Page 50 of Dear Henry, Love Edith
Edith snorted, then clapped a hand against her mouth. Henry raised his eyebrows. “Did you just snort like a pig?”
“No,” Edith said in indignation. “I guffawed—like a lady.” They stared at each other for a beat before Edith burst into giggles and Henry was unable to stop a smile from taking over his entire face.
“And I’ll have you know guffawing is perfectly acceptable. Some might even call it womanly.” She set herself off into another fit of giggles.
“Wow. I’m starting to wonder which one of us here is actually the sleep-deprived one.” Henry shook his head at Edith, though the corners of his lips and eyes betrayed his amusement.
Edith knew her face had probably turned as red as a ripetomato, the way it always did when she was laughing this hard. She fanned herself and turned her head to the side, finger combing her hair in an attempt to hide her face as she tried to regain some composure. It had been a long time since she had teased and laughed like this with anyone, especially a man. She and Brian hadn’t had a lot to laugh about during their marriage.
Not sure now if her face was still warm from laughter or the sudden embarrassment in realizing how much Henry knew about her marriage, Edith continued to play with strands of her hair, desperate to look anywhere but at Henry. “Oh, hey, I’ve been meaning to tell you,” Edith said, keeping her voice nonchalant. “Kat called.”
When Henry didn’t respond, Edith tossed him a glance. Any hints of amusement on his face had disappeared. “Uh, so yeah. She called just to say that her house is all squared away. I can move in anytime. So that’s good news, right? Sleeping in your own bed again. Not having me underfoot anymore.”
“What if I like having you underfoot?”
“Henry,” Edith said with a soft laugh, trying to keep the mood light. But the longer he gazed at her, his blue eyes piercing her to the core, the less control Edith had of the mood or her emotions. “Henry,” she whispered.
This wasn’t going to end well for either of them. Didn’t he see that? She was leaving. Soon. In a matter of weeks. Which didn’t really explain why she was leaning toward him on the couch right now, did it? Focusing on his lips. Ignoring the warning bells going off in her head.
Warning bells.
“My phone.” Edith jumped up from the couch. “Somebody’s calling me. Upstairs. I hear it. Do you hear it? I hear it.” She pointed at the ceiling. “I should go.”
“Edith.”
She paused at the bottom of the stairs, more winded than she ought to be for running all of six steps. “Yes?”
Henry held her phone up from where he remained seated on the couch.
“Oh.” She waited for the smirk, the sarcastic remark, as she quietly slipped it out of his hand. What he did was a thousand times worse.
He turned his head and met her with those blasted blue eyes of his. “See you in the morning?” he asked, the quiet timbre of his voice tempting her back to the couch almost as much as the look in his eyes.
She took a step back, mumbling something like “Yeah. See. Morning. Night.” Edith raced up the stairs, prepared to spend the rest of the night pretending to sleep, until her phone chimed with a voice mail alert. Whoops. She’d almost forgotten her phone really had been ringing. One glance at the caller ID and Edith’s steps faltered on the top step.
Why was the hospital calling her?
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“You’re looking particularly chipper this morning.” Julie beamed at Henry as she stood on her toes to hand him two coffees and a sack of scones over the top of the bakery counter. “I told Chester the first morning I saw you and that Edith-doll together, it was the start of something special.”
Henry glanced at the black feline curled in his basket sound asleep. “Is that so?” He must be feeling chipper to encourage more of this conversation. Though he had to admit, after last night—watching movies with Edith, having her by his side, seeing her laugh, and yeah, almost kissing her again—he was feeling better thanchipper. He was feeling like a man in love.
And apparently it showed all over his face. Julie couldn’t stop smiling at him while shaking her head back and forthwith both hands clasped over her heart. “I’m just so happy for you. She seems so sweet. And I know it’s not—” she twisted her lips to the side and appeared to be searching the ceiling for the right word—“idealto put the bed before the wed, but I know you’ll do the right thing. I’ve been watching you for years, and you’re not the type of man to take advantage of free milk without buying the cow.”
Henry felt the eyes of every patron in the shop zero in on him. He recognized an elder from his church, his high school English teacher, the president of the historical society, among others. Even Chester’s pale-green eyes blinked open, watching him with sudden interest.
“Um—” Henry would have tugged at his shirt collar if either of his hands were free. “I’m sorry. I think there’s been a misunderstanding. Edith and I... we’re not...”
“Together?” Julie asked with furrowed brows. “But I heard you the other day. You said you two were together. Youkissedher. Even Chester saw that.”
“Right. Yes. That... that did happen.” Henry realized he hadn’t paid yet. “Uh—” He set the cups and bag back on the counter, right now willing to leave everything, including his entire wallet, if it would keep Julie from talking any further. He lowered his voice. “We haven’t really known each other all that long. She’s only here for the summer.”
Julie lowered her brows in confusion. “Oh. Then you’re not living together?” She accepted the money from his outstretched hand and rang up the cash register, never taking her eyes off his face.
Henry wet his lips, then spent the next several seconds wobbling his head back and forth like a bobblehead dollwhile he attempted to motion yes and no at the same time. “Technically speaking, we have been living under the same roof. Yes. But nobody’s been drinking any milk.”
“Not even skim?”
