Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Cold, but still delicious, she worked away at the slice until Malachi returned with a fresh bottle of beer. He finished off the one bottle, setting it inside a cooler next to the car with other empties, before cracking open the new one.
“I hope the one you’ve got is enough,” he said, nodding toward her beer on the pizza box. “Checkered’s closed five minutes ago.”
Gracen glanced down the darkened alley thought the spattering of raindrops that had started to fall since her arrival. For the most part, summer showers did little but add a dampness and earthy smell to the air. Like worms, she used to say when she was a girl.
The air in the rain smelled like worms.
“This one’s good,” she replied.
“Gotcha,” he muttered back. “Well, I guess you only have to walk home, right?”
She smiled at that. “It’s not even that far.”
He squinted one eye her way, making her grin grow wider at his playful expression. “I’ll still have to walk you home.”
“Oh? That so?”
“I never asked if you were scared of the dark, so ...”
“And if I wasn’t?” she asked.
Malachi lifted one shoulder like that didn’t matter. “Like I said, I never asked.”
Smartass.
But she liked it.
The two finished off the remaining pizza in the box and sipped their beers in silence. Not that the quiet stillness between them bothered Gracen. It was comfortable, really. Strangely easy, even, for two people who barely knew one another. Eventually, the silence did melt into quiet conversation about safe topics. The weather; even the town again. Malachi’s failed attempt to join the Canadian Armed Forces, which he shrugged off by saying, “I still wasn’t that great with authority.”
Not that she could get his current job out of him. Or anything else too personal that might give her a look at the man behind the name and intense blue eyes. He could talk her ear off, if she kept him going, but was careful every time he was the center of attention in the conversation.
She just couldn’t figure out why.
What was there to hide?
Thankfully, the rain didn’t last long. Before she could finish her beer, and as Malachi cleared the pizza box into the green trash can everyone in town was required to use, the shower piddled out to practically nothing.
Gracen gulped in a deep swallow of air, saying, “It still smells like worms.”
Malachi’s chuckles echoed in the garage as he rounded the front of the blocked-up car to grab the empty beer bottle she held out for him. “What?”
“Don’t you think it smells like worms when it rains in the summer?”
He grabbed the bottle with two fingers hooking around hers, but she didn’t let go right away.
“I’ve never heard of that before,” he admitted.
Oh.
“Maybe it’s just me,” she said under her breath.
“It’s a good description, actually.”
Gracen finally released the amber bottle to Malachi’s hold, but he didn’t loosen his fingers around hers to let her pull away. “Were you kidding about the bike thing?”
“Partly.”
“That’s kind of rude. You shouldn’t tell someone you only want to get them on the back of your bike.”
“Should I lie?” he asked back.
Gracen didn’t know what to say to that.
Malachi wasn’t bothered, continuing with, “I’m not in town for long, and I don’t plan to stick around longer than I’ve already agreed to.” Not that he offered anything in regard to the who of that arrangement. Who did he owe anything, including a timeline of his presence in town, to—the friend renting the pizzeria’s apartment? Unfortunately, she couldn’t name all of her neighbors. Malachi didn’t give Gracen the chance to ask. “I’m not here looking for anything or anyone serious. Don’t take that to heart; you’re gorgeous, decent conversation, and I don’t know how you’re single. It’s a shame. You seem like a great girl for the right guy, but please don’t think you’re looking at him when you stare at me.”
Could bluntness be a valued trait?
“You never asked me if I was single, actually,” Gracen said, keeping the nerves out of her voice.
At that, he smirked. “Or I didn’t care. Maybe you were something interesting to distract myself with when presented with the chance while I’m in this little shithole people around here call home. I’m just trying to be up front about my intentions. You deserve that.”
And he was honest, clearly.
Gracen appreciated it.
“Total transparency?” she offered back.
Malachi let her fingers go from his grip and wasted no time turning away to get rid of the bottle as he said, “You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to. I’ve already told you—I didn’t ask.”
Right.
She would try to remember that.
“Either way,” Gracen said, not wanting to be the only one between them who didn’t make things clear, “nothing serious works for me right now, too. I’m not over my ex, so how about I don’t pretend like I’m not also here with you for a reason.”