Page 8 of Down the Aisle
Leaning over to me, Mary placed her arm on mine, "Honey, his buns are going to turn into hamburger buns if you don't stop spoiling him." She smirked and we shared a laugh at her joke. "Don't worry, he still has some stashed away in the freezer from the last time you gave us some. Besides, you gotta save your money for that one," her finger playfully wiggled at Asher, who laughed in response to the attention, "right there."
Then, her eyebrows rose up, and her eyes sparkled with interest and amusement when they landed on Adam. Slowly, her lips curled into a teasing smirk as she glanced and winked at me. "Adam, how are you sweetie? How's Hailee and Adelaide? I seeyou're still getting lucky and getting yourself once-in-a-lifetime opportunities." Her eyes trailed over to me when she said the last part. "Sweet little Eliza and Asher here are diamonds waiting to shine."
Heat flooded my cheeks from the embarrassment of all the attention and doting. "Mary, what happened to not telling lies," I bit back playfully behind my blushing cheeks.
Laughing softly, Mary waved me off. "Because it ain't lies," she remarked sassily. "You two really are diamonds in the rough."
Rolling my eyes, I lightly shooed her off. "Oh, Mary, you're too much sometimes, I swear." My own sassy response came out before I could control the snap of it.
"Sorry, I didn't mean for that to come out so… bitey?" I quickly apologized, pressing my lips together to zip my mouth.
Mary didn't seem to mind, though. If anything, she rather liked it with how elated and proud her smile was. "Oh, that's what I love to see. I know there's a fire in ya somewhere just waiting to rage."
Patting my arm, she widened her smile for a split second before going back to scanning the rest of the items while I fished my wallet out from my bag. Okay, let me rephrase that last part: while I tried to fish out my wallet from my bag. A large hand stopped me from fully doing so. "Don't worry about it, I got it," Adam assured me warmly and confidently as he pulled my empty hand out of my bag.
I quickly denied him with a shake of my head and a light frown. "I can't trouble you like that, and besides, you already had to carve some time out of your day to watch Asher when you really didn't have to." I also didn't want a handout like this.
As if I already didn't feel bad about troubling him thus far. The last thing I needed was to feel indebted to him because hepaid for my groceries. Looking at everything, it was a lot less than what I'd usually get on a typical trip, but still.
Or was that his angle? Warm his way in and keep me trapped with debt?
Before I could spiral down the well of doubt and smear his seemingly good image in my mind, his chuckle yanked me back to reality. "If it was a bother, then I wouldn't have done it," he remarked while tucking his wallet away.
“Huh,” was my stunned response, and I stood and watched Adam like a deer in the headlights as he loaded the bagged groceries into the cart, bid Mary goodbye, and put Asher back into the cart. I obediently allowed him to take control of the cart with one hand and pull me out of the store with the other, our hands clasped together like it wasn’t a big deal, all with a single thought in my head.
What the hell just happened?
With how boggled my mind was, I barely managed to catch Adam's question. "Which car is yours?"
Of course, like a total idiot, I just stood there blinking at him in silence, making a fool of myself for a good solid minute before I managed to slap some sense into myself. "Uhh, it's the Rav4 over there," I answered in a slight daze, pointing over to the silver Toyota Rav4 a little way from us.
Casually, as if we'd been dating for a while, he slipped his arm around my waist and held me rather protectively as he made his way to my car with me and the cart in tow.
I felt kind of bad about tensing up at his touch, but after equating a man’s touch to nothing but pain for so long, my brain had become rewired. Now, men, in general, left a bad taste in my mouth and got the hairs on the back of my neck standing up.
As friendly as Adam was, I still couldn't settle my thumping heart that squeezed so slowly and painfully in anticipation of something bad coming. Bile churned in my stomach in responseto my body's stress levels ramping up. Then, I was torn between wanting to shove his arm away and wanting to lean into him for safety and support.
No matter how damaged I'd become, there was always a small, hopeful part of me that yearned for the good in people—even if there wasn't any to be had.
I hated that part of myself.
If I had just…
"Eliza?" Adam's voice stopped my train of thought again before it could leave the station. "Open the trunk?"
Completely snapping out of it, I quickly fumbled for my keys and opened the trunk with an awkward chuckle. "Sorry, I uhh get lost in my head a lot." I hoped my half-assed apology would be enough to keep him from pushing.
I was prepared to throw excuses at him to stave him off, but he just let it go. "You probably have a lot going on handling Asher all by yourself and working, so I don't blame you."
My lips curled in a quick smile to show him some silent gratitude before I opened the trunk. "Have you lived in this town long?" All the friendly greetings he'd been receiving in the store hadn't gone unnoticed.
"About ten years, give or take," he answered without breaking a sweat or losing his rhythm while putting things into my trunk.
"What about you?" His eyes quickly looked at me for a few seconds before he had to give his attention back to the groceries. "I don't think I've seen you around until today."
Seeing him do everything while having Asher on his hip made me feel a little bad, but it also made me feel a little warm on the inside. He was such a natural as if he'd been doing this forever. I didn't let the feeling fester, though, dumping a bucket of water on the growing fire before it could blaze.
Taking a calming breath, I centered myself before replying, "Oh, I've only been here for about a year, and I kinda don't go out much." Reaching out, I pried Asher away from Adam to give him a rest from my clingy toddler. "If I'm not at work, then I'm with Asher, either at home or at the park if the weather is pretty good, and I usually only go to the grocery store like once a week when I can."
