t normally spend this much time with a woman that is a friend.”
“The same with me,” she said. “A man that is. I spend this much time with a woman though.”
“Can I help you?”
They turned to see a middle-aged man coming toward them. She pivoted on her crutches. “I was wondering if we could talk about this SUV here and take it for a drive.”
He looked at her on her crutches. “Are you driving it? I can take it out with you in the passenger seat.”
She hadn’t put much thought into this. “Can we go out by ourselves to talk about it? Luke can drive, but I’m buying it.”
“That’s not a problem,” the man said. “I’m Sean.”
She shifted her crutch and shook his hand, then Luke did the same. She held back the grin since she was the one that was making the purchase.
“Heather,” she said. “And Luke can drive. That’s fine. I like the color of this one.”
She figured that made her sound silly that she was going by the color, but there were a few that had all the same features and cost so why not start with the one she liked the most?
Sean smiled and sent a half wink. “Why don’t we go inside and get some information and then you can take it out?”
“Sure,” she said.
She was moving pretty smoothly and fast in her eyes now. Her cross-body purse she had turned around so it was hitting her back rather than the front of her. That was the biggest pain, but she wasn’t about to ask Luke to carry it for her as Daisy had.
Sean held the door for them, Luke having her go before him, then putting his hand on her lower back when they got to where Sean’s desk was. “Why don’t you sit,” he said, reaching for her crutches.
