Blake (Found by You Book 6)

by Victoria H. Smith

  Using his finger, he attempted to push some of it away.

  “You mentioned ice cream yesterday in the diner,” he said and kind of struggling with it like it was hard for him to get out. He shrugged his big shoulders. “I know it’s early and we just had coffee, but like I said, you mentioned it. It being one of your dreams or something.”

  He shook his head. Was this really hard for him?

  He faced me. “Anyway, you don’t have to eat it. It is early and they only had about six flavors so it’s not exactly maybe what you wanted?”

  He kicked his boot on the sidewalk a little, looking up when I made it to him so he couldn’t stare at the ground anymore.

  I made him stare at me, a perfect stranger who’d never had something so sweet and innocent done for her. People didn’t do things for me at all, including myself. School had been the one thing I allowed myself to have, the one thing I took as I’d felt strongly about it.

  “Will you eat it with me?” I asked, playing with my fingers. I guess I was shy too. “Show me your sketches while we do?”

  His lips parted, full and pink and thick.

  Kissable, too.

  They hiked on the side, slow and hesitant until they made a full smile.

  “But you said you wanted to do it by yourself,” he said, and I went to tell him that was yesterday, yesterday not today.

  Blake actually had his notebook out of sight, on him but not easily seen. I figured he carried it with him always. Like a true artist who had to have their tools ready at a moment’s notice in case inspiration was on the horizon, but inside, while we did enjoy that ice cream of many different flavors he expressed to me it wasn’t about the sketches. It wasn’t about the paper or the prettiness of the designs. It was about the precision and what they’d become off paper. He’d made only a fraction of the designs, the rest ready and waiting for his hands to craft them into reality.

  He told me he enjoyed working with wood and something about the intimacy of what he was sharing stirred something within me. He didn’t have to tell me these things, his heart exposed to a perfect stranger, but he was.

  And we did this all over a bowl of ice cream.

  We didn’t split the ice cream. We didn’t divide it into two separate dishes. We shared it, separate spoons but nothing more divided than that. It was all very intimate, vulnerable for the both of us. By the end, I couldn’t finish my measly little dream at all but that had been all right. I had a man the size of two eating with me. Blake cleared what I hadn’t and I noticed him slide some money into the shop owner’s hand before we left. The amount was well more than six flavors of ice cream should have cost. He also mentioned thanking the owner for opening earlier for us and I figured that was all it was in the end.

  The man must have been grateful because he offered me yet another sweet to add to my morning. The shop specialized in cupcakes as well and he opened the case for us, offering one to me on the house.

  “You probably didn’t expect so much sugar this morning,” Blake said as an afterthought. We’d just made it down the street, traveling to seemingly nowhere.

  Cradling my cake, I had pride in it. The design was so pretty and almost too good to eat with the pink frosting and silver balls sprinkled on the top. Daring to put it away, I brought my bag around, tucking it deep within the open space.

  Shrugging at what he said, I followed him.

  “Well, no, but that’s okay,” I said grinning. “I enjoy sweet things so that worked for me.”

  I hadn’t emphasized what I said or anything but in the back of my mind I knew he’d been a part of that sweet lineup, which one really wouldn’t expect from someone like him. Blake could be intimidating at first glance with his size but I think I knew his true secret.

  He was nothing but a teddy bear.

  Bending over, Blake plucked a piece of straw from a bundle stacked outside the shop, flicking it to the side when he glanced my way. He offered a suggestion of one more stop and I’d been surprised when he led us away from the shops to a nearby water tower. It being a small town, the tower wasn’t large at all, maybe a story and he placed his large hands on the ladder.

  “My friends and I used to climb up all the time,” he said, looking at me. “You can see the whole town.”

  Reading between the lines, I discerned what he was trying to tell me again. Though, his volume wasn’t the issue this time. He’d offered me an invitation, inviting me up.

  Completely game, I shifted my bag, wanting to feel like a kid again. Sometimes that was nice, truly.

  Blake made sure I had my footing right before I climbed and as the ladder was surrounded by bars like a fire truck I wasn’t terribly scared about falling off. Even still, Blake stayed close, covering me and the general area and never letting me get too far ahead.

  I knew because I looked down at him often.

  The safety features of the water tower remained at the height above, the entire walkway covered in handrails. There was enough space to sit and we did, my knees up while Blake chose to lounge his wide body on his hip, securing a boot to the ledge and gazing out at the drop-off.

  It really was a sight to see and I rested my arms on the middle bar dividing the ledge from the handrail.

  I’d never been to Texas before and as I’d seen lots of it through the windows of a moving train I realized I truly hadn’t seen it.

  So much could be taken in at this undistracted height, no trees, only open air and grassy hilltops. Blake’s town stretched pretty far beyond the shops and businesses clustered centrally in the center. Lots of land and sectioned-off housing.

  “You never said what your degree was for.” Hummed in the wind beside me and I realized, in that moment, he’d been watching me, a steady gaze both strong and true.

  Soft blue eyes truly did enrapture and I pushed my arms around my legs.

