I let out a long deep sigh and put my hands on my hips. “I’m sorry to let you know but not all of us are slu…”
The chimes on the door rang out and we both turned, looking as if we had been caught doing something wrong. Walking through the door, his hair wild from the wind, Christian struggled with his bag. When he made it through the doorway, he stopped slowly looked up at the two of us, chuckling nervously. Tish smirked and cleared her throat, turning around and walking into the back.
I met Christian at the register, and he grinned at me. I tried to hold back a smile, looking down at the buttons on the register. “Thank you for the ice cream. It was very nice of you. You absolutely had nothing to apologize for.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t even think about the way that I said that last night. I swear I’m not some jerk coming to your town trying to sleep with just anyone.”
My brow furled and I glanced up at him. His mouth formed an O and he shifted his eyes back and forth. “That’s not what I meant either. I didn’t mean to say that you were just anyone… Man, I’m batting a thousand here.”
That time I couldn’t even help but giggle, turning around and grabbing him a coffee and a muffin and handing it over the counter. “It’s okay. It’s early. We’ll just pretend like that never happened.”
He swiped his card, and put his palms together bowing slightly to me before he took his coffee, muffin, and overstuffed bag to the back table where he was the day before. As people began to come in, getting their morning coffee and bagels, muffins, and cookies for the office, I tried to focus in on what I had to get done. From time to time though, I would glance up finding my eyes meeting his. Every time they did, without fail, there was a flutter in my stomach.
After the morning rush was over, and the mess was cleaned, I stood behind the counter not quite sure what to do with myself. Tish walked up behind me and untied my apron, grabbing it before it hit the floor. I furled my brow and looked at her. “What are you doing?”
Tish stood very close to me and looked over in Christian’s direction. “I think you’re done for the day. I foresee a lovely lunch followed by possibly a stroll in the park.”
I lifted my brow. “Is that what your cards told you?”
Tish scoffed. “No, that’s common sense. Now get on it.”
With a slap on the butt, that was that, my future had been told.
Chapter 6
Christian
My finger pressed the L key over and over only to shift up to the backspace key and erase what I had mindlessly tapped onto the screen. I rested my elbow on the table, holding my chin in my hand. Normally when I got lost in my own world, the computer in front of me, it was because I was traveling through the one in my imagination. But no, that was no longer the case. Instead, I seemed to be sitting perfectly still while the world moved around me, unable to pull anything from my own mind. My creativeness had been stifled and I was beginning to think that there wasn’t a single small town or quiet place in the world they could get it back.
Maybe I had used all of my creative juices up. Maybe I was only given so many in one lifetime and they were all gone. That, or I was never very talented to begin with, and just got lucky. The chair across from me scraped on the ground and I glanced up over my laptop to find Rory sitting there, blinking at me. I closed the computer and smiled. “Well hello. Come to discuss my amazing final book creation?”
She shook her head. “No, I want to be surprised.”
I snickered. “Oh, you’ll be surprised. Everyone who paid for my book will be surprised when they open it up and it’s nothing but blank pages. Maybe I’ll get artsy and just make them all black and let everyone figure out what they think of it. It’ll become a thing.”
Rory stared at me, her brows high, her lips curled into a small smile. “Are you feeling dramatic today? If you think you don’t have any creativity, you would be wrong. That was very creative. However, pity parties aren’t going to write your book.”
My shoulders dropped. “I know, but I felt like feeling sorry for myself for a second.”
She put her palm on the top of my laptop. “Well then take a break and come with me to have some lunch. I have a place that I think might help you.”
I narrowed my eyes at her jokingly and shrugged my shoulders. “I would love to join you for lunch, I’ve been waiting forever for you to ask me on a date.”
She chuckled as I put my things away and put my bag on my shoulder. Poking me in my chest, she spun on her heels. “Just don’t ask me to come back to your place again.”
“Touché,” I replied with a laugh.
As we walked down the street, I couldn’t help but notice just how pretty she looked. She had looked pretty the first time I saw her, but there was something about the pink in her sweater and the way her hips moved back and forth as the fabric clung to her body. Not to mention the fact that she seemed happier and more jovial then I had seen her up to that point.
I pulled my coat closed, looking around as the garland strung from lamppost to lamppost swung wildly back and forth in the cold wind. “Please tell me this place is close. Otherwise you’re going to have to sit across from a popsicle.”
She chuckled, slapping me hard on the shoulder. “Get used to it sunshine boy. This small town likes the cold.”
And I was starting to like that small-town.
We walked another block and she stopped in front of a dark tinted storefront, and put out her hands. “This is the place.”
“Are you bringing me here to sacrifice me?”
She shrugged. “Whatever it takes.”
We went inside, and I stared at the girls standing at the hostess table, wearing what looked to be a cape and boots. She curtsied to us, and Rory curtsied back. Her eyes shifted toward me and she cleared her throat. I hurried and bowed, unsure of what was going on.
We followed the hostess down a long hallway into a small dining room. The place wasn’t very busy, but that didn’t surprise me since it was the middle of the day. As I took a seat, I looked around the room, intrigued by such an interesting and unique restaurant in the middle of a place that seemed anything but unique.
