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divorce,
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teen,
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just fishing for a compliment?â I teased him, swinging our joined hands.
He angled me a teasing look, crunching on the cone now.
âYou are gorgeous,â I said then. âBut not just on the outside.â For the first time since this morning I truly allowed myself to think about everything Christy had told me last night. Blythe, sweetheart, tell me yourself. Trust me enough to tell me .
âAw, baby,â he said then, finishing the last of the cone in one bite. He stopped and turned to me, hugging me hard to his chest for a moment, there on the sidewalk of his hometown, the sun beating down on us.
âYou are, you know,â I told him, and he smoothed hair back from my forehead, inadvertently displacing my sunglasses.
âSorry,â he murmured, settling them back over my eyes and then punctuating the word with a soft kiss.
He drove me around for the rest of the afternoon, pointing out everything that I requested, from his high school to the place where heâd had his first job (the local grocery store, a place called County Beef).
âThey sell everything, not just meat,â heâd explained, and I punched his arm.
âI tried wrangling one summer,â he said, after weâd ordered fries from a drive-through window.
âAs in horse wrangling?â I asked. Iâd kicked off my shoes and was sitting with my feet propped on the dashboard, the greasy container of fries we were sharing balanced on my knees. Both of us were doing everything to keep the shadow of Blyâs appearance before a judge from our thoughts.
âYeah, thereâs lots of beef ranchers in this area, and I worked at one of the local places before senior year. It was tough work. Iâd never really been on a horse, but I thought it couldnât be that hard. Boy, was I wrong. Mom had a regular who helped me get the job. It was his brotherâs place and they needed extra hands.â
âDid you wear a cowboy hat?â I asked, trying to sound innocent.
âWhy yes, I did,â he said, and I didnât have to look his way to know he was smiling.
âDo you still have it?â I asked next.
âWhat are you saying?â he teased.
âIâve never worked anywhere but Shore Leave,â I said then.
âWhat about when you lived in Chicago?â
âMy only job there was raising the girls. I probably should have found a job after Ruthann was in school. Even just for the sake of seeing other adults, making friends. To this day my best friend is still Jillian.â
Bly shrugged. âThatâs cool. I think youâre lucky if you have one best friend, instead of a hundred acquaintances that donât actually give a shit about you. Besides, Iâd say she feels the same about you. Before you got to Landon last May, she talked about you all the time.â
I smiled, missing her; how in the hell had I managed to live apart from my family for over a decade and a half?
âAnd I asked her questions about you all the time, just to hear more about you. God, I was already fascinated by you, even when I hadnât met you.â
âYou were, really?â I asked. âI mean, youâve said that before. I can tell you I was fascinated the moment I met you. But then again, I hadnât heard about you until the minute we arrived.â
He caught my knee in one hand and squeezed, and I snatched it away before he could start tickling me again. âDonât you dare! Iâll choke,â I warned, holding up a french fry to illustrate my point.
âI just want to touch you,â he said, coaxing me with his tone, easing his palm over my leg again. I allowed it this time. He smoothed his fingers over my skin, gently. âWhen you came into the café that first night it was like youâd taken all the air out of the room.â
I admitted, âI felt exactly the same. You know it. But I didnât dare acknowledge it. I thought about
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