Page 81 of A Much Younger Man
Chapter Nineteen
The clinic wasn’t openon Sundays, but we still needed to feed the kittens. Because it was such a nice day, Beck and I walked. We stopped for coffee on the way.
It wasn’t my imagination that several pairs of eyes watched us closely as we sat on the patio with our drinks. The women seated at the next table—a mother and daughter last name Everly who brought their cat, Esmerelda to the clinic—said hello.
“Having a nice morning?” I asked.
“Very nice.” The daughter eyed Beck like he was one of the shop’s delicious pastries. “You’re the guitarist, right?”
“Name’s Beck.” Beck preened a little. “You saw me play?”
“The other day.” She nodded vigorously. “You totally shred. I’m Reese.”
“Hi, Reese. You play?”
Reese glanced at her mom. “I used to take lessons, but my teacher moved.”
“Beck’s teaching me,” I mentioned on Beck’s behalf. “Maybe he could give you lessons too.”
“That’d be awesome.” She looked to her mother. “Can I take lessons again, Mom?”
“Oh. I don’t know, sweetheart.” Mrs. Everly appeared flustered. She glanced from me to Beck. “We’ll have to ask your dad.”
“I’m not actually a teacher or anything,” Beck admitted.
“But you’re so good,” Reese gushed. “Think of what I could learn just from watching you play.”
“I guess we could try it and see,” Beck offered.
“Honey, we need to talk this over as a family first.” The girl had little hearts in her eyes, and I thought that’s why her mother hesitated. I hoped she didn’t look down on Beck because of his circumstances.
“Here, I have these cards.” Beck handed her one of the dog-walking cards Travis had made him. “Right now, I walk dogs and do some pet sitting. As you can see, I didn’t even think of teaching guitar.”
I kicked his foot with mine. “Until you decided I needed to learn.”
He kicked my foot in retaliation. “You have a guitar just sitting there, gathering dust. I felt sorry for it.”
“Well, thank you.” I turned back to Mrs. Everly. “I can now play ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.’”
“You had to start somewhere.” Beck reached over and covered my hand with his. Mrs. Everly noticed, flushed, and glanced away quickly, but the damage was done. Her obvious disapproval made the coffee sour in my stomach.
Jolted by her reaction, I pulled my hand from beneath Beck’s none too smoothly. I didn’t see his reaction, but I didn’t have to. Judging by the pained look on the girl’s face, I had totally screwed up.
Ignoring the emotional undercurrent, I closed my eyes and took a long drink of my too hot coffee. It burned the roof of my mouth and singed my throat going down.
That’s what you get for being an asshole.
Things were decidedly uncomfortable between me and Beck after the Everlys left.
“I didn’t mean to embarrass you,” Beck said without looking at me.
“I—”I couldn’t lie.“I was embarrassed when Mrs. Everly saw us holding hands. I could see her thinking I’m some dirty old man.”
“Okay. Going forward, no PDA. Got it.” He said this with an equanimity I didn’t necessarily believe because it didn’t feel right. Did he think I was ashamed of him? That wasn’t it at all.
The damage was done, though. He shouldered his guitar and called Callie to him. I threw my cup in the trash and followed them to the street. At the clinic, he checked his phone.
“It’s later than I realized. I need to hit the boardwalk while the brunch crowd’s lining up. Tips are great on Sundays.”
