With This Heart(2)

I narrowed my eyes in confusion. Of course. He’s too hot to be normal.

“ So you’re a stalker?” I asked with a hard stare.

He smirked, a knees-turning-to-jelly kind of smirk. “I prefer gravitationally linked by your presence.”

Oh c’mon. I’d be lying if I said his answer didn’t take me by surprise. I had to recover quickly and stay on task.

“ Right. Uh, well you’ve successfully annoyed me so you can go about your day now.” I was being harsh, but his entire demeanor felt like a threat to my rock-solid plan.

We stood there, locked in an awkward moment, and neither one of us made a point to end it. Most people I’d met in life were satisfied with surface content and meaningless pleasantries. Like the fact that everyone’s default answer to “How are you?” is always “Good.” But this guy was the exact opposite. He seemed curious, stubborn, and persistent, yet I didn’t know him at all.

“ What’s the urn for?” he asked with brazen curiosity.

What?

“ What? Who actually asks something like that? Don’t you have a filter?” I could feel my eyebrows tugging together to form a judgmental scowl.

He slowly nodded his head once and I could tell he didn’t want to drop the subject, yet he still backed off. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“ It’s for my dog.” I crossed my arms and cocked my head to the side with a hint of attitude. There, now go away.

He licked his lips, trying to hide his grin. Shouldn’t he feel terrible about bringing up my dead dog? Well, my fake dead dog, but he didn’t know that.

“ Ah, I’m so sorry to hear that. What was its name?”

He sounded sympathetic, but his eyes were narrowed on me as if he didn’t quite believe me. It felt like he could see right through me.

“ Sparky,” then to truly seal my fate, I added, “he’s real.” Don’t ask me why I felt like I had to justify my lie to him or why I chose to sound like a four-year-old when I said it.

He nodded thoughtfully. “Where are you going to keep his ashes?”

I could have lied, but something stopped me; instead, I found myself telling him, a complete stranger, about the secret adventure I’d been planning for the last month.


“ I’m spreading them on a road trip.” I said it with a shrug and a soft voice.

Without missing a beat, his smile unpeeled an inch wider. I couldn’t strip my gaze away.

“ I’ll save you the trouble of asking. Of course I’ll come with you.”

I stared at him in utter bafflement. Every pre-set pathway in my brain was thrown for a loop by this guy, leaving me gaping in silence. He was the most arrogant person I’d ever met, but there was something hidden beneath his jokes. I think he actually wanted to go on the road trip with me even though he didn’t know me at all.

Just as a retort formed on my lips, Fred stepped back through the storage room door. I paused and took in the stranger for one last moment before turning toward Fred.

A black urn was cradled in his puffy hands. Bingo.

“ It’s the only one we have, but it’s got a chip on the corner,” he muttered.

“ Will you sell it to me for a discount?” I asked. It didn’t need to be perfect for the plan.

“ You can just have it,” he shrugged, reaching out to hand it to me.

“ Oh, okay, thanks. It’s for my dog,” I told him, letting the lie multiply and take root.

“ Okay,” he answered dead-pan. “Anything else?”

A whiff of sexy cologne brought my attention back to Gravelly Voice.

“ I think this guy is looking for a casket,” I offered, pointing behind me.

His throaty laugh followed me as I took flight toward the exit. My hands pushed against the thin metal handle of the door and soon the Texas heat greeted me with a vengeance. Oh, July, must you be so cruel?

“ Hey, wait!”

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up on end. I tried to assess the situation as quickly as I could: It was the middle of a Saturday in a suburb of Dallas. People were milling about on the sidewalk. Cars zoomed by, making the hot asphalt seem even more extreme. This guy couldn’t do me any harm in broad daylight. Though, if he did, we would definitely end up on the five o’clock news. Talk about living on the edge .

With that thought, I decided I could spare him a few more minutes.

“ What’s your name?” he asked the moment my ballet flats spun me around to face him.

His eyes were a light hazel with a bit of swirly green madness. I could see them perfectly now that we were in the sun.

“ Abby.”

He smiled like I’d just told him he’d won the lottery. It split his face in two, and instinctively I felt the corners of my mouth lift in response.

“ Abby,” he repeated. It sounded better coming from his lips than it ever had from mine.

“ Yup.” I tapped my foot.

“ I’m Beck,” he answered, pressing his hand over his heart. It seemed endearing even though I hadn’t decided what to make of him yet.

“ Like the band?” I asked, squinting my eyes and holding a hand at my brow line to shield the sun.

“ Literally.”

I smiled then because I couldn’t help it anymore. It’s hard fighting relentlessly quirky charm.