Page 65 of The Hometown Legend

“Sure.”

She gave him her number, and then he offered to buy her a drink, which she accepted. But just another Coke.

“So, he’s not your boyfriend?” Mike asked.

She wanted to laugh. Because why would she have accepted a date with him if she was there with her boyfriend?

And why would she be letting her boyfriend chat up other women?

Did he not recognize Gideon?

“No. He’s not,” she said, shaking her head. “He’s a family friend. And he just came back into town.”

“That’s good. If your boyfriend was flirting like that with another girl...”

“Well, if I agreed to go to dinner with another guy, then we would have some serious problems, wouldn’t we?”

“I suppose so.”

She was glad that she was getting some attention, but she also very weirdly wished she were talking to Gideon again, and that was kind of a mess.

They stayed for just a little while longer, and then Gideon turned to her. “You ready to go?”

“Yeah,” she said.

“How about Friday?” said Mike.

“Yeah,” she responded. “Sure.”

“See you then.”

When they walked out to the truck, Gideon looked at her. “You have something to report?”

“I guess I have a date.” She opted not to tell Gideon about her history with Mike, since that history was linked to Gideon in ways he didn’t know. “I guess coming in with you worked. It made me seem a little bit interesting. Notorious, maybe.”

“Well. Glad I could help.”

“You didn’t seem to have any trouble talking to those two women.”

He shrugged. “Yeah. It was fine.”

“Just fine?”

“I didn’t want anything else out of that. I just wanted to be able to have an interaction and have it not go south. I get that might not make sense to you, but...”

“No. I do get it. I have a date. I’ve never been on a date before.”

“You haven’t?” He sounded shocked, which made her feel soothed in some ways.

“No.”

He opened the passenger door for her, and she climbed up into the truck. He went around to the driver’s side. He got in. He started the car and began to back out of the driveway. “And that guy is going to be your first date?”

“I went to high school with him.”

“Interesting.”

“Why is it interesting?”

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