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I PRESSED MY LIPS TOGETHER and hummed to myself as I approached him. Smiling was out of the question when the man looked like a cross between Sam Elliot and Viggo Mortensen and stilts all wrapped up into one man with tan skin. He had to have Greek or Italian or something in his heritage with his dark coloring.
In Arkansas, the most culture we got down there was crawdads.
Denying his magnetism was impossible. The closer I got to him, the more prevalent my smile became. “Jeremy Akers?” I tilted my head to the side as if I expected some kind of a trick.
He chuckled and lowered the sign. “I like your accent. We don’t get a lot of that southern drawl up here.” He extended his hand. His low voice sent warm ripples through my insides.
I accepted his hand and my skin tingled with a subtle heat I couldn’t technically attribute to the air-conditioned building. There was no reasonable explanation for the reaction I had when we touched. All I knew was I wanted it to happen again.
Well-stacked jeans fit him comfortably without looking too tight or too baggy. The flannel shirt he wore had the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and fit his shoulders like they’d been designed for him. I’d never heard of custom made flannels, but that didn’t mean they didn’t exist.
A brown cowboy hat enhanced the tan of his skin and the dark chocolate of his eyes. I don’t know if it was the plaid of the flannel, or just his God-given shoulders, but the breadth of his chest tapering down to his waist was definitely something you only read about or saw in a Matthew McConhaughey movie. Yeah, the guy that never wears a shirt. Not that I was complaining – or any other red-blooded American woman.
I didn’t realize I had an accent, until he pointed it out. His words were sharper and easier to understand, but mine didn’t sound bad either. Self-consciously, I pushed my hair over my shoulder and offered a small smile. “Thanks, I think.”
He slowly released my hand and winked. “It was definitely a compliment. Shall we get going? I left my rig out in the parking garage. Let’s get your luggage.”
Walking beside him, I had this strange sensation that if I reached out and took his hand in mine, he would not pull away. His smile when he had seen me had been large and exceedingly charming, not the type you can fake.
Already he was a thousand times better than Larry Burton.
~~~
IN THE TRUCK, JEREMY shifted to his side and pulled his phone from his back pocket. He glanced at the screen which flashed a bright red heart in a dialogue icon. “You’re supposed to check in or something. Did you get the app?”
“The app? I might have missed that part.” I wasn’t sure how much he knew, or if he even knew that Elizabeth had actually done everything for me. I didn’t know the answers to the quiz. Even though I’d gotten on my profile using login information she’d sent me, I couldn’t find the quiz or any of the data used to match Jeremy and I. She knew me better than anyone, so when she said she answered the quiz honestly, I knew she had gotten the answers right.
She hadn’t mentioned anything about an app.
He pointed at the phone screen. “Well, for it to count, you need to check in. But you have to do it with the location on your phone, you can’t just say you’re here.” He put his phone down on the dash.
The inside of his truck was clean and smelled like vanilla. Every couple minutes, I’d get a fresh sniff of his cologne, and each time I tried not to make it obvious how much I loved the scent. The cologne wasn’t a spice or a pine, but more like a cross of what I imaged the mountains and a field would smell like. Definitely one of my new favorites.
Had I taken too long to respond? “Thanks, I’ll see if I can download it now.” I pulled out my phone, hesitating before turning it on. It would be on for the first time in days – since I had been in that taxi, driving away from my friends and family and their plans for me.
Once I turned on my phone, it would most likely explode with messages, texts, and emails. I really didn’t want to deal with that. But I had to check-in, according to Jeremy. Elizabeth had told me to follow the rules, so follow the rules I would. I owed her for getting me out.
I didn’t read all of the text messages that came up. The number forty-five in a red circle above the little envelope icon for messages made my stomach clench.
Some of those had to be from Elizabeth. She wouldn’t leave me without more information. I pressed the icon and looked for the thread under her name. If she hadn’t sent me anything, I could always text her and find out more information.
Under her name, there was only one unread message. “Go to ClickandWed.com and get the app. You need to follow all the instructions. Don’t let me down. Chronicle this for me, if you can. I would love to know how it turns out for you. Love you.”
I went to the website and downloaded the app. After it downloaded and I logged in, a notification dinged on my home page with a message that I had three days to check in. Rather than wait, I checked in then. My location did it for me.
“Isn’t that cool?” I glanced at Jeremy, heat climbing up my face. I had to sound like such a country bumpkin with my accent, lack of knowledge on the app, and coming from a town smaller than him. Snoqualmie was small, but it was just outside of Seattle and Tacoma which were only small if you compared them to Los Angeles or New York. “Are you from Snoqualmie?” If I could redirect the attention on to him, things might be a bit more comfortable for me.
He merged onto the highway, dealing with traffic I’d never seen the like of. “Actually, I live in North Bend. It’s about a stone’s throw from Snoqualmie, though. On the site, it kept saying North Bend wasn’t a city. I couldn’t put it as my place of residence on my profile. I apologize for not being completely honest.”
The freeway didn’t look like I expected. Green trees, green grass, green everything towered above the roadway. Washington cared more about keeping nature mixed in with things. If that was the mentality of the majority of the state, I wasn’t going to miss Arkansas much at all.
I’d never experienced so much humidity in the air with a taste of salt. I would’ve liked a glimpse of the ocean before we headed inland. “I’ve never seen the ocean.” I blurted it out wistfully and then glanced at him with a shy smile. “Sorry, I’m a little nervous.”
He rested his hands on the lower curve of the steering wheel and leaned back on the seat. Relief washed over his face, and his smile didn’t seem forced. “Whew. I’m glad you’re nervous. I’m over here trying not to sweat through this shirt. Girl as pretty as you... I’m just certain you’re going to ask to go back to the airport. I’m not sure how I lucked out.”