“This is my favorite hole in the wall kind of restaurant. I thought maybe it would have the kind of magic you are looking for.” As she talked, her eyes shifted around the room like an excited child.
I had to admit, it was pretty interesting. The lights looked like candles hovering near the ceiling. In between, were small paper birds clumped together over each table. Their wings shimmered in the low lighting giving them the effect of flying. Even I was transfixed by the fantastical world I had walked into. “Well, I knew from the first time I saw this tiny little town that it had magic in it. But I wasn’t quite expecting this. This is better than what I expected.”
Rory slapped her hands on the table, leaning forward. “I know! It’s so much fun. I’m sorry please excuse my nerdiness. It’s not very often as adults we get to act like children.”
I leaned back in my chair with a smirk. “Please, I can’t remember the last time I acted like an adult.”
As we laughed, a man sidestepped in front of the table, also wearing a cape, holding it across his body and over half of his face like he was Dracula. He whipped it down and back, standing tall with his chin held high. He was a stout man, wearing a button up shirt covered in illustrations of the stars, the moon, and deep purple clouds. I pressed my lips together and glanced over at Rory who was grinning up at him. “Carl. I didn’t know you were gonna be here.”
“Ha,” he said dramatically. “Of course, I am. Besides, there isn’t enough business during the day for me to hire daytime cooks so I have to do it myself. I just so happened to see you sneaking in through the front doors and figured I would come out here and say hello to you and your friend.”
Rory nodded toward me. “Carl, this is Christian; he’s visiting town. Christian, this is Carl, the owner of this fine establishment, Mystical Beets.”
I put out my hand
and shook his. “It’s good to have you here.” He turned toward Rory. “The town cookbook needs more recipes this year. When are you going to make me a new cookie recipe to put in there? You know I’m heading up the committee this year.”
While Carl may not have noticed, I watched as Rory put her hands in her lap, fidgeting slightly as if she were nervous. I couldn’t imagine why, everything she made was golden.
“Of course,” she stuttered. “I will put that on my list of things to do and let you know when it’s ready.”
Carl leaned over and patted her on the head. “You truly are magical.”
As he raced off even more dramatically than he arrived, we both chuckled. “You are an amazing Baker. You should totally donate a recipe. Make it something amazing. Show your talents.”
She cleared her throat and looked down, obviously hiding something from me. I wasn’t sure what it was, but whatever it was, she didn’t want to tell me and I wasn’t going to press her. To change subject, I lifted up the menu and waved my hand around acting as if I were casting a spell with a wand. “So, what’s good here? Eye of Newt?”
She shook her head, giving me a sad look. “You definitely are not fit for the wizard world.”
We had a good lunch, talking and laughing about the different quirks that the town had, the things that only people that lived there with knew. The city didn’t have that kind of thing, at least not one that I wanted to find out. There definitely were hidden quirks in a city, but those were usually for people of a specific variety. I was pretty vanilla, regardless of what the public thought.
Rory took the last bite of her food and tossed her napkin on the plate, shaking her head. “That was amazing. I think you’re gonna have to carry me on your broom back to the bakery.”
I shook my head. “Nope. We’re going to go for a walk in the park. And not because I want to be alone with you, but because if I get mugged, I know that you’re too tired to fight them off so I’ll push you down and run.”
As we stood, she snorted, smacking me on the arm and shaking her head. In a surprise move, she put her arm in mine and we walked side-by-side, slightly bumping back and forth into each other toward the front door. As we reached the end of the hall, she looked up laughing, but her smile quickly faded. I followed her gaze out finding a tall guy, short dark hair, plaid shirt tucked into his relatively tight jeans and boots. His lip quivered as he stared at Rory, a short blonde girl clutching to his side. I didn’t need anybody to tell me who he was, it was obviously her ex.
“I should’ve known you were going to be somewhere around here,” he said. “You always ate too much here anyway.”
She rolled her eyes. “That’s original. Of course, I could never expect anything out of you to be original.”
Her ex sneered, his eyes shifting from her up to me. I stood with my head tilted to the side, my jacket draped over one arm, linking my other tightly with hers. His eyes roved up and down me and he snorted. “Nice cardigan. So, this is what you do? You get dumped and you head for the sissiest guy you could find?”
I pursed my lips, stepping forward, eye to eye with the guy. I let my gaze roll over his chapped face and smiled at him, reaching forward and plucking a piece of lint off of his shirt. “You know, this cardigan, I think I was wearing this the last time I killed someone.”
Her ex stared at me for a second and took a step to the side. “You have a nice day. I look forward to seeing you again, Rory.”
We walked from the restaurant silently and as soon as we got out the doors, Rory glanced up at me. “You’ve killed people before?”
I shrugged, pulling on my jacket. “Sure, I have the highest body count of any author I know.”
Rory burst into laughter and it made me smile. Sure, during my time in the military I had killed people as well, but that part of my life I didn’t talk about anymore. All I really wanted was to make Rory smile, and it seemed that I had accomplished that.
As we walked toward the park, I bumped her with my hip. “That guy was a real treat.”
