Page 34 of The Banker and the Blue Collar Man

“I’ll shower later, thank you very much,” I said back with a smile.

Work contained me for a few hours, the bank boxes of files being my first target. Unalphabetical. Unlabeled. They were a mess, but I wasn’t going to complain about it or even mention it, because I was sure Lucas already knew.

By dinnertime my stomach was also a mess from too much coffee and not enough to eat.

The first person I saw when I stepped through those wooden double doors was Jake. He was standing alone at the end of the buffet line, the tray in his hands loaded up as usual. When he noticed me from all the way across the room, he lifted his head, eyes focused, as though he’d seen something that interested him. That maybe he liked.

I waved. Half halted, like a high schooler who didn’t want to look foolish in front of his classmates.

Screw that. I pointed broadly to the left, to the table beneath the large windows that was drenched in slanted sunlight.

With a single nod, he began to move in that direction.

I got in line and grabbed whatever was on offer: a plate of something called cowboy spaghetti. Fruit salad. Breaded and fried cheese sticks with a small bowl of sauce that could be ladled from a Crock-Pot. I shouldn’t have gotten those, but I was hungry.

I went over to the table where Jake was sitting as fast as I could. All the food on his tray was still untouched. “Don’t tell me you waited for me,” I said, sliding into a seat across from him.

“I did,” he said.

Lucas would have saidOkay, I won’t tell you that I waited for you. But Jake was sincere and finally began to eat. I was going to share my cheese sticks with him until I saw he already had some.

After a few moments he looked up at me, chewing thoughtfully on the cowboy spaghetti, which, I later learned, was spaghetti cooked in sauce rather than water. “Do you need more butterfly bandages?” he asked, as though he knew all about my daydream.

“I do, actually,” I said, when normally I would have dismissed any concerns about my ability to patch myself up, but nothing about how I was feeling this week was usual. “But I guess there’s a first-aid kit in the office somewhere.”

“Only the barn has butterfly bandages,” he said. “I can help you.”

Gripping my fork extra hard, I shoved spaghetti into my mouth so I didn’t have to say anything. So I could cover the fact that my breath had caught hard in my chest. “That’d be great,” I said.

“Maybe after dinner, after I’ve finished chores, you might like to go for a walk?” h asked. “Along the creek,” he added as if he wanted me to understand the significance of that particular route.

He’d read my mind. He’d up and read my mind, and asked me exactly what I wanted him to ask me.

The spaghetti was a lump in my throat, but I breathed through it and focused instead on him. His unruly dark hair. The way his dark gray t-shirt pulled across the muscles in his arms, the breadth of his chest. Had the damn shirt shrunk in the wash, or was that the best the t-shirt makers of the world could do regarding properly sizing their product?

He looked at me and paused. Drank some milk, and I realized I’d kept him waiting for his answer.

“Along the creek?” I asked because I was an unsettled idiot who needed to make sure. Of what? His intentions?

“The rain is coming,” he said, rather than a simpleyes. “Can you smell it?”

“Maybe?” I said, my voice rising as I chewed. “I thought it was from the river, that smell.”

“The rain scent will grow as twilight grows and the clouds gather. Bats will come out for the mosquitoes. We’ll walk a ways. If you want.” He paused, dipping his chin, a flush to his cheeks as though he felt he might have been too forward.

Anyone else, it would have been an offer of dinner and drinks, maybe dancing. Have a few laughs, go back to his place. Not this guy. Rain-scented walks were what he was offering, and my only mistake was not saying yes faster. But, then, my mouth was full of food.

“I’d like that,” I said after swallowing hard. “I even have my own sweatshirt. Packed it when I went to my apartment today.”

“Cameron did tell me.” His eyes held mine, and I wondered if Cameron had teased him or been nice about it.

“Will I need it?” I asked.

“Not until after it rains,” he said. “When the sun goes fully down.”

“Okay,” I said.

I ate as fast as I could and probably more than I should have. More than I usually did.