Page 62 of I Knew You
I had been so immersed in the conversation with the ladies that I’d forgotten Hunter was coming to pick me up.
“Oh. Right. That.” I stuck my hand in my dress pocket and pulled out my phone, checking the screen with my sticky fingers. Sure enough, there was a text from my date.
Hunter: Hey, Julianna. I’ll come in and get you, I guess? I’m 10 minutes out.
The text was from twenty minutes ago!
I scrambled to throw the apron off, realizing too late that I hadn’t properly cleaned my hands. In my haste, prominent white sugared smudges swept the front of my blue sundress.
“I gotta—oh no—” My hands went up and out to the side as if I was being robbed. I looked around, but Bram was already on it. He grabbed a clean cloth from the side table and ran it under water. I reached for it, but he had no intention of giving it to me. I watched, stunned, as he softly cleaned the dried frosting off my fingers.
Our eyes met briefly, and I tried hard to show him my appreciation for what he was doing through a look. He averted his attention back to his task. Euetta had stopped whatever she’d been doing and was watching us intently.
“Take a picture. It’ll last longer,” Bram laughed at the older woman, who did not look the least bit chagrined.
“If I knew the first thing about those new phones, I’d do it,”she replied with a shrug. “Far be it from me to look away from a moment of sparkin’ happening right before my eyes.”
Sparking?!
“He’s just helping. I’m going on a date,” I blurted, my blunt words startling both Bram and Euetta. Bram’s soft ministrations stopped, and regret flooded my chest.
“Yeah. A date,” Bram reiterated, and with only slight hesitation, put the wet cloth into my hand, leaving me to grab it. Dejection was written all over his face, and for the first time, I realized he honestly didn’t want me to go.
I stared at the rag in my hands, not able to watch Bram walk away from me. He went toward the serving area.
“Well, can’t say I’m not disappointed,” Euetta said, slicing through the uncomfortable moment. “Hope this other fellow is a good man because you won’t find any better than Bram. His father is a piece of cow manure, but Bram is the best of ‘em.”
“He is,” I confirmed, swallowing the lump in my throat.
“Let me tell you a thing or two you may not know then,” Euetta said, taking the cloth from my hands. She went straight in for my dress, so close I could smell the talcum powder on her tender skin. “I don’t know what a quarter of those people would do out there if it weren’t for Bram.”
My brow furrowed. “What do you mean? I know he volunteers, but—” I was afraid for a moment that she was privy to the information about the new community center. If she was, and the secret was out, Bram needed to know.
Her wrinkled hands stopped wiping, and her squinting eyes met mine.
“He’s not told you,” she said, her mouth quirked. She lowered her voice. “He pays people’s electric and water bills. Buys groceries for people every other week. Gets Christmas gifts for so many kids, coats in the winter, lawn mowers in the summer. All kinds of little things that are a big deal to so many out there.”
“Oh,” I replied. It was the only thing I could think to say. It wasn’t surprising to me that he did this, but why hadn’t he told me?
“He does it on his own?” I asked.
Euetta nodded. “Lots of those people never signed up for all the government programs when the plant shut down, so they’ve struggled, even so many years later. But Bram has his ways of finding out who needs things, usually through Gladys. He thinks no one knows, but people talk. Don’t keep some from disliking him because of his daddy, but that number dwindles all the time.”
My heart swelled with pride. It was never plainer to me that the boy I knew fifteen years ago wasn’t the same man I was going to marry.
Fake marry. Get a hold of yourself.
“He is pretty special,” was all I could think of to say.
At that moment, Bram walked back into the room, followed by Hunter.
With my heart racing, I watched the two men stand next to each other. Bram was taller, broader, and more rugged. Hunter was suave, sleek, and classically handsome.
Hunter’s piercing blue eyes met mine. Nervous energy spread throughout every cell in my body as I drank in the sight of him. He was so handsome.
But Bram was, too. And he was familiar and warm.
“Julianna,” Hunter said on a breath as if I was a sight to behold. Euetta stepped back and smiled at Hunter.
