Page 14 of What it Takes
“Okay. Yesterday’s accident aside, how are you liking the Northern Star? And Whitford in general, I guess.”
“I haven’t seen too much of Whitford yet. The market and gas station, and the hardware store. And obviously I’ll be going to the town hall soon.”
“You haven’t eaten at the Trailside Diner yet?”
“No, but Nola brought me a sandwich from there yesterday. Right before the accident. It was really good.”
“Their dinner menu is even better.”
Was he working his way around to asking her out to dinner? It had been so long since she’d dated, she wasn’t sure if she was reading too much into a friendly conversation. But it seemed her next line would naturally beI’ll have to try it sometimeand then he’d say“how about tomorrow night?”or something like that.
And she had no idea how she felt about that.
* * *
Ben wasn’t sure what to make of Laney. There was something open and friendly about her that made him want to talk to her, which was why he was sitting in the shade of her awning right now. But at the same time she seemed to keep a part of herself walled off—the part that had her refusing help with the chair and tensing up at the mention of having dinner at the Trailside Diner.
All he reallyknewabout her was that she was Nola Kendrick’s cousin, she stayed calm in emergencies and she really liked flamingo pink.
But he thought maybe she’d come to Whitford, Maine because she’d been unhappy where she was. And if it had been a guy who’d made her unhappy, that might explain why his talking about dinner at the diner made her lips press together and her grip on the papers in her lap tighten.
She thought he was going to ask her out and that wasn’t a look of interest or anticipation. That was more of anoh, craplook, which was never the reaction he was looking for when he asked a woman to have dinner with him. If that’s even where the conversation had been heading, since he hadn’t come over here intending to ask her out. But when he’d replayed the conversation in his head, trying to identify the source of her tension, it had sounded like it. And he certainly wouldn’t mind spending an evening in her company, but she clearly wasn’t ready for that.
“If you go there, make sure you check out the specials board,” he said, hoping to put her mind at ease. “You’d be surprised by some of the good stuff they come up with.”
It worked, proving his theory. Her jaw relaxed and she looked up at him, making eye contact. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
She picked up one of the slats that made up the back of the chair and put it in place. Then, after putting a bolt through it, she reached for the socket wrench. The board slipped and the bolt fell out. After wiping her forehead with the back of her hand, she lined them up again. Then, while holding the bolt with the socket wrench, she had to tighten the nut with a crescent wrench.
It was killing him to watch, but he took a sip of his lemonade and pretended he was interested in watching the leaves on the distant trees swaying in the light breeze. It not only kept him from interfering, but it kept him from staring at her long, tanned legs in her cutoff denim shorts, too.
“Okay, maybe I could use alittlehelp.”
Yes.He got out of the chair and sat in the grass across from her. “Tell me what you need me to do.”
“I can’t hold the boards in place and tighten the bolts, so if you could just hold them for me, that would be great.”
She was giving him the easier part of the job and it was on the tip of his tongue to point out it would be faster and smarter for him to run the socket wrench. But for whatever reason, putting these chairs together herself was important to her, so he kept his mouth shut and did what he was told.
“I know it would be easier if you were doing this part,” she said when they’d put on a second slat. “You’re a pretty patient guy, and I appreciate it.”
“They’re your chairs. We’ll build them however you want.” He was going to let it go at that, he wanted to know more about this woman. “It seems important to you. That you do it yourself, I mean.”
“My divorce was finalized a few months ago and it was a long process after a long marriage, and I realized I’d spent so many years trying to make other people happy, I really didn’t know how to live myownlife anymore. Or what I even want my life to look like. So now I’m here, doing things myself.” She took a deep breath, and it sounded shaky to him. “It sounds silly when I say it out loud.”
“It’s not silly.”
“When I was young, I was independent and confident and... I don’t know. I guess I spent so many years shushing her that she disappeared. I want to find her again.”
“I don’t think you’ll have to look very hard.” When she looked at him, he smiled. Then he held up his hand so the cut on his palm faced her. “I’ve already met her.”
She blushed, but she didn’t drop her head and, after a few seconds, she laughed. “Later on I kicked myself for being so bossy, though.”
“Don’t. And it wasn’t just the forced first aid, you know. Josh told me you weren’t shy about handling the situation when the guy flipped his ATV, either. Youarea strong, confident woman and no amount of shushing will change that.”
“My ex-husband never saw it.”
“Probably because he wasn’t a strong, confidentman.” Ben shrugged. “Also, he’s an idiot.”