  “Medicine, well, nursing,” I said not wanting to let on I had the aspirations of a doctor. That job was for someone but had never been what I desired. I smiled. “I enjoyed UCLA’s nursing program.”

  My time there had been some of the most magical experiences of my life, and I would have drawn it out for as long as I could have. I never would have graduated if it had been up to me. I would have just stayed there, a happy forever around me.

  But all this might sound odd to someone who didn’t know me and I chose to keep the detail to myself, Blake staring on.

  “Your dream then?” he asked me, reading me so well despite not knowing me. He grinned a little. “You found mine.”

  I had and I admitted to defeat to mine as well. Kicking my foot out, I let them both hang off the ledge, falling back to my hands.

  “I always liked working with wood,” Blake went on, but never had to tell me that. He showed me that, his talents on full display in an innocent moleskin notebook. He moved his large bicep over his raised knee.

  “Is it like that for you? Nursing?” he asked me.

  I nodded again until I realized I had no jurisdiction to. I hadn’t actually been given patients beyond school.

  “I enjoyed the school bit,” I told him. “But all that was then. I’m not seeking employment after school.”

  This confused him like it probably should, his blond eyebrows drawing together. All these words and not much space between us I knew I’d have to detail things that traveled within the confines of my heart.

  But I’d done that same thing to him about his dream…

  Smiling, I put on my best face, hoping this stranger couldn’t peel it away and see right through me.

  “My family is kind of traditional,” I told him feeling rightly silly. This was 1985 for pity’s sake.

  But try telling my daddy that.

  I made my smile stronger. “My dad let me go to school but doesn’t want me working.”

  I had Blake’s full attention now, his brow jumping to the height of his blond hairline.

  “What would be the alternative?” he asked me, shifting my way completely. The
expanse of his broad frame and sudden focus had the rays of a deep vulnerability emanating off me, all of it out there and possibly something he didn’t even mean to do.

  I swallowed. “I suppose what he and my mama have. Mama doesn’t work. Just my daddy. He makes it so she doesn’t need to and they both wanted that for me. It was all I could do to convince them to let me go to school.”

  A master’s degree wasn’t even an option, not if I actually wanted to be able to come home between terms and see them.

  “Just let her go and let her get it out of her system, Daryl.”

  Mama’s words still blasted like a megaphone in my head even still, the greeting I got once I delivered the news of a full ride to UCLA. I worked hard in high school, in the top ten of my class and everything.

  The wind blew the heat around, the air getting thick as the sun gained in height. Eventually, it’d be too warm to even be outside.

  And then my time with Blake would be done. I’d return to my motel and wait out my train.

  I supposed he’d stay here.

  My words moved something hard over Blake’s expression, something I hadn’t recognized, a first between us both. Smoothing it out, he looked at me, dampening his lips a little.

  “I guess that sounds silly to me,” he said simply. Simple. Like what he’d said was the simplest thing in the word. The lines around his eyes relaxed. “All due respect to your family.”

  I didn’t want to laugh at him in that moment, but really…

  He was so dang cute.

  My lashes fluttered down. I knew he probably wouldn’t like being called that or being laughed at.

  I ended up gaining control of myself and eventually, pushed my arms around my legs again.

  “You’re right,” I told him because my situation truly was. It was silly for a woman not to work if she wanted to do so. It was all very silly.

  I supposed I had always been a silly girl, a foolish girl.

  The day truly did start to blaze around us and Blake shifting, I knew he could feel that too. A bit of sweat gathered above his brow and he caught it, lifting a thick hand and even thicker arm.

  It was hard not to admire him, the sinews of muscle that formed beneath his arms and shifted on his back. He really did work for a living. He did something incredibly strong.

  “I suppose you want to get back to that TV?” he asked after awhile, big puppy dog eyes of blue my way. “I don’t want you to melt out here. I know it gets hot.”

  Something told me it really was my comfort that had him asking and if he hadn’t, I knew I would have stayed out there a lot longer before saying something, words close to forever coming to mind.

  It was all quite silly these thoughts. As I’d said, I was a silly girl.

  He stood before I responded and offered me a hand, one I took willingly and freely. I gathered he did because of our position on the ledge, making it easier for me to get up to him.

  I thanked him, not really wanting to let go but easily able to do so. He had marks above his hand, his skin tanned and rough below like they constantly handled things. They worked. They moved with the world around him.

  Unable to keep that bright blue gaze again, I started to walk away toward the ladder that led us up. But like below, his voice stopped me, my name.

  He stared at me in a way that made me feel it, made me feel something however unusual. But was it unusual?

  Was it truly?

  He gained on me, looking out toward his little world.

  “It isn’t the Empire State Building,” he said, coming back when he placed a hand on the rail. His gaze lifted. “But it is the highest point in town. No one will hear you if… Well…”

  His lips damped as he parted his gaze, choosing to place it out before us.

  “I guess I’m just saying it’s early. It won’t bother nobody. If you want to, that is?”

  He found me again but maybe harder the second time around because he didn’t get the eye contact, choosing instead to look down at the rail his hand was on.

