Page 65 of Hello Handsome
Relief washed over me–at seeing him, at knowing I wouldn’t have to serve yet another customer. So I scooted over, that way he’d have room while I kept my feet propped up on the opposite seat. “How was the festival?” I asked him.
He slid in across from me. “It was great. You?”
I wiggled my toes. “My feet are killing me. I’ll need to ice them when I get home.”
Without asking, he took one of my feet in his lap and started rubbing it over the sock. I was surprised by the contact, but it felt so damn good I wasn’t going to stop him. “My granddaughter Maya had all my sons and me dance the Boot Scootin’ Boogie with her class,” he said with a small smile on his face. “And we all did it without getting injured, so I’ll call that a win.”
“Tell me you got video.” I’d pay good money to see him dancing with the younger kids. I bet it was adorable.
“Hell no... But I think Liv did.”
I made a mental note to give his daughter-in-law a free milkshake in exchange for the evidence. But then his thumb rubbed over the ball of my foot, and I let out a soft moan. Embarrassed, I immediately covered my mouth.
But he just smiled, continuing to work the spot. “Feel good?”
I nodded, fighting the urge to roll my head back and sleep. “You don’t have to do that. I’m sure my feet aren’t the most pleasant.” My mind went back to that day by the creek when I saw his bare feet and teased him. It seemed like another lifetime.
“Happy to see you happy,” he replied with a smile. “Everything going well?”
My lips twisted to the side. “Jameson and I broke up.”And I’m not sure where to go from here,I didn’t add.
Gray’s eyes filled with sympathy. “Ags… I’m so sorry.”
I tilted my head, not wanting to dwell in it. Truth was, I didn’t miss Jameson like I thought I should. “Enough about me. Tell me about you.”
He picked up my other foot and rubbed it as he said, “We had a small service for the anniversary of Maya’s passing. It’s been twenty years.”
My heart sank for him. I knew how deeply he cared for her. “I wish I’d known. I could have brought flowers or something. Been there for you. That must have been rough.”
He dipped his head to the side like he agreed. “It was hard. But it was healing too, you know?” He met my gaze again, something in his blue eyes I couldn’t quite read.
I couldn’t relate to what it felt like to lose a partner, not by death anyway, but I remembered my mom’s passing. “Those anniversaries are hard,” I said. “But I do feel better each year.” I guess I was getting used to living without her, even if grief hit me from time to time.
He nodded.
“How’s the new furniture working out?” I asked.
“I sleep like a baby,” he replied with a sly grin. His hands felt like heaven on my feet, and that smile was the song of an angel. Having him near like this got my mind going down a million roads, questioning if there could be a second chance for us after all.
“Glad to hear it,” I replied, almost breathless. “And the boys? How are they?”
His smile grew warmer, although he kept his gaze down, switching to massage my other foot. “Better and better all the time. I think Hayes is in love.”
My jaw literally dropped. “Hayes?” The eternally single bachelor? A small bit of shame tightened my chest. If he could find love, what did that say about me?
“Hayes,” Gray echoed, a hint of surrealness to his tone. “I could see it in his eyes today. He had his first date with Della.”
The curvy redhead who worked across the street in the insurance office popped into my mind. She wasn’t who I would have imagined Hayes falling for. Guys who looked like him usually wanted a woman who looked like a Barbie doll. But I should have known. There was more to Hayes than met the eye—he would see a woman’s true beauty, inside and out.
“The more I think about it, the more it makes sense,” I said. “He needed some sunshine in his life.”
Gray nodded. “She wasn’t what I imagined for him, but she’s better somehow. It’s nice that she’s someone I already know and like.”
I nodded, feeling a sense of sadness that I wouldn’t have the same experience with my children. They both had lives outside of Cottonwood Falls and surely would meet partners tied to a different town.
“It’s good to see you, Aggie, just the two of us,” Gray offered.
My heart thudded along in my chest, clinging to each of those words. I’d missed him so. I opened my mouth to reply, but then the bell sounded over the door. And suddenly, I realized how this looked.
