Page 10 of Dumbstruck
Wrinkles form on her brow, and her confusion is cute. “You…want to take me to lunch? At ten in the morning?”
I shrug. “Of course I want to take you to lunch, June Harper. And I have no idea when you take your lunch break because it seems to happen at random times. I won’t have a break until later anyway, but I’m willing to pivot if lunch is off the table today. Dinner, dessert, or even afternoon tea are acceptable alternatives.”
She waits for so long that I’m convinced she’s finding a way to turn me down, but when she finally speaks, it’s not an answer to my request. “I should get these to Hank.” Her hand slips free of mine, and she opens the batteries and stuffs them into the walkie talkies. She leads the way out of the store and back down the sidewalk.
Part of me wants to keep pushing, but I’m sensing a need to step back. Give her a little space to process. There are any number of reasons why she might say no, and though I’m determined to give her every reason to say yes, I have never been a typical aggressive male. I get the sense June wouldn’t like that even if I was.
I can be patient.
“Here, Hank,” June says, handing the walkie talkies to him.
Hank immediately waves Trevor, Bonnie’s assistant, over and gives him the other radio. “Get this to Bonnie.” Then he looks up at the building next to us, a determined glint in his eyes before he slips down a narrow alley and disappears.
“Where’s he going?” I ask.
June smiles in a way that makes me wish she was smiling at me. It’s a look of pride, something I don’t get often now that I don’t live on my parents’ farm. Praise? Sure. All the time. But pride is a whole different beast. “I think he’s going up to the roof,” she says.
“Huh. Good idea.” This building isn’t quite as high up as Bonnie is across the street, but it’ll give Hank a better view of her. “So are those two really dating?”
June’s eyes go wide. “What? Of course they are. Why would you ask something like that?”
I shrug, noting the way she has gotten defensive. “Theysaythey are, but I know a publicity stunt when I see one. Granted, they’ve had their moments over the last few days, but Bonnie didn’t mention Hank once until after the first tabloid article dropped about the two of them. And Bonnie’s chatty to the extreme, so I would have heard something about the guy if they were a thing, you know?”
I’m rambling. It’s not a common thing for me, thank goodness, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m talking way too much if I want June to agree to go out with me. Tucking my hands into my pockets, I lift my shoulders in another shrug. “You don’t have to tell me if you know something. I’m just throwing my opinion out there.”
June raises an eyebrow as she studies me. “You’re something else, Jonah James.”
I chuckle. “So you’ve said.”
“When…uh…when do you get a break?” She blushes and drops her eyes to the sidewalk. For all the snark she’s given me, I wouldn’t have expected shyness, and I take a small measure of hope from her timidity. If she wasn’t interested, she would say so. “And why would you want to go to lunch withme?”
Oh, she might regret asking that second question, but I’m going for full honesty. “Depends on how quickly we can get Bonnie down, but we usually break for lunch around noon. And I want to go to lunch with you because I think you’re beautiful and you’re the first woman I’ve met in years who makes me feel normal.”
“You think I’m…”
Okay, so I’ve literally left her speechless. That’s fun. Grinning, I start walking backwards. “So, would you like to join me?”
“I…”
“Yes or no, Harper. Easy question to answer.”
“Jonah…”
“Lunch?”
“Okay.”
Resisting the urge to fist pump, I nod to acknowledge her response and then turn and walk away before I do or say something stupid to change her mind. People are still running around, trying to get Bonnie down, but she looks much happier now that she has a walkie talkie to talk to her maybe real boyfriend.
I locate Dexter among the crew and gesture him toward me. We’ve got a date to plan.
Chapter Five
June
Jonahbookedouttheentire diner so we wouldn’t have people whispering about us while we ate. It’s weird to see this place empty—it’s one of two restaurants in town and a popular spot at lunchtime, especially on a Friday like today—but it’s even weirder to have the whole staff stare at me as I sit in a booth and wait for Jonah to show up. Dexter said the actor stopped by his trailer to change and will be here any minute, but I’m counting the seconds.
I’m starting to understand why Hank hates coming to town. These stares are getting ridiculous. Most people leave me alone, knowing better than to pry into my past after I spent a lot of energy shutting them down when I first moved here. But now that I’m here on my own, with no other townsfolk to distract them, I seem to be a point of interest once more.
