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“He’s good for you.”
“Mom, I…” Alanna paused as her ears picked up the sound of an approaching car engine.
Her mother’s face brightened. “He’s here!” She stepped up to Alanna and planted a kiss on her eldest daughter’s cheek. “Have fun on your date. And remember to use protection.”
“Mom!” Alanna gasped.
Dede winked at her, before turning back to her seedlings.
When Alanna pulled open the door, Sully was on the porch, raising his fist to knock. He wore a checkered button-up over a gray t-shirt. A pair of dark jeans sat perfectly on his hips. Sully’s face broke out into a warm smile.
She gave him a once over.
Wavy caramel hair begging to be mussed?Check.
Brown eyes alight with humor?Check
Charming glasses that made him look just as smart as he was?Oh, yeah.She really did love his glasses.
Hollywood nerd hot,she thought with satisfaction. Tess hadn’t been wrong with that description.
Sully leaned in. Alanna puckered her hungry lips.
“If you could have dinner with anyone, living or dead, who would it be?” he whispered into her ear.
Alanna laughed, and he took her hand, leading her to the car.
On the short drive to their mystery destination, they debated their dinner companions. (Her: Anna Wintour. Him: Leonardo DiVinci). Sully’s smile was wide and easy, but Alanna noted how he drummed his fingers unconsciously on the wheel.
“Okay, worst ice cream flavor ever,” she said. “Go.”
As always, Sully didn’t respond right away. He leaned back in the seat ever so slightly, his lips pursing in thought.
“Pickles and peanut butter,” he finally answered as he pulled the car into a parking lot.
“Ha! That’s nowhere near the worst,” Alanna announced. “Your creativity is sorely lacking. Thecorrectanswer is crushed beetles, snake livers, and eight-day-old cabbage.”
Sully threw back his head and laughed. “Eight-day-old cabbage is just sauerkraut. I like sauerkraut.”
His laugh. It felt like being wrapped in a towel right out of the dryer. Alanna could just close her eyes and melt into Sully’s laugh. Instead, she peered through her Chanel sunglasses at their surroundings, then quirked an eyebrow at Sully.
They were sitting in the small public parking lot off Chaparral Drive, right in the center of old Yucca Hills.
“This is for you.” Sully handed her a small white envelope. Was it her imagination or did he just gulp?
“Did you write me a poem,” she teased in mock fear.
“Not a poem.” His tender smile grew wider, revealing a dimple in his right cheek. “A clue.”
“A clue?” Now she was intrigued. Alanna opened the envelope and pulled out a yellow index card. Clean precise letters greeted her.The Greek hero Theseus used this to find his way out of the minotaur’s maze.
Alanna thought for a moment, then smiled. At one of the women’s shelters her family had lived in for a few months she’d pulled a book of Greek myths from a children’s reading shelf. She’d read that book over and over, dreaming she was a powerful goddess like Athena, Artemis, or Hera, who destroyed any pesky humans who annoyed them.
“It’s a scavenger hunt,” she said. Sully stepped out of the car, came around to her side, and opened her door. He held out a hand to her. “Then you’d better go scavenge.”
The day was warm with just a hint of crispness in the air as Alanna confidently led Sully across Chaparral Drive to Purls of Wisdom, the shop for all things yarn. Behind the counter, Madam Hargrove greeted them with a wide smile.
A large, thick woman, Madam Hargrove was a force to be reckoned with in Yucca Hills. Her wardrobe consisted solely of jewel tones no matter the season or fashion, and she was one of those women who “put on” her face in the morning. Her heavily penciled eyebrows lifted and her russet lips cracked into a smile when they entered her shop.