“That’s so sweet. Thank you.” His charming comments endeared me easily toward him, and if things continued the way they were, he would be a much better choice than Larry.
We drove along the highway headed toward Snoqualmie and North Bend. “I hope it’s okay with you, I need to stop and get some supplies at the store. Do you need anything?”
I wouldn’t know until I had been in his house and looked through his kitchen. I didn’t even know if he liked to cook, or if I would be able to have the traditional role of cooker and cleaner and whatever else I wanted to do. There were so many things that weren’t quite defined between us, I wasn’t sure where to go.
Shaking my head, I shifted on the seat. “Not that I know of yet. I’m not sure...”
He reached out and patted my hand sitting on the seat between us. “Don’t worry. You and I have lots to figure out. We just need to focus on the first six months. Let’s survive that and then see where we want to go after. I’m pretty easy going, and I’ve been waiting for a match for a while. I’ll do what I can to make it work. If you have any questions, or any problems or whatever, I hope you feel comfortable talking to me.” He was sweet, considerate, and a heckuva lot cuter than his pictures had let on.
I would not mind spending at least six months with that man and maybe even kissing him. The direction my thoughts took sent an embarrassed chill through me. What if he knew what I was thinking? He couldn’t read my mind, but that didn’t mean anything.
Thankfully, I hadn’t had to marry Larry. Larry and Marry. They rhymed. I tried not to giggle, but a bubble of mirth escaped my lips. I glanced out the window as I covered my mouth with my fingers. Fatigue was finally getting to me. He didn’t notice as he looked out the window to turn into Issaquah.
Set up around the highway, the town had a quaint feel that rivaled Blackberry, Arkansas, with people ambling along the sidewalks and storefronts, advertising their latest sales. The drive didn’t take as long as I thought it would as we rose up into the mountains.
He pulled into a Fred Meyer’s marketplace and parked the loud, rumbly truck. “You want to come with me?” He turned off the engine and rested his hand on the top of his thigh.
“Of course.” I set my things on the floor under my seat. I didn’t need my camera stolen. I opened my door to climb from the rig. Surprisingly, he was already there offering me his hand. A true gentleman. Wow, I couldn’t wait to tell Liz she’d matched me up with a gentleman!
I walked beside him into the store, trying to match his lengthy, slow gait. For as slow as he walked, he ate up a lot of ground quickly. I wasn’t as tall as he was and I could feel it.
He grabbed a cart and put his hand on the small of my back as we walked into the store. The touch was both calming and territorial. I had no problem with either. He leaned his head close to me. “I was thinking of getting some beef tips and asparagus for dinner tonight. Do you eat meat?” He looked at me with his eyebrows raised as if challenging who I was as a person.
“I’m from Arkansas. I eat anything that moves.” I snickered at my joke, which was really more like the Larry and marry rhyme in the truck than I wanted to admit.
He chuckled in response, but stopped short as he looked past my shoulder. Jeremy’s whisper sent a shiver down my neck. “I’m really sorry about this.”
A pit inside my stomach hardened. What was this? Was I going to turn around and see an ex-girlfriend or an ex-wife? I didn’t know anything about him. What had I gotten myself into? What did he have to be sorry about?
Slowly, I turned, keeping my face neutral and hoping I didn’t have resting witch face. The older woman behind me didn’t seem threatening in the least with her highlighted brunette hair cut in a simple bob just at her shoulders, and her makeup carefully applied to look almost natural. She could’ve been a female version of Jeremy with green eyes instead of brown. The juxtaposition of the coloring of her skin and her eyes was startling. She shot her magnificent gaze between Jeremy and me.
I couldn’t help but exclaim. “You have gorgeous eyes.”
The break in the ice brought a smile to her face. She held out her hand and took mine in the universal feminine handshake. Her low voice had a hoarseness to it that didn’t detract from the lyrical quality. “Thank you. I’m Tammy Akers.” She inclined her head towards Jeremy. “This rude boy is my son. He should’ve introduced us. And you are?”
Jeremy stepped in before I could fumble through my reply. “This is Alexandra Reeves, Mother. She’s my wife.”
His mom didn’t respond. If not for the freezing temperature of her smile and the subtle flare to her nostrils, I would think she hadn’t heard him. She released my hand with all the politeness that I could tell had been bred in her. She looked between me and Jeremy, back and forth as if watching for some kind of reaction between the two of us. She could’ve been waiting for one of us to say something else, to explain.
I gave in to the mounting tension and smiled. “I’m sure this is all very unorthodox. I’m excited to get to know you better. I’m excited to get to know Jeremy better.” I laughed and was grateful for the small chuckle that Jeremy replied with.
She arched a gracefully shaped eyebrow. “Yes, I’m sure.” She stood there and watched us, gripping the small shopping basket in her hands.
“I’m going to grab some asparagus, just one second.” Jeremy turned towards the vegetables.
I moved to follow him, but Tammy reached out with a stronger grip than I had expected and stopped me with her fingers on my elbow.
“He’s a big boy; he can pick out his own asparagus. You and I can chat.” But something in her words told me she wanted more than a chat.
I didn’t have enough information for any questions she might have. Even with my technological experience, I had problems with the app. I didn’t know what was going on or just how much Mrs. Akers knew already.
What if she asked me personal questions? What if she decided she hated me and she didn’t want me with her son? What if she didn’t like me? My palms dampened, and I tried to keep my breathing controlled.
Why had Jeremy left me to defend myself?
