Page 44 of Trying Sophie

He stopped and for a brief second he looked puzzled again.

“Oh, right.” He reached into his jacket and pulled out a manila envelope. “It’s already stamped,” he said, pushing it toward me. “Can you drop it when you get them to send your package?”

Confounded by what had just happened, wordlessly I took the envelope from him.

“You don’t have to go,” I said as he turned to leave. “I’m sure we can be civil to one another for a few more minutes at least.”

“Actually, I do,” he said, gesturing to his watch. “Thanks for taking care of that.”

He was out the door before I could think how to respond.

* * *

“Okay, you’re definitely stalking me,” I remarked when he grabbed a box of cereal I’d been about to put in my cart and tossed it into his own.

“Once again, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Then, after a pause, “Sorry about the other day. It’s not often I get called on my bullshit so I didn’t react very well.”

Reaching for a different cereal, I asked, “So you admit it then?”

He picked up a carton of muesli and pretended to inspect its ingredients. “I guess I do.” Returning the box to the shelf he turned to me. “Only, I really didn’t know I did that. You’re the first person who’s ever pointed it out to me.”

“Well, it’s really annoying.”

I pushed my cart down the aisle and he followed.

“I’ll have to take your word for it.”

“What are you doing here anyway?” I asked.

Was it just me or was it suspicious he was shopping in Ballycurra instead of whatever grocery store was closest to his place?

“I promised my mom I’d pick up some things for her. Dutiful son and all that.” He shrugged but I let it go because it was no skin off my nose if he didn’t want to talk about the titillating topic of his mother’s grocery list.

But even though I didn’t say anything, he realized at once what he’d done. “Sorry. Force of habit.”

And then he smiled and wow.

He should smile all the damn time because when he did it was like the clouds disappeared and the sun shone brightly while the angels sang. I wanted him to smile at me every damn time I saw him.

“So,” I said, around an uncomfortable cough, “this is three times in a little over a week you’ve been back to Ballycurra?”

It wouldn’t have been remarkable, except he’d told me he typically only visited his mom and sister once a week. His neighborhood wasn’t that far away, but it must have been a pain in the ass to keep making the trek back and forth.

“Eh, old Colleen’s been a bit needier than usual,” he answered. “I think with the holidays coming up she’s trying to guilt me into being home more.”

“But don’t you mind though? I’m sure you have other things you could be doing. Plus, the rugby and all that?”

Yes, I was blatantly fishing for information about what he did in his free time. While we’d shared a number of fun and flirty texts over the past few weeks, they weren’t very deep conversations. I knew a lot about Declan’s schedule, but I didn’t really know anything about his life.

“It’s fine,” he replied, grabbing a carton of milk as I did the same. “Except for practice, games, travel, and special appearances, my schedule’s pretty flexible. If it helps my mom to run errands a couple times a week, I guess I don’t mind.”

“So,” I said, fishing for more details since his last answer hadn’t given anything of substance away, “tell me more about your family.”

“Since my dad passed, there’s just me, my sister Aoife, and my mam, Colleen.”

I chuckled that he called his mom Colleen but he’d told me before she was going through a phase where she thought if her kids called her by her first name, people might think she was younger than she really was which, she thought, would make it easier to attract a new man.

---