Finding Our Forever (Silver Springs #1)(16)
She couldn’t get hurt if he never responded, anyway. His disinterest made the attraction safe. So she figured she might as well enjoy the view he provided, maybe even indulge in a few harmless fantasies. If allowing him to fuel her imagination helped pass the time and made her stint in Silver Springs more enjoyable, why not?
Feeling slightly empowered by the fact that she had no expectations, she smiled widely when he looked up. Once she found a seat and everyone went back to chatting and drinking their sodas and beer, she even winked at him, since he was still watching her.
He didn’t wink in return—or even smile. But he didn’t look away, either. He studied her that much more closely, as if he was trying to figure out what she was up to.
Since Doug Maggleby insisted on crowding as close to her as possible, she was glad when the pizza finally arrived. Doing her best to keep interaction with him to a minimum, she focused on the female English teacher on her other side, a recent divorcée with two kids, neither of whom was with her now because her ex had picked them up for the weekend.
Cora also kept an eye on Aiyana. She hoped to speak to her mother again—at some length, if the opportunity presented itself. She now knew that she had living grandparents and uncles and where they all lived and what they did for work! It was a revelation, considering the dearth of information she’d had until six months ago. There were a lot of other things Cora wanted to know—but Aiyana was always surrounded by an eager group of teachers or other staff.
Everyone who worked for her liked her, Cora realized. They all seemed to bask in whatever attention she gave them. Thanks to that, there was no chance for Cora to approach her while they waited for the pizza, and Aiyana left shortly after it came, before the karaoke even started.
“Are you leaving, too?” Cora asked Darci Spinoza, the English teacher she’d been chatting with most of the night, when another group from their party started to say goodbye.
“No way,” she replied. “You said you were going to sing. Since I don’t have a voice, and wouldn’t have the nerve to perform in front of a crowd even if I did, I’m waiting to hear you.”
“Me, too,” Doug chimed in.
Although Cora was grateful that Darci would be staying, she wished Doug would find other friends. Her other neighbor, Sean, sat in the corner with a couple of people. Why couldn’t Doug go over there? He was drinking too much, which made him feel free to touch her...
Briefly, she considered going home herself, to avoid him, but she hated to miss her chance to sing. And Elijah was still there. He stood with his back against the wall and a beer in his hand, talking to a man she’d never met. Because that man was somewhere close to their age, was part of the group from the school and seemed so comfortable around Elijah, she guessed it was Gavin, the handyman Aiyana had mentioned and Elijah’s younger brother. Tall and thin, he had a beard and several tattoos on his arms. He was handsome, but not nearly as handsome as Elijah.
Once the karaoke started, Cora tried to ignore the bothersome, overbearing and balding Doug and went to the mic to sing “Jolene.” On subsequent trips she performed “I Hope You Dance” and “Wrecking Ball.” After that, Darci, Doug and several others kept prodding her to get up again. Some people even made requests—and a table of four men, who hadn’t been part of their group but had come in later, started sending her drinks.
“Those guys are really into you,” Doug said. “But of course they would be. Who wouldn’t like a gorgeous woman like you?”
Cora couldn’t help leaning away from his sour breath. He was getting so close when he talked it felt as if he was trying to look down her blouse.
Catching her recoil, Darci gave her a nudge. “I think it’s time for Doug to go to bed, but...he can’t drive in that condition.”
No, he couldn’t. Someone had to see that he got home safely, and Cora was the obvious choice. They lived right next door to each other, after all—and Sean had already left. “Is there any way we could call him a taxi or even an Uber?” she whispered back.
Darci laughed at the question. “Not in this small of a town. There’s no such thing here. But if you’d rather not take him, I will.”
Cora couldn’t ask her new friend to go twenty minutes out of the way. Darci had already told her that she lived in town. “No, I’ll do it. Just...help me get him to my car, okay?”
“Sure, I can do that.”
They had no trouble persuading Doug that he shouldn’t drive, not once he learned he’d be riding with her—and that she’d bring him back to get his car in the morning. At that point, Cora forgot about Elijah. She was too intent on stopping Doug from copping a feel as she and Darci helped him outside. She’d just unlocked her car so they could put him in the passenger seat when Elijah came out of the pizza parlor along with the man she’d guessed was Gavin.
Darci said good-night to them, so Cora looked up and said the same. She expected the brothers to go on their way, possibly to a bar if they weren’t ready to go home for the night, but “Gavin” waited on the curb while Elijah came around to where they were trying to get Doug in the car.
“Here, I’ll take him.” Slipping Doug’s arm around his neck, Eli started to cart the math teacher off.
Cora was so relieved she almost couldn’t hide it. “Are you sure?”