Page 27 of The Sound Of Us

He puts his phone away again and repeats the sign and, if it were physically possible, his glass-ocean eyes sparkle. A stirring low in my belly, foreign… except it isn’t all that foreign. I know exactly what this is.

I’m fucking married.

I’m also a customer service assistant. This is stupid. No one goes around feeling insanely attracted to a complete stranger just because they got taught the sign for pasta. But those eyes. So bright and playful. So transparent it’s like you could see right into his soul—or your own—if you got a chance to look long enough. So… not like Frank.

I give myself a mental boot and get on with doing my job. I nod to indicate I understand and drop to my haunches to go through the middle shelf while he looks through the top shelf.

I find one that says 101 Ways to Make Pasta in under Fifteen Minutes. A hundred and one? Geez, is it even possible to make pasta that many ways?

Eli Saxon chooses three cookbooks, including the one I picked out, and I lead him to the front to pay. He pays with a black card and I watch him leave, wondering why, of all the places in the country, he had to have an aunt who’d once lived in River Valley.

Chapter 13

Axel

“You’re staring.”

My head snaps back to Ben. He has a stupid smile on his face. “No, I—”

“I don’t blame you. There are a lot of reasons to stare, especially from the back.”

“Shut up, Ben,” I say, hoping he’ll drop it because it’s true. I was staring. “Anyway, where’d you learn sign language?”

Ben hands me my Garry Michael pile and I take them to the table at the window while he packs the JamieReadsRomance FIVE STAR READS table.

“I learned a few basic words after I heard he was moving into town. You should learn, too, for like, when he comes in here again. We can go to the classes together.”

Done with my display, I go to help Ben unpack his box of books. “But you never said anything about him being deaf.”

“I didn’t? I thought I did.” Ben stops and puts his hand to his temple, like a salute the way he did when the customer came in. “This means hello.” Then he places his fingers on his chin and moves it toward me. “This means thank you or thanks.”

“Yeah, let’s do the classes together,” I say, trying out the ones Ben just showed me.

“He’s gorgeous, right?”

Guilt hits me immediately like a bucket of ice cold water. My fingers still tingle from the time he showed me how to sign pasta. I know I’m a little naïve and I rushed into a marriage I’ve regretted since the first moment I said I do, but I know right from wrong.

“And he’s got such a cool name, right? Eli Saxon. Sounds so… upper class,” Ben says.

Eli and Axel. The thought comes from nowhere and I immediately feel for my wedding band, sickness pooling low in my stomach.

Axel Saxon. Too many x’s. Dread fills my belly, mixing with the sickening feeling already present.

“Not married, no children, no ex in the last two years. Owns a tech company in Louisville, inherited from his dad. They basically work for the government. Cyber security something-something.”

“So, why don’t they just sell the old Johnson house?”

Ben perches on the table. “According to David Shapiro, his dad was born here, and he had, like, some bucket list with his dad, and one of the things they’d planned to do was upgrade the old house. But his dad died before they could.”

“Oh, that sucks. So he’s here for like, how long?”

“Not sure. Couple months, I think. You wanna know something else?”

I scrunch my nose up at him. I don’t trust that face.

“He’s gay.”

I have to fight through the electrical surge that begins low in my belly and shoots up to my chest, exploding there and sending my heartbeat into a hundred horsepower sprint. I manage to catch myself in time.

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