Page 15 of Saving Shepperd

We left the gym and headed to our cars. While working out, I came up with a simple menu for dinner and a mental list of things I needed to pick up. We agreed on stopping at the grocery store on the route to my house, and I couldn’t resist tugging her close before we parted ways to drive our separate cars.

“I’m sweaty,” she said. “Fair warning.”

Twelve typical guy comments about how I’d like to make her sweat flashed through my mind before I spit out, “I don’t mind.” So, fine, not my smoothest line of the bunch, but I was a little scrambled by the woman.

I was thankful she had pulled on a loose pair of joggers before we left the gym. If she strutted around the market in those little shorts the way she did the gym, I’d be in a fistfight before we made it out of the produce aisle.

We chatted as we walked the aisles, adding items to the cart as we went.

“So what’s the longest relationship you’ve been in?” I asked while she was reading the label on a box of crackers. “And what are you looking for? Do you have food allergies?”

“No, I can eat pretty much anything. I was looking to see how many carbs were in a serving. I hate working out, believe it or not.” She paused a moment and looked up from the package to catalog my reaction to that statement. “If I have to spend all that time doing something I don’t love, I’ll be damned if I’m going to undo the hard work with a bad food choice.”

“Fair enough.” It was just a hunch, but I assumed she wasn’t looking for the typical automatic response about not having to watch her weight.

Although, when she finally finished examining every detail on the damn box, she put the crackers back on the shelf and started off down the aisle. I grabbed the box she just replaced and tossed it in the cart.

She looked back with a frown and pointed to the cart. “I decided against those.”

“Do you mind if I get them? They look good. Love salty snacks.”

She shrugged and started walking again. “What’s the longest relationship you’ve been in?” she asked instead of answering the question herself.

After thinking for a moment I said, “Probably my high school sweetheart. We were together over a year, but since then nothing more than a few months. Maybe four, tops. What about you?”

“I’ve never really dated the same guy for long. A few dates and I cut bait typically.”

“So am I defying the odds here?” I asked, making it obvious with my expression that I was teasing.

She smiled then too. “Definitely an outlier.”

We finished getting what we needed plus two bottles of wine. She put on an adorable pout when I refused to let her pay. If the girl had a clue how much money I had, she’d know how ridiculous she was being. Instead of explaining things in the middle of the checkout line, I stole a quick kiss from her irresistible lips and guided her toward the door with my free hand. The large reusable bag we brought in from my trunk was full and slung over my opposite shoulder.

“At least let me carry something, then,” she insisted, and I shook my head.

“Darling, this bag weighs more than you do, you’d topple right over,” I said playfully, but she flashed a glare my way. Luckily, it was gone as soon as it appeared, but I wanted to smack my forehead for saying something so dumb. I didn’t want her to think I was bagging on her weight, so I rambled on.

“Plus, my mother raised us to be gentlemen. She’d smack me upside the head if I did something so rude.”

As we strolled to our cars, she asked, “So you grew up with nine other kids in the house. What was that like? It must have been chaos at times.” She smiled as though imagining the circus that was my family home.

“There were times it was pretty crazy. But there’s a big span of years between the ten of us, so some of my siblings were already out on their own when the youngest few were born.” The usual smile that took over my face when I spoke about my brothers and sisters appeared.

“Do you all get together regularly?” Shepperd asked as I loaded the bag in my trunk.

“For holidays at least. My mom insists we all spend Christmas at the family’s place up north and now that my oldest sister and my brother Jake have daughters, I’m sure she’ll go all out.”

Shepperd muttered to herself, “Jake Masterson… Why does that sound so familiar?”

“He’s a bigshot architect here in town. He actually uses Jacob Cole for his work, though.”

“He designed that new building for Sebastian Shark, right? The one downtown?”

“He sure did. He’s busier than ever now that the project has wrapped up and everyone sees how talented he is. How do you know about Shark?”

She dismissed my question with a wave of her hand. “Kind of a long story. But that’s so cool, and that explains why your name sounded so familiar.”

I closed the trunk and pulled her close to me. “Okay, you want to follow me to my place or are you headed home first?”

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