AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“To be happy?”
“To live.”
A tiny crease forms along the bridge of his nose. “It’s almost too simple,” he whispers as if his words aren’t meant for me.
“Price, I just wanna be here. I want to breathe the air, eat the food, converse with people, gaze at mountains, and dive into oceans. Make love. Watch movies that make me laugh until I nearly wet myself. Read books that tear out my heart. I want tolive. Happiness is an emotion, a state of mind. But humans are not static. We’re constantly evolving, and our emotions shift without warning. The question is: What do you need to feel like you’re living?”
His lips part for a second. “I need not to?—”
The door chimes.
“What do you need?”
He shakes his head as if the thought has gone. “I should head home. Or do you want me to help this last customer?”
“No. I’m the one who forgot to lock the door and shut off theOpensign. Can you work from five to eight this Friday? I’ll be here by eight to close.”
“Friday.” He nods and turns. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.” I follow him out of the back room. Just as he exits through the front door, I catch a glimpse of my last customer of the night—and his adorable Fox Terrier.
“Sorry, sir. We’re closed. I can’t have you lingering too long.” I turn off theOpensign and immediately feel those darn butterflies.
Koen grins, snagging a bottle of our local ginger beer. “Sorry, I’m just really nervous about our date. How are you feeling about it?” He sets the bottle on the counter with some cash and adjusts his baseball cap. He makes that navy flannel shirt look better than I ever knew flannel could look. Plaid is officially sexy.
And I don’t believe he’s nervous about anything for one second.
I squat beside him to pet Scrot behind his ears. “Terrified. You will ask me if working in a general store is my life’s aspiration. And I will tell you that I also make crystal jewelry and essential oil perfumes. No 401K. No health insurance. I might even reveal that the people who own this general store also own the Airstream where I sleep. But in the next breath, I’ll confess that I wouldn’t change anything about my life. And you’ll either find it endearing or pathetic. But either way, you’ll stay through dinner, and I’ll ask you about your job. Since you’re a welder, I’ll run out of follow-up questions because I know nothing about welding. So … yeah. I’m nervous about our date.” I stand, giving him a toothy grin before making my way around the counter to get his change for the ginger beer while he twists off the top.
“Damn.” He takes a swig. “This is going to be a weird date. I’ve never thought to ask someone about their life’s aspirations. You’re the kind of woman who enjoys deep conversations, and I’m the guy who has a million things running through my head at once but can rarely articulate any of them in a way that makes sense. So I usually default to talking about sports or my favorite places to travel.”
I slide his change to him. “I like tennis. I used to be pretty good at it, and I love watching it. I like college football more than professional. Golf bores me in every way imaginable.”
Koen taps his knuckles on the counter several times while twisting his lips. “I need to walk Scrot. And I owe him a game of fetch. It was a busy afternoon.”
“Because your date for next weekend disrupted you.”
He chuckles before chugging the rest of his ginger beer. “Not even a little.”
I toss his bottle in the recycling bin and turn off the register. “Why are we not going out this weekend?” I ask.
“Because I’ll be out of town.”
I nod. “I see. How do you play fetch in the dark?”
“A glow-in-the-dark Frisbee.”
“Oh! That reminds me. I like Frisbee golf.” I grin. “So not all golf bores me. And I like the card game we played.”
“Would you like to walk with us to the park and play fetch too?”
I pull on my sweater. “I’d love to. I need to switch my shoes.” I squeeze past him to lock the front door. “We’ll go out back.”
“Mmm, you smell good.”
I pause for a breath before glancing over my shoulder at him just inches from me. Every time he hums, I feel it more than I hear it. And it makes me a little weak in the knees.
“Jesus, that sounded creepy.” He takes a step back and covers his grin with his fist.
