A Creed in Stone Creek - Linda Lael Miller [93]
Steven started for the door, passing a rusted-out Bonneville with cardboard in place of the glass that should have covered the rear window. Besides his truck, it was the only rig around.
Business must be slow this time of day, he decided.
A plump woman stood behind the counter, in front of the register, and her nametag said “Martine.”
Steven glanced to one side, spotted the probable owner of the Bonneville over by the cooler, evidently shopping for beer. The guy was young—maybe under the legal drinking age—and nobody he recognized, but that didn’t mean much. After all, Steven was new in Stone Creek; there were still a lot of people he didn’t know, small as the place was.
He said hello to Martine, who smiled at him as she returned the greeting, and ran his debit card through the machine to make advance payment for whatever a full tank of gas wound up costing.
“Well,” Martine responded, “welcome to Stone Creek. It’s nice to see somebody moving into this town instead of out. Seems like there was a mass exodus after the mill closed down.”
“Thanks for the welcome,” he said. He knew she’d read his name off the credit card, but he offered it up just the same, since that was the polite thing to do.
“You got a wife, Mr. Creed?” she asked.
Steven wasn’t exactly pressed for time, so he lingered longer than he might have done otherwise. “No, ma’am,” he said. “It’s just me and my son, Matt.”
Martine tilted her head to one side and studied him, a mischievous light dancing in her clear-as-creek-water eyes. It crossed Steven’s mind that she might know all about his rendezvous with Melissa, that being typical of a small town like Stone Creek.
“We can always use another eligible bachelor,” she said finally. “Not that you’ll be on the market long, a good-lookin’ cowboy like you.”
The remark made Steven feel uncharacteristically shy. “Thanks,” he said, for the second time, feeling his earlobes burn a little. Now, he fled.
“I’ve got a daughter!” Martine called after him. “Her name is Jessica Lynn and she’s going to be a full-fledged dental assistant in another six weeks!”
Steven pretended not to hear the pitch, but he couldn’t help chuckling as he took the nozzle off the fuel pump and stuck it into the tank’s opening.
He’d been so busy trying to figure out Melissa O’Ballivan, it hadn’t even occurred to him that he might be the subject of some matchmaking. How many other mamas, besides Jessica Lynn’s, were eyeing him through the matrimonial crosshairs, right at that very moment?
Since the tank was nearly empty, it took a while to fill it. Steven washed the windshield, checked the tire pressure and wiped a few bugs off the grillwork.
When the gas pump shut down, he went back inside to sign the credit slip and get his receipt.
Martine had acquired some more customers by then, and she was too busy at the register, ringing up jugs of milk, lottery tickets and cigarettes to try to sell him on Jessica Lynn again.
Thinking ahead to that evening’s dance at the Grange Hall, which would probably be attended by just about everybody in Stone Creek and maybe Indian Rock, too, he couldn’t help wondering just what he might be letting himself in for.
He grinned to himself as he drove away.
Maybe he’d attract enough attention to make Melissa a little jealous.
Wouldn’t that be something?
MELISSA STOOD IN FRONT of the mirror on her closet door, scowling at herself. Now that zero hour was approaching, she didn’t like the aqua dress half as much as she had before.
She sucked in her stomach. “There they are,” she said, pointing at her reflected backside. “The two pounds I gained eating your food.”
Ashley, sitting on the bed and holding Katie on her lap, smiled and shook her head. “Please. You could gain ten more pounds and still fit into every pair of jeans you own.”
“As if I’m going to let that happen,” Melissa said, with a little sniff.
Ashley laughed softly. Her eyes shone with contentment and good humor. Once upon a time, she’d been pretty tense herself, but since Jack’s arrival in her life, and then Katie’s, she’d mellowed