Page 45 of Every Now and Then
Rowdy
Hayes, can you fucking let me know you’re alive? Bailey won’t stop harassing me. Give me something, man.
Seriously, proof of life is required. Bailey’s driving me fucking crazy.
Bailey
Ruston Hayes! Are you alive? Did she kill you and leave you in a ditch somewhere? ANSWER ME!
Char
Congrats. But please tell me there won’t be any photos in tomorrow’s paper of your reunion.
Charlotte’s text makes me chuckle. Rather than responding individually, I send a text to our group chat.
Me
All good. Sorry for not getting back to y’all last night, but I needed some time to think. Meet for dinner and drinks tonight?
Within seconds, my phone chimes with a flood of incoming texts agreeing to dinner.
Pushing that from my mind, I plan how to weasel my way into Annabelle’s life. After making a quick call to order some food, I drive over to the K-Country radio station building and park facing its front doors. My plan may not work, especially if she works remotely, butI’m hoping that my patience will pay off and I can catch her on her way to lunch.
I wait in my truck. The proper, gentlemanly thing to do would be to go inside and meet her, but I don’t want to make it weird or difficult for her at work if someone sees us together, especially since she’s not expecting me.
I’ve only been waiting for twenty minutes when she strolls out wearing a red coat with her blonde hair snapping around her face in the wind. Pulling my baseball cap over my head, I hop from my truck and stride toward Annabelle. When I call her name, she looks almost as shocked as she did last night. But today when she sees me, her face lights up after her initial surprise.
“I was hoping I could take you to lunch.”
“Lunch,” she repeats slowly.
Glancing at Annabelle’s friend, the same one who busted us on the front porch last night, I offer my hand and introduce myself.
“I’m Laura,” she twitters as she shakes my hand, holding it for just a second south of awkward.
“You’re more than welcome to join us, too.”
“No, no. That’s okay. Thanks though,” she smiles, looking a little starstruck. “I’ll catch up with you later, Anna.”
After Laura walks to her car, I ask, “So? Lunch?”
Annabelle grins, popping her dimples. “Well, since you ran off Laura, I suppose I can go to lunch with you.”
Walking her to my truck, I explain my plan, “I figured grabbing lunch would be the easiest time for you to meet, since you wouldn’t need to arrange a babysitter for Grace and Claire.”
“I appreciate that… and I’m impressed you even remember my daughters’ names.”
Opening the passenger door of my truck, I gesture for her to hop in. Unlike last night, she fastens her own seatbelt, and I have mixed feelings about it. I’m glad she’s in a better frame of mind today, but it would have given me a good excuse to invade her personal space again.
“I’d planned on taking you for a picnic lunch at a nearby park, but the weather’s a little cooler than I’d like. If it’s too cold, we can eat in the truck.”
Annabelle pats my hand. “I’m sure it’ll be fine outside, Hayes.”
“If it gets too cold, let me know and I can warm you up.” Luckily, my joke lands and Annabelle laughs.
When I turn on the truck, Willie Nelson's voice flows through the speakers. I tap in a few words on the dashboard and pull up a Taylor Swift playlist on Spotify. Some song I've never heard comes on. I look over to Annabelle, expecting she'll be pleased that I remembered she liked Taylor Swift, but she has an uncomfortable grimace on her lips.
"Want me to change it to a different playlist? I thought you liked—"
