Page 14 of Show Me How to Heal
Zayne’s eyes immediately lit up, his whole demeanor changing. He sat straighter, his shoulders pushed back, and his smile… I never wanted it to slip from his face again. He looked absolutely stunning when he smiled.
“What do you want to know?”
“Everything.”
Zayne laughed. “Saying shit like that is dangerous. One moment, you’re trying to flirt with me, and suddenly two hours have passed, and I’m still talking about my soap making business while you’re praying for me to stop.”
I snorted.
“Not likely. I like your voice.”
That didn’t sound creepy, did it?
Chris placed two small napkins on the bar in front of us before placing our orange and red drinks on them.
“Thanks,” I said, but he was already talking to another customer.
“You like my voice?” Zayne asked.
“Very much so,” I answered.
Damn, he probably wanted to make sure I hadn’t said something that stupid and here I was, saying it again. Maybe I needed one of those dating coaches that’d been all the rage when meeting people in bars was still a thing. Today, it was all about the apps, except… here we were.
And Zayne smiled at me. A wide, open smile.
“Thank you… I like your voice, too. And your accent. Where are you from?”
Should I tell him the truth? I mean, he wouldn’t be able to somehow find me if I told him I was German, would he? He didn’t have a reason to search for me, anyway.
“I’m from Germany,” I told him after a couple of seconds.
“Really? That’s so cool. But… how come you moved from Germany to Juniper Creek? Do you have, like… family here or something?”
I shook my head. “Actually, no, I don’t know anyone here. Well, except for this guy I met at the hardware store today. I’m here with him and his friends.” I nodded in the general direction of our booth. “I just… I needed a change of scenery and found a cabin I really liked online, so I bought it.”
“You bought a cabin in a town you’ve never visited before?” Zayne asked incredulously. “For real?”
I might’ve been high on painkillers the first time I’d seen the listing, but I didn’t tell him that. Besides, the next day, I’d still liked the cabin. A week later, after I’d stopped taking morphine and switched to ibuprofen, I’d still thought buying that cabin was a good idea.
Hell, I still thought it was a great idea today.
“If you say it like that, it sounds crazy,” I told him, winking to take the sting out of my words. “Wait until you hear that I bought a cabin in a town I’d never visited before without knowing anybody here, and in a state I’d never been in on a continent I’ve never been to before.”
Now he was legit gaping at me, his mouth wide open, his eyes almost bulging out of their sockets, and I… still thought he looked sexy as hell.
Maybe I hadn’t just hurt my knee a year ago. Maybe the fall had somehow affected my brain. My brother would definitely agree that was a possibility.
“You’re pulling my leg, right?”
“I’m…” I furrowed my brows. “Uhm…” I hadn’t touched him, apart from the handshake, I mean, so I was definitely not pulling his leg. It had to be an idiom, but... what exactly did it mean?
Zayne grinned. “Sorry. You’re kidding me, right? You’re joking?”
I could have guessed that. However, I was grateful for his clarification without making a big deal out of it. I considered my English to be good, but I was no native speaker by any means, and ever since my graduation, a big part of my English had been very sports-based.
“I swear it’s the truth,” I said. “Why would I make something like that up? If I wanted to impress you, I’d definitely not tell you I was an unemployed foreigner living in a cabin in the woods.”
I would tell him the whole truth, not the slightly creepy version. I was a retired pro-athlete living in a fucking mansion of a cabin next to the woods. Maybe I should have stuck to a version of my story that didn’t make me sound like a murderer.
