Chat - Archer Mayor [33]
“Kenny,” he said.
Her mouth dropped open. “You remember his name?”
His face reddened. “I might’ve been a little envious.”
She touched her lips with her fingertips, assessing this revelation, which he now wished he’d withheld.
But her conclusion set him at ease. Her face softened and her shoulders slumped slightly. She stepped up to the bar and laid her hand on his. Their faces were close together as she said, “You had nothing to worry about.”
He didn’t know what to say.
“I kissed you that night to thank you for being nice to me,” she explained. “But there was more. I had almost decided to make a play for Kenny, even though every bone in my body told me I shouldn’t. You woke me up.”
“With a lobster roll?”
She laughed and stepped back, accepting his offer of humor to regain her balance.
“That’s when I decided to pull up stakes. Coryn, my daughter, was out of the house and on her own; I’d saved up enough money to make a new start. It was time. When this place came on the market, and it was in your hometown, I couldn’t believe it. The coincidence was too much to ignore.”
“Like a sign?” he suggested.
She made a face. “I don’t believe in that junk. But I wasn’t going to ignore it, either.”
“Christ,” he told her, waving a hand around at the clutter, “I’m going to feel pretty bad if it goes belly-up.”
“It won’t,” she said simply. “I did my homework, too. I’m not a total romantic.”
“But a bit of one.”
“Yeah,” she conceded after a pause. “I guess.” She was silent before adding, “That’s why I drove up to Thetford to find you, after reading about the accident. I wasn’t really going shopping.”
“I wondered,” he admitted, sitting very still.
“I did want to offer any help I could,” she said quickly. “I meant that. Still do. But I suppose I wanted you to know I was in the area, too, for what it was worth.”
“A lot.”
She’d been staring into the middle distance at that point, but his rejoinder made her look at him directly. “Really?”
“Yeah,” he said simply.
She pursed her lips. “Wow. I thought for sure you’d already have someone in your life . . .” She abruptly held her hand to her forehead. “Hold it. That came out wrong. I mean, not that you wouldn’t, but that if you don’t, that I wouldn’t be—”
“I don’t,” he said, hoping to end her embarrassment.
Her face was by now bright red. “Okay. Sorry. I’m not a stalker or anything.”
“I know.”
“I just—what with the bar being in Brattleboro, and what I said about your getting me to leave Gloucester—sort of—well . . . it just seemed stupid not to get in touch somehow.”
Now it was his turn to stand up and at least lean in her direction, since the bar was between them—the very safety barrier she’d once told him was a blessing for most barkeeps. “I’m glad you did, Lyn. It means a lot to me. Kind of a right time, right place thing, if you know what I mean.”
“Those aren’t too common, right?” she asked, taking a half step toward him.
“So they say.”
They stood there for a few seconds, seemingly frozen by in-decision, before he finally moved back, undraped his coat from the back of the adjacent stool, and said, “Well, I’ve got to get back north.”
“Oh, sure,” she said, leaving her post and heading back around the end of the bar to meet him. “Give your mom my best.”
He was close to the door, moving reluctantly, slipping his coat on. “I’m glad you came up when you did, when I was on the sidewalk.”
She reached him and laid her hand on his arm. “You’ve got a lot on your mind right now.”
He nodded silently, welling with emotion that he’d been suppressing for days.
“That’s okay,” she said. “I’ll be here.” She took his hand, removed a pen from her breast pocket, and wrote a phone number on his palm. “That’s my home. Call anytime. I mean it.”
He opened the door with his other hand, letting in a sharp sliver of cold air. “I will.”
He quickly leaned forward, kissed her on the cheek, and let himself out.
RadMan: so wut u do for fun
Suze: soccer and shop
RadMan: