Page 1 of Cookie

One

Charlie

Iwaited across from the bookstore like I did every day on my lunch break. Waiting for the guy I’d noticed a few weeks back. Here in the small town of Grace, California, we didn’t get many new people—especially people who were my age and not married. Not to mention hoping to find a gay man here in the middle of small town nowhere. I’d lived here all my life, born and bred, as my grandad was fond of saying.

I was the youngest of three boys, all of us with names starting with the letter C. I never understood why my parents had done this, and they never bothered to explain. It was just one of those things. I got lucky with the name Charles, or Charlie as everyone in town called me. My big brother Caspian wasn’t as lucky, but my dad explained he’d just read a book with that name in it, and thought it was cool. His words, not mine.

My rambling thoughts stuttered to a stop as the door to the bookstore opened. Out walked the most perfect human I’d ever laid eyes on. He was small in stature with a shock of bright red hair set off by his pale skin. Without stopping, he crossed the street and walked straight to the bench next to mine. Then, like he’d done every day, he took out a big sugar cookie coated with bright pink icing.

I watched as much as I could without him knowing as he took a big bite and relaxed back onto the bench. Next, he took a sip of the coffee he’d brought with him and settled in to people watch while finishing his snack. Or his lunch. I really wasn’t sure what—Cookie, the nickname I’d given him—was doing out here at this time, but I knew that until we finally met, I’d make sure I was here too.

I was distracted by how blue his eyes were when I realized he’d caught me staring and was staring right back at me. He grinned, while I blushed so badly I had to look away, and even considered running. But I forced myself to stay seated and shoved a bite of my sandwich in my now very dry mouth.

“Hi,” he said with a shy wave. “It’s nice out today.”

I started to speak but the bite of sandwich lodged in my throat, and I started to choke. My only thought was I hoped I didn’t keel over right here on the park bench, in the town square, next to the cute guy I was hoping to meet. I hacked and coughed, and said a small prayer I didn’t gag, or worse, while tears streamed from my eyes, and my face turned so red I could actually feel it.

“Oh no,” he said before rushing over to me. He slid onto the bench before patting me lightly on the back. “Are you okay?”

Once again, I tried to answer but at this point, I was choking on air. “Water,” I managed to croak out, and pointed at the small bottle of water I had tucked in my backpack that, thankfully, I’d brought with me.

He hurried to hand me the water, and I drank it down as fast as I could while forcing my throat to not close up. Finally, after drinking half of the bottle, I could take a deep breath. “Thank you. I guess I swallowed wrong.” I wiped my eyes and hoped my face wasn’t still as red as I knew it was. But when my eyes finally met his gorgeous blue ones—he was smiling at me.

“I’m Ryan Stone,” he said and held out his hand. He still hadn’t moved from where he sat right next to me. Not that I minded.

“Charlie Castle,” I said and waited for him to laugh at my expense. But he didn’t. He just shook my hand with a smile.

“Have you lived here long?” he asked and shifted around on the bench like I’d seen him do every time he sat down.

“My whole life,” I said and tried not to stare when he took a bite of the cookie he must have been so fond of. “How about you?” I finally managed to get out.

“I’ve been here a few months. My aunt owns One More Chapter, and she’s thinking about retiring. I’ve always loved the bookstore, so I came to see if I really want to buy it or if it’s just a fun fantasy.” He glanced at said bookstore and the look on his face showed how much he really did love it.

“How has it been so far?”

“It’s a lot harder than I expected. There’s so much to keep track of, but I’ve loved every single second. Do you work around here?”

“Yes, around the corner at the auto repair place.” I hoped he didn’t look too close at the grease stains under my nails that no matter how hard I scrubbed, never seemed to go away.

“Oh, I’m going to remember that. You never know when you need an auto shop.”

“Do you have a car?” I asked unable to stop myself.

“Not here, I left it in Sacramento, but you never know,” he said with a big grin, followed by another bite of his cookie.

“Yeah, you never know,” I repeated back.

“Well, it was really nice meeting you, Charlie Castle, but I need to get back to work. I’m glad you’re okay, you scared me for a minute.” With a wave he was gone, jogging across the street without a backward glance.

“Wow,” I whispered to myself and took another drink before deciding I’d keep coming back here every day.

Two

Ryan

“See, I told you he likes you,” Aunt Millie said as soon as I walked back into the bookstore.

“He choked. I was worried I’d need to give him the Heimlich, and I wasn’t sure I could really do that,” I mumbled as I walked over to the counter to see what was next on my to-do list.

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