  It took me a second in the open air to figure out what he meant at first, what he wanted me to do. I had to read between those lines again.

  And find a language that was his own.

  My cheeks hurt with my smile, this man so incredibly sweet. He blinked up at me when I touched his hand and when I gained his eye contact I wouldn’t allow him to let go.

  I squeezed. “Will you do it with me?” I asked moving into his space. He smelled so nice. Like sunshine in the sky. “I think I wouldn’t be brave enough by myself.”

  He watched me after my words, his throat hiking once before facing out. We both faced his small town and, turning, we let it fly.

  I couldn’t hear his shout over mine at first, both of us boisterous in the wind as he helped me once again capture my own silly dream. He let me have this one, however tiny, and as I heard his deep voice I became lost in it.

  As well as my hand suddenly lost in his.

  Blake

  She wanted me to drive her someplace, her last day and only hours for us. We only had hours, no longer the limitless sand I’d allowed my mind to somehow believe. She’d be gone today. In fact, right after I drove her back to her motel.

  I hadn’t expected to hear from her this morning, wrapping my head around the fact she’d be gone soon. She told me after we left the water tower yesterday she had a morning train out of town.

  But then she called me from her motel phone.

  Ann was excited today, her tight coils bouncing in the wind as she pushed a map I had in my glove compartment out on the dashboard of the rickety truck I saved two summers for. She asked for the map the minute she’d gotten in, looking beautiful. I couldn’t stop staring at her.

  That was the only reason I hadn’t fought her.

  I should ask her more questions, where we were going and where she was taking me. She’d been super secretive. Like I said, excited. My questions in the wind, I didn’t want to waste time on them. Time was the only thing we didn’t have.

  Instead I watched the road, my knuckles on the wheel as I made memories, froze in time not what was ahead but beside me.

  I memorized her scent and how it combined with the open air coasting through the windows. I memorized how her lashes framed hard around her eyes when she smiled or just talked to me. I memorized her voice, the song in it as she had a tick of a laugh before she spoke sometimes. She did it enough where I knew it came following nerves. I made her nervous.

  She made me nervous too.

  She made me nervous that I was doing all these things, trying to make memories of something that wasn’t mine. We were two people killing time before her train left town today.

  I wished that had been all it was. It’d make this whole thing easier and my chest not feel weird every time I looked at her.

  “Blake?”

  I passed a glance her way, her hard and soft crease of her eyes forming in my direction. One of her plump lips beneath her teeth, she pointed toward what I believed to be the sky, but ended up being a building out in the middle of nowhere.

  We were coming up on it, a large factory with big windows and open land around it. I’d never seen it or heard about it, not venturing too far away from where I lived. We’d driven at least fifty miles to get here.

  Like I said I didn’t question anything she asked me to do.

  Via her direction, I turned in the path of the building, a gravel road off the highway.

  “Where are we going?” I finally asked her and she simply smiled waving me off and telling me to keep on toward the factory. I might have poked at her more but as the distance between my truck and the factory got smaller I discovered something truly interesting.

  Nothing was here, no cars or activity or anything. But I had a feeling that had nothing to do with how early it was or the fact it was Sunday. Enough debris were around where no feet had touched this area for a while and the strategically sized “For Sale” sign ahead could be easily seen from the highw
ay.

  I pulled right up to it, turning the truck off after I did. My questions had finally caught up with my brain and I might have presented them to Ann had she not gotten out of my truck so quickly.

  Her tennis shoes on the ground, she scampered off, wrapping the tiny strap of her bag around herself before closing the creaky truck door with her hip. She waited for me as I came around, her smile bright in the wind.

  “What is all this?” I asked, amazed by her. She navigated us here like this area was her roots and not mine.

  I had a feeling that had something to do with the flyer in her hand, the one I caught her looking at a couple times. Fisting it, she opened it up, comparing the image on it to the one before us, an abandoned building of some sort. On the front labeled: Princeville Shoe Company.

  Apparently satisfied, she came back to me, lowering her flyer. For the first time in our journey, I caught a glimpse of that vulnerability I sometimes saw in her, the meekness back and on display in front of me. It caused the flush to creep along her chest and her delicate neck.

  Her curls breezing in the wind, she came to me, making my vulnerability show most assuredly.

  “There was a posting for this place on the community board at the motel this morning,” she said facing it before facing me. “I want to show you something. Do you have your notebook?”

  Always having it, I pulled it out of my back pocket, the thing tiny enough to fit in there. Trusting her with it, I gave it to her, realizing I’d never done that. I’d never given it to anyone before.

  She received it like it was the most precious treasure, opening to a page before asking me to follow her.

  I wasn’t sure about all that, this place not ours to roam or anything but as it seemed abandoned I ventured the yard with her. The place was gated but we’d already driven through that part, the gates broken and rusted, open. This shoe factory hadn’t been in production for a long time.

  I kept my strides short not to get ahead of her, her little hips wiggling their way to the far-wide door. Her jeans hugging her frame and her top off her shoulder, I watched, keeping my distance as much as I could. I wasn’t getting too close to her.