Page 8 of Elijah's Hope
3
Eli
I looked her up and down and figured anything in this store was going to be too big for her but at least she would be warm. She seemed like such a tiny thing, but at six-three, I imagined most women were small in comparison to me. Maybe that was it. Maybe I hadn’t seen a woman other than Eve in too long.
There was Gert, who ran this place—the only store in town—but I wasn’t sure if she really counted. Most days you couldn’t tell her from her son Bud who ran the bar.
“You’re going to need this,” I said, picking up a sturdy winter coat. “And these.”
I grabbed some ski pants, which might be overkill as it wasn’t really that cold but given what I had planned for tomorrow, they would come in handy. Plus some thermal underwear she could wear under her jeans. I added a wool cap, gloves and some heavy socks to my load and brought it up to Gert, who huffed at me.
Her way of saying hello.
“Wait,” Shelby said putting her hand on my arm. “Um…I can’t…you know, what with being between jobs and just finishing college, I can’t afford—”
“Shelby, I got it. All-expenses paid trip. Remember?”
“Yes, but that doesn’t include buying me clothes. I should have packed better.”
I looked at the cold weather gear I had laid out on the counter. “You have any of this stuff in your closet back home?”
She bit her lower lip, which I thought was adorable. “Not really. I think my brother had one of those bank robber ski masks when he played a bank robber for our annual Halloween Blowout party.”
“Like Halloween, do you?”
She shrugged. “Just something my parents were always into.”
“You buying this or are you going to jabber at each other all night?” Gert wanted to know.
I reached for my wallet and threw down the credit card. Gert didn’t flinch. For the most part she preferred cash transactions, but she knew everybody who worked for Dyson well enough to know our credit was good.
“Thank you,” Shelby said even as I put her in the coat. “I truly didn’t come here with the thought of you buying things for me. I don’t like to be beholden.”
“You’re not beholden,” I said quickly. Although who the heck still used words likebeholden? I wanted to assure her she didn’t owe me anything. I wanted nothing about this to be transactional or make her feel that way. “This is just about two people having a little adventure. Nothing more. You need warm clothes for what I have planned tomorrow, so I provided them. Got it?”
“You sure are bossy,” she said as we left the store and started making our way down the street to Bud’s. Although, looking over my shoulder, I could see she was smiling when she said it. “What is the plan for tomorrow anyway?”
I shook my head. “We have to see if we can make it through tonight first. You might not want to have anything to do with me after getting to know me for a few hours.”
She stopped then in the middle of the street, which was fine as Hope’s Point rarely had any traffic. I stopped, too, and turned to face her.
“Eli,” she sighed. “I don’t think so. I’m not sure why, but my gut’s telling me I think I’m only going to want to know you more. Which, frankly, is a little scary considering I only just met you.”
Sweet. Honest. Like I knew she would be from her smile. I took her hand. “Let’s go find out.”
We walked into Bud’s and the smell of greasy food hit me hard. Before the Dyson crew took over from the oil company that had previously been here, the only thing Bud ever served was booze. It had been Cal who convinced him there was money to be made by feeding us, too.
Bud then cleaned up the kitchen. Got it working again and we all found out he made the best damn French fries in Hope’s Point. Of course, he was the only one making French fries in Hope’s Point so it wasn’t exactly a fair competition.
The place was packed with everyone not working a shift, but I had made sure to have Cal set aside a table for Shelby and me. There was no getting around the fact that our first date was going to be pretty public, but Ark had been right when he said this was the only game in town.
“Come on and meet the other guys,” I said. The guys were already seated at a table eating their dinner.
Shelby waved to all of them. “Hi, y’all. My goodness, you look just like your pictures! That was such a clever idea you had, by the way. I remember seeing that ad on Facebook and I thought, oh my goodness, I can’t believe they are doing this, but I just had to click. And then you wrote all those nice and funny profiles. I didn’t think I would ever do anything like this, but suddenly there I was typing up my own profile and snapping a selfie.”
Ark smiled and pointed to me. “It was all Angel’s idea. We just went along with it.”
Shelby looked at me with a strange expression. Almost like she’d seen a ghost.