She shook her head. “Don’t forget, the first time I met you, you ordered six drinks at once.”
Chapter 7
Rory
I had imagined running into my ex about a million times, and in none of those scenarios had I played it out being on the arm of a very important and very handsome man. On top of that, I had never imagined that I would watch that man stand nose to nose with my ex and hilariously tell him he had killed people before. When I first heard it, I thought he was trying to be tough, but my ex didn’t back down very easily. Whatever face Christian had, it had scared the crap out of my ex and I couldn’t have been happier. The whole lunch date had gone great so far.
On a normal basis, I wouldn’t be that jovial and sarcastic around someone I barely knew. I tended to be quiet and reserved unless you got to know me. With Christian though, I felt I could be myself. I felt like he accepted that. He laughed at my jokes, we giggled like schoolchildren, and it was exactly how I pictured a perfect first date in my mind. Technically, I guess we couldn’t call it a first date considering we had ice cream together, but I was trying to forget that night. After running out of the ice cream shop, I could’ve died from embarrassment on the street.
“This park is beautiful,” Christian said, looking around. “I bet it’s even more amazing at night when they turn on all these lights.”
I nodded. “They have a Christmas festival, and you can walk through here and see all the lights. All the kids are running around throwing snowballs at each other. It’s like something out of a Hallmark movie.”
Christian’s eyes shifted toward mine as we walked. “Snow? That’s not that far away.”
I put out my arms wide. “Oh yeah, like 10 feet.”
His mouth dropped open slightly and I started to laugh shaking my head. “No, we’re not in Alaska. Sometimes we get snow at that time of year and sometimes we don’t. If we don’t, they make fake snow. Well, they blow snow. They actually did fake snow one year and it was a disaster. It was the same year that five of the nine ducks in the pond died from ingesting whatever it was they blew everywhere.”
Christian winced. “I bet that was quite the scandal.”
“You have no idea,” I replied. “By the time the next festival came around I was praying that there was some disaster just so I could stop talking about the dead ducks. Don’t get me wrong, I was sad. But the entire world could’ve gone into nuclear war and this town wouldn’t have noticed because they were too busy draping black sashes around with pictures of our ducks. We have far too much time on our hands here.”
Christian laughed, slowing down and patting his pockets. “I’m sorry. My phone’s ringing.”
He pulled it out and looked at the screen, wrinkling his nose. “Just give me a sec, I know if I don’t answer this call from my editor he’s just going to keep calling. I’d rather just get it out of the way.”
I put up my hands and smirked at him. “I would never think of stopping you from pursuing your hopes and dreams.”
He lifted a brow. “I really wouldn’t call my editor my hopes and dreams. More like death coming to take my soul.”
I covered my mouth and giggled as he answered. “Hey, buddy. I’m so glad to hear from you.”
The smile on my face stayed, but I would be lying if I said that his change in tone didn’t knock my jovial mood right out from under me. It was strange, like watching a person with multiple personalities. His tone went from believably unhappy to believably happy in two seconds. It was like watching one of those caddy girls from high school fake nice to her friend and turn around and talk about her behind her back.
I clutched my hands together in front of me and paced slowly back and forth, glancing in his direction from time to time. He walked in circles, the phone to his ear., “No! Of course not. You know I like to make your job easy.”
I gave him a half smile and looked away as he continued his conversation. He seemed like a completely different per
son. As soon as he clicked on the phone, he adopted a façade and red flags went up everywhere. I always knew that people were like that, and I knew at some point they were like that to me as well, but I had never actually witnessed it in person. I was always very blunt and honest with people. I didn’t let my feelings hide, and had adopted a theory that if I was truthful in how I felt, in most situations, it could avoid certain confrontations or misled thoughts.
It was obvious he didn’t feel that way though. My mind tried to rationalize it. Understanding that he was under a lot of pressure, being pushed to get this final book done even though he was facing incredible odds having lost his creative mojo. I could absolutely understand how he felt about things. He didn’t want everyone to know that he was struggling. He didn’t want his publishing company to know that he didn’t have any ideas for the book that they wanted on their desk obviously far before that moment.
But that laugh…
The cackling deep in his chest echoed through my head, and I knew it was fake. I had spent a day and a half total with the man and I knew what his genuine laugh sounded like. Or did I? Seeing him like that made me question myself. I didn’t want to be involved with a man who could lie to me without even flinching. Even my ex was a terrible liar, and I was pretty sure somewhere deep down he felt bad. I was trying not to judge Christian on that one conversation, but when you’ve known enough people that have lied to you so many times in your life, it’s hard not to be put off.
“For sure,” Christian fakely chuckled. “I’ll talk to you soon.”
I shook the uncomfortable look off my face and turned toward him, smiling. He clicked the button on his phone and groaned. No sooner than he had reached his pocket, the phone buzzed again. “Seriously? You were just on the phone with me.”
He flipped it open and I could see his eyes move back and forth as he read whatever message was on the screen. The side of his mouth twitched and I caught a slight glimpse of what looked like surprise in his eyes. It was gone as quickly as it had come though, and he shook his head shoving his phone in his pocket.
Promise Me Forever Page 4
