Page 128 of Seasons of Love
Some people within earshot gasped.
A parking garage right by the church, crowding all the surrounding houses, would be horrendous. Who’d want to live here?
“Why in hell would this town need one of them big parking garages?” someone else asks.
“The craft fair brings a lot of folks from all over. They gotta park somewhere, and I bet those rich people don’t want them on their streets.”
I try to tune out the chatter and focus on serving the food before I go into the kitchen to start washing the pots.
Before I moved to Stillwater, Alice used to say there was never a dull moment here, and now I can see it.
Between worrying about the possibility of a parking lot being built right by the church next door and Milo doing a double shift, I don’t notice the time passing.
I hear the squeak of the double doors and look behind me. Tyler comes in holding a takeaway box.
“Hey, Cathy saved some jambalaya for Milo. He’ll be finishing his shift soon, so if you still want to catch him, you can head off now. We’ll take over from here.”
I turn the water off and dry my hands. There’s no doubt I’m not the only one worried about Milo, so I’m taking the offer and making sure he gets a proper dinner and gets home safe.
“Thanks, Tyler.”
His nod says everything. The man has a heart of gold.
Tyler is everything I’ve ever wanted in a partner. Head screwed on, caring, funny, and okay, he’s a little older, but four of five years is an appropriate age gap.
Why can’t I be attracted to him?
I arrive at the grocery store just after closing, but all the lights are still on inside. I get out of the car and lean against the hood.
A few people come from the side of the building, so I keep my eyes peeled for Milo. The last thing I want is to miss him.
Ten minutes later, I see him come from the side of the building with another group of people. Among everyone, he’s the first one I see.
It’s like my eyes have a Milo detector that even if he was wearing the darkest of clothes in the dead of night, I’d still see him.
He gives a girl a quick hug and they go their separate ways. The girl goes toward a parked car, and I see Milo walk to the edge of the store corner and then stop.
I’m parked so he’d see me on the way to the bus stop, but the way he’s wavering and looking at the alleyway on the side of the store, I’m wondering if he’s considering walking home. He mentioned before he does that sometimes, but not when he finishes late.
Except he wasn’t expecting to finish late today.
I breathe a sigh of relief when he makes the right choice and walks toward the bus stop. His shoulders are low like they hold the weight of the world, and he must be lost in thought because he doesn’t see me until he walks past my car.
He looks up and stops when he spots me.
“Ellis.”
An advantage of my parents’ work and travels around the world is that I’ve learned to read people well. They always told us to trust people’s first reactions to anything.
Whether it’s trying caviar or meeting someone for the first time, they always told us to look at people and not the surrounding things.
I always find Milo to be a little guarded, even if he’s been opening up a little more when working at my place.
But he wasn’t expecting me, so with his guard down, in that split second before he called my name, I saw it in his eyes. The kind of happiness you get when the person in front of you is exactly the person you want to see in that moment or forever.
I’ve seen that look before, and then I lost it. I was so blind that I didn’t even see when it stopped.
“What…um…what are you doing here?” he asks, and I see his guard go up again.
