Page 78 of Amber Gambler

The faint tug as he tried to free himself and withdraw was answer enough.

“I’ll have you know, I was crushing on you back when Josie was convinced you were a psycho killer.” The shock on his face made me laugh. “You were handsome, kind, and peculiar. You were in my favorite place for a stroll, which also spoke to me. I fought against my better judgment to spend time with you.” I rolled my shoulder. “I couldn’t help my curiosity. I wanted to know you. It drove my siblings crazy.”

“How can you be certain that initial attraction wasn’t merely a subconscious kinship?”

To make my point, I turned the tables on him. “What first drew you to me?”

“Your beauty.” He dipped his gaze then lifted it again. “And then your kindness.”

“So, your reaction was superficial.”

He scrunched his forehead in consideration, clearly not liking the distilled version of events.

“You saw a pretty girl and decided to engage her in conversation.”

“You were more than that.” He struggled to find the words. “I can’t qualify it, but I knew it.”

“Perhaps it was asubconscious kinship?”

A huff of laughter passed his lips as he considered me. “Perhaps.”

“Still want to check out the restaurant with me?”

“As if I would let you go alone.”

“One almost kiss,” I drawled, “and suddenly you’relettingme do things?”

“I spent the day with your sister, and she explained her expectations of me in great detail.”

No wonder I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of her. She feared for her life. Rightly so.

“Oh Lord.” I pulled out of the parking lot onto the road. “Do I want to know?”

“She asked that I not share the specifics with you.”

“That tracks.” I groaned. “You don’t have to keep any promises she conned you into making.”

“I made vows, and I will honor them.”

A flashback to when Josie was six or seven and obsessed with marriage hit me hard. That kid married her green beans to her mashed potatoes, butterflies to worms, dirt to rocks. Honestly, I was shocked that, as much as Josie loved being in love, she hadn’t been married five or six times already. Just for the fun of it.

But those first years on our own taught us intimacy was often transactional, and learning it changed her.

Why that memory struck me now, I blamed on the mental picture I carried all day of Josie playing Barbie with Kierce. I imagined her reciting wedding vows for each of us in silly voices from her childhood games then mashing our faces together while making kissy noises.

“Have I upset you?”

Startled from my reverie, I packed away those silly remembrances. “I was just thinking.”

Thankfully, we arrived at Armie’s restaurant before I had to go into detail about my fit of nostalgia.

To find the lights off and the lot empty hurt worse than a stubbed toe. I had spent so many happy nights here cutting it up with Matty and Josie while Armie waited on us hand and foot. Just as Armie’s soul had been extinguished, the soul of this place had been quenched too.

“We can always come back in the morning.”

“On the off chance Mr. Collins was right and he did see Audrey tonight, we should check it out.”

“You miss him, don’t you?”

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