Page 65 of New Girl in Town
“Yeah, I was just leaving and trying to figure out how my car got like this.” I gestured to it. “I didn’t do this.”
“Ah, well, that’s because I did.”
“You what?” I looked back at him to see him blushing and ducking his head. “You shoveled my car out for me?”
He nodded and raised his eyes to meet mine. “Yeah, I didn’t know if you’d be thinking about the snow. Thought it’d be helpful with your work schedule.”
“I can shovel my own car out, Grant.” The words came out with far more bite than I intended, but I supposed the flowers had put me on edge.
He raised an eyebrow at me. “I was already out here with the shovel working on the sidewalks. It wasn’t any trouble at all, Aurora.”
“All the same,” I told him, crossing my arms and trying not to sound like a brat, “I can do it.”
He rocked back on his heels. “I see. Sorry for the inconvenience. I was just trying to be neighborly.”
“Then why didn’t you do the others?” I nodded at the cars in the lot.
“That’s what I was on my way to do,” he said, holding up an ice scraper and brush combo I hadn’t noticed before. “I just know you leave early, so it seemed best to do yours first.”
I blushed hot, since he wasn’t wrong. “I see,” I said, opening my car door and tossing my bag inside. “Thank you though,” I added in a softer voice. “I really do appreciate it.”
Grant hummed and didn’t say anything, but from the look on his face I could tell he didn’t believe me. “Have a good day at work, neighbor.”
On their own the words were innocent, something acquaintances might use in passing, but Grant and I weren’t that.
We’d never been that.
“See ya.” I gave him a small wave and a tight smile as I got into my car. “Have a good day.”
Grant nodded at me but didn’t say anything, his eyes on me as I started the car and took off for work. I was shaking and halfway to work when I realized that my interactions with him would be just as polite and distant as the one I’d just fled, and would continue to be so until I figured out what I was doing.
The thought made my heart squeeze in my chest. I didn’t want neighborly from Grant. I didn’t know what I wanted, but that wasn’t it.
“You don’t always get what you want,” I whispered to myself. It was a lesson I had learned years ago and one that I understood better than most. And nothing, not even a new zip code, could change the truth of it.
