Page 52 of Love Bank
I managed a returning smile and nod before I took my foot off the brake and proceeded down Main Street to Coffee. My insides lurched. I pressed a hand to my stomach and I realized I wasn’t hungry. I was nervous.
To see Bain.
How does one act around a guy you’ve just slept with but don’t have a relationship with? Was there protocol for this situation? I’d heard and seen enough walks of shame to know I was doing things backward. I wasn’t slinking away in shame, I was marching forward with shaky confidence to spend more time with the man who’d given me two orgasms while stripping me of the antiquated virginity status that had haunted me like a dark cloud that never left. According to my tally, I owed him a meal in thanks. So should I order his gross onion bagel and black coffee for him? Or should I expect the man to?
I pulled my Ghia into a parking space and frowned at the workers on the sidewalk. One had a weird post in his hands while the other drilled into the concrete. I scrambled out of my low car, nearly flashing the workers in my short skirt. I’d worn the shortest one I’d bought with the girls last weekend, thinking it might catch Bain’s eye this morning.
“What’s going on, Frank?” I shouted over the noise and flying dust.
“Parking meters going in,” Frank said with a shrug, his gaze never leaving my legs.
I clamped my teeth together and took in that startling news. Since when did Auburn Hill have parking meters on Main Street? What the hell was this town coming to these days?
I shook my head and walked into Coffee, seeing Bain a couple people ahead of me in line. Now I was back to second-guessing everything. Should I go up there with him, or stay here in line? He answered it for me by swiveling his head and looking out the door, his gaze snagging on mine. He smiled, full out, and tipped his head to the side.
I waved, like the awkward mess I was, and stepped out of line to join him.
He didn’t hug me, but he did bump me with his shoulder. “Hey, good morning.” He winked and my knees nearly buckled. “How’d you sleep last night?”
“Good, good. Very good. Best sleep ever once I went to bed.” I paused. “Well, you know. The second time. I wasn’t asleep when we were in bed together.”
I snapped my mouth shut a full minute too late. I wanted to bash my head against the wall. Why wouldn’t my mouth quit forming words? The verbal diarrhea was worse than the morning after eating at Snacho’s Nachos in Kernville on the way to the lake. You only did that one time before you prayed to all that was holy to make it stop.
Bain rolled his lips in and swayed forward and back on his feet. The self-control he exuded, not bursting out laughing at my gracelessness, was laudable. When he had himself fully under control, he looked over at me, those gray eyes so similar to mine twinkling with humor. I wanted to regret what I said, but if it got him to look at me like that, I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Speaking of heartbeats, mine was out of control and I hadn’t even had my coffee yet.
“Next!” Lukas called out. The line trudged forward as a guy four ahead of us recited his order.
“You see those parking meters going in?” Bain asked. When I nodded, he continued. “The mayor’s having them put in even though the city council voted no. He found some loophole that said he had the power to install them if he needed the money for some column in his budget. ’Course, now that he’s going to chew my ass for another escaped inmate, I don’t think expressing my displeasure with the meters is a good idea. Heard talk that some citizens are going to protest.”
I nodded vigorously. “I’ll have to join them if they assemble. I’ll ask Poppy later when she stops by the clinic. She’ll know.”
Bain scrunched his face. “Is that the mail person?”
“Yeah, gray hair, sometimes purple. More round than tall?” I described her.
He smirked. “Ah yes, the Peeping Tom that stared at me through my screen door the day I moved here. I guess she was delivering the mail, but I had my shirt off after moving all the boxes in and getting sweaty. I saw her through the screen door, still as a statue. She just stood there and stared. After I got a little uncomfortable and put my shirt back on, she winked and walked off. It’s a hell of a way to welcome a guy to town.”
I laughed. “Yeah, that’s exactly Poppy. Her claim to fame is that her great-great-uncle or something like that was the infamous Levi Strauss. She’s been lobbying the city council to make more than just Fridays casual wear in the town of Auburn Hill.” I snorted. “She even sent a letter to the governor asking him to take it up in Washington for all United States Postal workers to be able to wear denim while they deliver the mail. She’s crazy, but oddly accurate with her gossip.”
“Next!”
The line moved forward again and I kind of hated how quickly Lukas was taking the orders. I wanted to stay in this line for an extended period of time, just so Bain and I could keep talking. When he wasn’t barking orders at me, he was a great conversationalist.
I shifted, his arm brushing against mine. Just that simple touch sent a shot of electricity through me. It was official: I hadn’t gotten my fill of Bain last night.
A twinge of unease hit my stomach to mix nicely with the frazzled nerves.
“Are you going to be in serious trouble with the mayor over the robbery?” I studied his face, wanting to see the truth. I got it loud and clear when the frown line appeared between his eyebrows.
He nodded and clenched his jaw, a move that turned me on as much as worried me. “Probably.”
I leaned into his arm. “Will you text me and let me know how it went?”
Totally normal to want to know if he was being fired, right? It’s not like I wanted to know because I cared about him in a girlfriend kind of way, but just as a concerned business associate. Totally.
He nodded quickly and then his face brightened. “Did you see the welcome sign this morning?”
I nodded, a smile tugging on my lips. “Yup. Tagged again. We might as well just make it official. We live in Hell not Auburn Hill.”
