Page 16 of Sweet Love From Saturn

“He’s fine. He hardly barks so he can sit behind the counter,” I expressed.

“Cool. I’ll only be down the street. Everything is within walking distance, so I’ll keep my truck where it is.”

Since there were no customers, I told Sapphire she was good to go. She told me that she was going down to the daycare and checking on her daughter since she hadn’t been feeling well this morning. I was about to take Sparky on a walk around the block when my phone rang with a call from Mccoy. His instructions were for me and Sparky to meet him down the street at Katie Park. During the short walk, I prayed Sparky behaved since I didn’t have a leash to tame him. There weren’t many people out, but I was still nervous. Relief set in when we made it to the entrance of the park.

The smile that crept across my face couldn’t be helped when I spotted Mccoy. When he told me to meet him here, I assumed it was so we could walk Sparky around. A brown blanket lay spread across the green grass with a pizza box and a two liter of Sprite on top.

“Mccoy, this is?—”

“I know it’s not much, but it was the only thing I could come up with on short notice. It may be simple, but I wanted to do something nice for you,” he stated with a hand on the back of his neck.

“No, no…I love it. The fact that you even thought to do something like this for me is mind blowing. Even if I didn’t like it, I’d never be rude and display that.”

Getting down on the blanket, I crawled over to Mccoy, wrapped my arms around his solid frame, and squeezed him. After placing a kiss to his cheek, I let him loose and focused my attention back on the box of pizza.

“I got half cheese and half pepperoni and sausage. But before you eat, I have a question to ask.”

Lifting the lid off the box, I nodded as I looked between Mccoy and the pizza. My eyes closed when I took the first bite and the flavor took over my senses. Divino’s had the best pizza in town and was the only Italian place that still used brick ovens.

“I know we both agreed that we’d take things slow, but I wanna speed them up just a little bit. I’d like for us to only date each other. Meaning, we’re dating with a purpose. I don’t mean to be so straightforward, but I’m trying to see where this can go.”

“I’m okay with that. All I ask is that you be honest with me and keep the lines of communication open. There hasn’t been another man in my life for a while now. I guess my concern with you is your past. You were with your ex for years and wanted to marry her. How do I know you won’t change your mind and wanna work things out with her?” I questioned seriously.

The night Mccoy came over to install the cameras, we had a conversation about our past relationships. From what he said, it sounded like the relationship was over on his part, but not so much for his ex. All I knew was she wasn’t ready to take the next step in their relationship.

“When it comes to that, all I can give you is my word. I don’t have a desire to go back. If I did, I would’ve already gone back. If marriage and starting a family wasn’t going to happen, then what’s the point of staying together? I won’t lie and say I wasn’t hurt, but I’m not hung up on it. I still want those things, but I want them with the right person,” Mccoy explained.

“Okay. I’ll hold you to that. Just tell me if anything changes.”

That was the only comeback I had for his explanation. Only time would tell if he was being honest or not. I hated that love always came with a risk, but if Mccoy was the man I thought he was, we’d be fine. When I went for another slice of pizza, my reach was cut short by a bouquet of yellow and orange roses.

“You’re the queen of roses, so tell me what the colors signify.” He smirked.

“Yellow is the color of friendship. You’ll have to tell me what orange means because they have several different meanings,” I admitted.

“According to the internet, orange can represent wanting to take friendship to the next level.”

When Mccoy did things like this, it sent me head over heels. I wasn’t the kind of woman who needed thousands of dollars in material things to be happy. Money couldn’t buy genuine interest and Mccoy showed me that. He’d been raising the bar since our first date and didn’t even know it.

“Thank you. Where did you get these from? I know they aren’t from my shop because I don’t have orange flowers,” I stated as I inhaled the fresh smell.

“There’s a small floral area in the front of the grocery store down the street. I saw them and thought of you. I was a little skeptical about buying them since you see roses every day.”

“Roses are my love language. I’ll never get tired of them.”

“That’s good to know. I’ll be sure to stay fluent in all things Saturn if you allow me to. Plus, I think Sparky would disown me if you stopped coming around,” he joked.

The rest of our date was spent with us making plans for the weekend. He had a car to work on, so I agreed to keep Sparky until he was done. We normally spent time at my place, but since Mccoy’s home was intact, he suggested we meet there. Hopefully, I’d be just as comfortable at his place as I was at mine.

EIGHT

Mccoy

“I told you that you would get it!” Justin yelled in excitement as the engine roared.

Right now, we were at the garage I rented to rebuild and perfect my cars. Before I knew I was moving to Pleasant Springs, I got a request from the former mayor, asking if I could get him this car. It was a 1980 Mustang and it’d given me so many problems since the day I started working on it. Since my home life was now settled, I was able to put more time into figuring out what the problems were. The satisfaction I felt from finally completing a project was the reason I kept going. Providing quality work resulted in return customers and even new ones. On top of that, I loved using my hands and keeping my days busy.

“Man, I was starting to lose hope. I wasn’t expecting it to be this difficult.”

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