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“Nope. Not one bit.”
Man, it must suck not to trust an integral part of yourself.
“You know,” I said, grabbing a cart. “One of the reasons I first decided to clean up the cottage was to get away from it all. It’s funny that you’re coming with me now.”
“I know. I’m irresistible,” he grinned, taking the cart from me. “What are the other reasons?”
“Getting away from Nigel. I figured he wouldn’t have that address. And also, it’s just time I stopped procrastinating. I’m really good at that when I want to be.”
“What? Procrastination?”
“Yup. You could say I’m apro-crastinator.”
He made a face at my terrible joke, but the corner of his lips lifted just the tiniest bit.
“Hey! You almost smiled there!” I crowed victoriously.
“It doesn’t count if it’s because of a horrible pun.”
“Ya, it does. A smile’s a smile, dude.”
We went through the grocery store, list in hand.
“I noticed everything is quick and easy to make, like instant foods and salads,” Zayn said.
“Yeah. I figure I’ll be too busy organizing and packing up everything to cook.”
“I can cook for you, if you like.” He turned me to face him, his fingers on the backs of my arms.
“Really?” I looked up into his beautiful blue-gray eyes, surprised by the offer. “I mean. Yeah. That’d be amazing.”
“Is there anything you don’t eat?”
“Nope. I’m not picky.”
“Great.” He turned me around, placing me between him and the cart. Then with both hands on either side of me, he steered us over to the meat and seafood section and started choosing some stuff.
It wasn’t long before we had everything we needed and were back at the van. I was almost sad our little grocery stop was over. It was so easy to pretend we were a couple shopping for the week. I’d never gotten close enough to anyone to do that before, and it had felt kind of nice.
I was glad I’d made the decision to invite him despite hemming and hawing over it.
That reminded me. I didn’t even have his phone number yet.
“This is kinda backward, but can I have your number?” I asked when we got back into the van.
Zayn laughed. “Of course.”
I retrieved Salt and Pepper from my purse together with my phone, so I could enter his digits. The two little rascals ran off into the back of the van instead of into their carrier.
“Hey, get back here!” I twisted in my seat to look for them. “Okay, whatever you do, don’t move your seat,” I warned Zayn.
“I won’t.”
I was having flashbacks to the time they’d decided to hide under the passenger seat when we’d driven across the country. They’d found and eaten several old fries that had been there for months, maybe years. We didn’t realize it until we got to the motel, and I’d had to deal with the messy…consequences.
I had no idea what was under these seats today, and I didn’t want to chance another similar episode.
Pepper climbed on top of a box, and I reached back but couldn’t quite get him.
