Page 7 of The Taste of Charity
“Fine,” she huffs. “You can walk with me. But only this once. I’m totally capable of taking care of myself.”
“Terrific. Glad you see the light.”
“As if I have a choice,” she mutters under her breath.
I follow her out the door, watching when she slips her shoes on and scuttles down the hall quickly, hoping to lose me.
But she’s not going to lose me. Not ever. It’s my new life’s mission to take care of her.
CHAPTER5
Charity
Every day for the next week, Jameson shows up at my house to pick me up and walk me to the soup kitchen. I know he’s tired and the last thing he wants to do is walk. But he still shows up every day. No matter how much I wish he wouldn’t.
My sore, bruised, broken heart begins to beat again every time I see his tall, broad figure outside my house. He doesn’t comment. Doesn’t ask me why I’m out there walking miles to the soup kitchen when I could volunteer lots of places closer to me.
Truth is, it’s in the worst part of town and when I started volunteering, I didn’t give a damn if I made it home or not. It was almost an invitation to the various denizens of the darkness to find me, take me out of my own damn pain.
But day slid into day and until that one night, no one ever paid any attention to my shuffling footsteps and hunched-over figure.
Except him.
He smiles when I turn to look at him while we walk. “How come you can take so much time away from your work to walk me back and forth? Are you going to get in trouble for playing hooky all the time?”
His grin gets bigger and he snorts. “Only if I fire myself. I own the shop.”
“Oh,” I say, studying him. “How come you aren’t married or anything. You seem like the kind of guy that women love to snag.”
His deep blue eyes harden. “Yeah. I’m not really interested in a relationship right now.” His back is stiff and his whole posture screams drop it.
“Working too hard on building your business?”
“Something like that.” Silence stretches between us, heavy with hidden meaning.
“So…”
“So…” he says at the same time as me. He laughs and I find myself giggling for the first time in years.
“Okay. That’s not awkward at all,” I snort.
“Nothing is awkward between us, Uptown. I think I’d tell you anything you asked me. No matter how painful it might be.”
For one second I consider not asking him but then I push ahead. “Why aren’t you interested in a relationship?”
He nods his dark head. “Fair enough but then I want you to tell me what happened to you. I’ll show you my scars if you show me yours.”
My heart skips a beat but even though my breath freezes in my throat, I nod my head.
“Alright. Well, I was engaged.”
“You were?”
His bright blue eyes dart to mine and he smirks. I mime closing my mouth and throwing away the key and he grins. “We’ll see how long that lasts.”
“Anyway. I was working late hours trying to get my shop off the ground and she apparently took that as an invitation to go bar-hopping when I worked late and hook up with another man.”
“Ouch.” I wince, patting his hand.
