Page 138 of Love in Riverbend
She looks around. “It’s big.”
“I’m also thinking that I’d rather keep you than return you to your car.”
Devan grins as she latches her seat belt. “Come on. I’m hungry.”
“One more thing,” I say, my confidence waning.
“What?”
I open the back door of the truck and lift the bouquet of daisies I picked for her. “I…” —I stammer— “…you said you like them.”
Devan’s eyes grow wide as she takes the flowers. “Justin, they’re beautiful.”
“Not as beautiful as you.” I close the door, wondering if she thinks I sound ridiculous. It’s not my goal, but as I said, this is uncharted territory. There’s something about Devan that seems different—in a good way.
Opening the driver’s door, I grin. “You think I’m corny?”
She shakes her head. “No, I don’t.” Her smile is gorgeous. “I think this is our first date.” She looks at the flowers and back to me. “And if you don’t get us to our picnic spot soon, I may have to eat the daisies.”
Chapter 16
Devan
Our first date.
Justin didn’t deny it. The bouquet of fresh daisies on the seat between us and the fact I’m in his truck are both proof that it’s real. Music blares from the speakers as he turns on the truck and rolls down the windows.
We don’t talk as he drives us down Main Street on our way out of town. I barely move. My pulse is racing as we pass familiar stores, the diner, and Bob’s, a local tavern. I feel like there’s a spotlight on us, yet the people walking along the sidewalks don’t seem to notice. The farther out of town we get, the more open fields and fewer structures we pass and the less my nerves are on edge.
Smiling, I lift my face to the breeze as his truck bounces along back roads toward Empire Quarry. Trees lining the roads are filled with green leaves. The world is alive with summer growth. The quarry where we’re going is near Bedford. It got its name because it’s famous for providing the nearly twenty thousand tons of limestone needed to construct the Empire State Building.
My science geek comes out as I start thinking about the composition of limestone, a sedimentary rock principally composed of calcium carbonate or calcite and aragonite, a crystal form of calcium carbonate. Tiny fossils, shell fragments, and debris are also often found within it.
Justin turns the radio down and grins. “What are you thinking?”
I laugh. “You don’t want to know.”
“I do.”
“I was thinking about the quarry and the composition of limestone. Did you know that most of the limestone was formed by either a chemical or biochemical process that occurred about 300 million years ago?”
He turns my direction, his eyes huge.
Covering my face, I laugh. “Sorry. I’m a science geek. I love earth science.”
“I did know that...about the composition, not that you love earth science.”
“You did?”
“Yeah, while my major at Purdue was agriculture and I also studied business, my favorite subject was geology.”
“Really?” I asked, surprised.
“Yeah, well, I don’t often throw around my geological knowledge. If I did, I’d have every woman in Indiana after me.”
“You would. It’s damn sexy to hear a guy talk about the lithosphere, mantle, outer core, and inner core.”
Justin laughs. “You’re giving away your secrets. You want a man who can recite the chemical composition and minerals in the lithosphere.”
