Move the Sun (Signal Bend #1)(63)

“Don’t know what that is, city girl. Enlighten me.” As he spoke, he reached across the table and stroked her arm. Her heart picked up its pace a step.

“It means fixed price. It’s when the restaurant prepares a meal, usually several courses. That’s the whole menu for the night, and everybody there that night eats the same thing and pays the same price.”

“Yeah, but this way, I get my T-bone and you get your chicken, and everybody likes what they get.” He leaned forward, his green eyes catching the light from the flickering little candle. “We’re gonna have to work harder at gettin’ you countrified if you’re gonna live here.”

“Don’t, Isaac.” They only had this brief time before Hobson was back; she didn’t want to think about what the future did or did not hold. “And it’s not country, it’s crazy. I’m sure it’s not a thing everywhere.” A shadow had quickly crossed his face at her first words, but now he was smiling.

“Maybe. Lot to be said for crazy, though.”

Beth came over, and Lilli ordered the chicken parmesan, as she had the three other times they’d been here. Isaac got his T-bone, which was probably his thousandth. While they were eating their garden salads, Isaac looked up, and the expression that overtook his face gave Lilli pause. She turned to see a man she hadn’t met. He looked familiar, though, and Lilli scanned her memory to place him. He was tall and very thin, the kind of guy whose Adam’s apple was the first thing you noticed, with greying brown hair. Dressed in jeans and a plaid shirt, tucked in, which was apparently the “dress casual” uniform around town.

Isaac spoke first. “Will.”

The man apparently named Will said, “Isaac. Need to talk to you.”

Lilli was still combing her memory. She knew she’d get it. If she’d seen him, she’d place him. There it was—he was the guy who’d gotten stabbed at Tuck’s place her first night in town.

Isaac set his fork down but didn’t move elsewise. “Havin’ a meal with my lady, Will. Gonna have to wait.”

Will glanced at Lilli. “Ma’am.” She smiled and nodded back, and he returned his steady look to Isaac.

“Can’t wait.”

With a terse nod, Isaac said, “’Scuse me, Sport,” and got up. He gestured toward the front door, and the two men walked through the restaurant and out.

Alone at the table with her salad, Lilli used the time to people watch. The restaurant had about 20 tables; six besides theirs were occupied. She saw Don Keyes and his wife Lonnie, sitting with the Reverend Mortensen. Ed Foss was eating alone. She recognized the people at the other tables, too—farmers, a couple of shopkeepers—and Mac Evans, who was staring at her. She smiled, and he raised his glass.

He didn’t stop staring, though, and Lilli was disquieted. Her instinct was not to flinch from an aggressive look like that, but after a few awkward seconds, she nodded, then moved her own gaze elsewhere in the room, letting him have the victory in their strange, impromptu stare down.

Isaac came back in, looking glum. He strode to the table and sat down. Lilli didn’t ask; she could tell that whatever it was wasn’t good news, and he knew she would listen if he wanted to tell her. But he gave her a concerned look and said, “What’s wrong?”

The question surprised her. “What? Nothing.”

“You have a look, Sport. Somethin’ happen while I was outside?”

Lilli thought about the weirdness with Evans. Could he read that lingering on her face somehow? Was he already getting to know her that well? The thought thrilled and alarmed her.

She shrugged. “Kind of a strange moment with Mac Evans over there.” Isaac turned quickly, and Lilli took his hand and brought his attention back. “No big deal. Caught him staring. He asked me out when I got to town; maybe he’s feeling jealous. Don’t sweat it.” But Isaac looked back, his fists clenching. Lilli glanced over to see Mac looking decidedly uncomfortable now.

“I f*ckin’ hate that guy.” The malice in Isaac’s tone was unmistakable. Lilli would hate to find herself on the other end of that emotion, and she was surprised that Mac Evans, realtor, had earned it. She didn’t doubt he had, though.

“He’s smarmy, yeah. Seems fairly innocuous, though.”

“He’s not.” Beth brought their entrees then, and Isaac sat back. He said no more on the subject of Mac Evans. They ate quietly, Isaac unable to shake off whatever ill news he’d gotten. They should have stayed in and cooked.

oOo

Lilli woke standing next to Isaac’s bed, her heart racing. The room was dark. When she had her bearings, she checked the clock on his nightstand: 3:21. Then she noticed that Isaac wasn’t in bed. Snagging his t-shirt from the floor and pulling it on, she went looking.

After doing a turn of the whole first floor, she checked outside and found him in the yard, sitting in a metal lawn chair—one that would be considered “vintage” and “kitsch” if it hadn’t been sitting in this very yard for probably 50 years. He was smoking. Lilli didn’t smoke, and Isaac never smoked inside except at the clubhouse, so it wasn’t unusual for him to be sitting outside with a cigarette. What was unusual was that he’d left the bed she was in to do it. He had a thing about waking up alone when he’d gone to sleep with her, and he didn’t do it to her, either.