Crisp April air stirred as they walked down the street, their hands in their pockets. They walked in silence, but Leona didn’t feel as if it were an awkward silence.
When they reached the restaurant, Jon pulled open the door and Leona stepped through.
“Thank you.”
“My pleasure,” he said.
They walked around the wall and looked up at the menu. A young woman came to the register. “Hey, Leona,” the girl said. Then she adjusted her glance. “Hi, Mr. Ford.”
Leona shifted a look toward him before she looked back at the girl. “Hello, Amber. A slice with mushroom and onion. And,” she hummed, “an unsweetened iced tea.”
“You got it.” Amber lifted her eyes from the register up to Jon. “And a pepp for you?”
He smiled. “Yes.”
“Do you want a beer?”
He shook his head, but Leona wondered why.
She lifted her finger. “You know, I’ll take a beer. Michelob Light.”
Amber nodded and looked back at Jon.
He grinned. “Why not. But make mine Bud. Full strength.”
Amber gave them the total and before Leona could whip out her credit card, Jon had handed over the cash.
“I don’t think that was the deal,” Leona whispered.
“You shared your cookie stash. It’s fair.”
As Amber handed him back his change, she smiled at him. “I’m free on Saturday night if you want me,” she said, and Jon chewed his lip as he put the money in his pocket.
“You’re sure?”
Amber nodded.
“Okay. Five o’clock work?”
“Sure does. I’ll be at your house then.”
Amber gave them a little wave and moved on to the next customers in line.
As they moved down the corridor toward the pickup window, Leona replayed the conversation between Jon and Amber in her head.
The girl had been coming into her store for the better part of ten years, so Leona knew, though the girl was of legal age, she wasn’t more than nineteen.
Jon on the other hand, well, he might have been younger than she was by a few years, but not many. What exactly did he have with a young college girl?
Maybe the fix-it guy rap wasn’t any different from she thought after all. Sleazy guys who fix stuff, run off when the job goes badly, and they have a thing for much too young blondes.
It broke her heart. She thought so much more of Amber than that.
When their plates with the slices of pizza, which took up the entire plate, and their bottles of beer were slid toward them, they each moved in, bumping shoulders.
“Sorry,” he said as he eased back and let Leona in. “Guess I’m hungry.”
She didn’t respond. The entire exchange with Amber had Leona seething. Especially since Amber had called him Mr. Ford, and not Jon.
Leona chose a table right in the middle of the restaurant to sit. There weren’t many people there at nine o’clock on a Monday night, but a few.
As soon as she sat, she began to bite into her slice.
Jon eased his plate to the table, and then his bottle. Shrugging out of his coat, he hung it on the back of his chair and then sat down.
“Are you in a hurry? You didn’t even take off your coat,” he said, lifting his beer to his lips and taking a sip.
“I don’t want to keep you out for long.”
“I’m a grown man. I haven’t asked for permission to stay out late in a long time. But, in fact, before I went into your store, I happened to have talked to my mother, and she gave me permission.”
Leona wasn’t sure what to do with that. So she jumped into the argument that tightened her chest. “So you know Amber?” She asked, and the words were sharp.
Jon nodded as he lifted his slice to his mouth and took a bite. “Sure. She’s lived here all her life. So have I. I graduated with her father, who, by the way, is still a good friend.”
“She comes to your house?”
Leona saw his jaw tense as he took a long pull from his beer.
Jon’s eyes went dark, and she was quite sure she’d overstepped some boundary.
“I noticed she called you by your first name,” he said, taking a bite of his slice. “You must be pretty chummy for her to do that.”
Leona wasn’t sure what the young woman would do at his house, but he was right. She’d called Leona by her name, and she’d referred to Jon as Mr. Ford.
“She’s been a customer since she was a young girl.”
Jon nodded his head. “I’ve known her since she was born. You might find it interesting to know I attended her first birthday party. It was a Dora the Explorer party.”
Leona sipped her beer, and it burned in her chest. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…”
“Accuse me of something you know nothing about?”
And the curt side of him that had originally put her into a mood that morning was back. So the gentle side of him eating cookies and drinking Pepsi was short-lived between moods.
Perhaps she deserved this mood. She had been accusatory.
Leona picked up her pizza and focused on getting it eaten and her beer drank. She couldn’t down her beer as he had, but she was sure he would sit there until Leona was done.
“I’m going to get another beer,” Jon said. “Would you like one?”
That very statement puzzled her. If he had one more beer, they’d have to sit there and spend a few more moments together. Certainly he wouldn’t want to do that.
“No,” she said. “I’m fine.”
He nodded, stood, and walked toward the counter where Amber took his order. They exchanged friendly banter, and Leona felt small. He never did tell her why Amber would arrive at his house at five on Saturday, but for a man who had only introduced himself that morning, she supposed she had no right to assume he’d answer anyway.
When he returned, he sat down with his beer and finished his pizza.
By the time Leona had finished her slice and her beer, Jon had finished his second beer.
They stood, threw away their trash, and started their walk back to the bookstore.
“What time do you arrive in the mornings?” Jon asked as they neared the store.
“Eight.”
“I’ll stop in tomorrow to make sure everything is good upstairs, and still good in your store. And then, you’ll be done with me.”
Leona nodded as she fished her keys from her pocket and unlocked the door of the store. “Thank you for dinner. That was very kind of you.”
Jon opened the passenger door of his truck, shrugged out of his jacket, and threw it into the cab.
“It definitely beat a cold Pop Tart over the sink.”
He stood at his truck as if he’d dropped her off from a date and waited for her to go inside.
“I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
Just as she stepped into the store, he called to her. “Do you park out back?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll wait by the alley just to make sure you get going safely.”
“Oh you don’t have—”
“That same mother that gave me permission to stay out later tonight would be less than impressed if I didn’t make sure your car started, and you were safe.”
Leona nodded. “I won’t be but a minute,” she said as she closed and locked the door to the store.
Through the window, she watched him look up at the star drenched sky, run his fingers through his hair, and then climb into his truck and start it.
As she gathered her bags and items for home, Leona thought her day had certainly been filled with the unexpected.