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“Friends?”
“Yeah. Friends. There’s no harm in that, right?”
I had no idea who was inhabiting my body as I spoke those words, but I really hoped they didn’t read like desperation. As sad as it was to admit, that was exactly how I felt. Desperate to avoid walking away from her a second time without doing everything in my power to keep her in my life.
Sure, I was reserved. But when I wanted something, I went after it. I wouldn’t have survived Marine Corps boot camp, two deployments, and seven years in such a high-intensity job otherwise.
“Something tells me there could be a lot of harm in that, given the way we click, Thatcher Reid.”
I smiled. “Well, we won’t know unless we try.”
Standing straighter, she nodded, holding out her hand. “Deal. We can be friends.”
“Deal.” I shook her hand, marveling at the shock that ran up my arm at her touch. “What time are you off? I can drop these flowers to my mom and then swing back this way.”
Her face fell, and she pulled her hand back. “Late. I work a lot. To tell you the truth, it’s why I don’t have many friends. Stella is pretty much my only one. Keeping this place running takes up all of my time; you can just ask all the ex-boyfriends who got tired of it.”
“Yeah, well, you’re talking to a guy who spends days at a time in the firehouse on call. If anyone can deal with a rough work schedule, it’s me. Besides, we’re just friends. What do I care how much you work?”
She laughed then. “Hmm, when you put it like that…”
“It sounds like it’ll work out, huh?”
“It just might.”
“Thanks again for the flowers,friend.” I started to go, then, once again, I turned back. “Hang on, if I’m not mistaken, you’re supposed to take a break.”
She pursed her lips. “Apparently.”
“Wanna have dinner with me? As friends, of course.”
Hattie grinned, nodding once. “I’d like that.”
6
HATTIE
Two weeks into my friendship with Thatcher, there was just as much harm in it as I originally thought. Well, if by harm, we were talking about a ridiculous amount of butterflies in my stomach every time I thought about him.
And thatwasharmful, in a way, because it proved my original point. Getting closer to him would only make it worse when he left.
Ever since the day we’d agreed to be friends, I hadn’t been able to get him off my mind. He’d worked alternating shifts, sometimes twenty-four hours and sometimes forty-eight, but when he was off, we were together.
Which had only been possible because the man offered himself up as an unpaid set of hands around the store. According to him, he was simply being a good friend.
At first, Thatcher hadn’t understood why we kept such long hours if the business was struggling. But it wasn’t that we didn’t have any customers. It was that we didn’t have as many as we used to, and that meant we needed to cut expenses or risk going out of business.
We couldn’t compromise on our quality, so we’d had to make the hard decision to lay off our employees. Now, we worked around the clock, keeping things running with only myself, my parents, and Debbie. If things didn’t get better soon, Debbie would be the next one to go, and then it would be even worse for the three of us.
“So, he’s on shift today?” Stella asked, lounging against the counter while I worked. “Your mom said he’s been a huge help around here on his off days.”
“Yes. And he really has. He’s been helping me in the store while she and my dad take care of incoming shipments and deliveries, and that means they don’t spend the whole time worrying about me handling everything by myself.”
The fact that Debbie didn’t work full-time was hard for us. She was a great help when she was here, of course, but the rest of the time? My parents were busy with receiving shipments or making deliveries, leaving a ton for me to do in addition to running the front end of the store.
Having Thatcher here on and off had been a lifesaver. And not just because of his work ethic, but also because he had this steadfast way about him that made me feel like everything would be okay.
It was … nice.
