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The offhand way I offer that information doesn’t fool him.
“Oh, now we’re getting to it. What’s she like?”
“I didn’t say it was a woman.”
“You didn’t have to.”
“She’s…distracting.” That’s an understatement and untrue at the same time. She distracts me from everything else but sharpens my focus on my work.
“Seems to me you could use some distraction. Especially the pretty kind.”
“You know I don’t date.”
With a sigh, he sits back in his recliner. “I said the same thing when I was young. I didn’t want a girlfriend holding me back. Lord knows I had my fun. Fucked my way through my town and the surrounding ones but look at me now.” He tilts his glass at me and looks me in the eye. “Bachelor life ain’t fun forever.”
It’s not fun now, but it is necessary. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
His warning is warranted even if it’s unhelpful. I might not be out here banging every woman in sight like he claims he did, but his future is waiting for me and likely at a much younger age. I’ve always been fine alone but the thought of so many years ahead of the same long nights and empty days is hard to face.
My mood is low when I leave. I’ve been riding that high of inspiration and as it fades under my dark thoughts, all I want to do is spend time with Calli again to reignite it.
CHAPTER 7
CALLIOPE
“Let me get this straight,”Silver says, filling the end of the glazing table. “When I called you last night, you were sitting in a graveyard with your freaky neighbor.”
“I wasn’t in a graveyard. We just had to walk through it to get to the bonfire, and he isn’t freaky. He was really easy to talk to. We ended up hanging out for hours.”
“What did you talk about?”
I think back, a smile growing on my face as I pick up the donut sticks to flip over the batch in the fryer. “The mating calls of birds and lightning bugs. And whether soul mates exist.”
Silver looks over at me and blinks a few times. “That’s…nice?”
“It was, actually. We have some things in common. We’re both night owls, and we both relocated from the Midwest.”
“Well, be careful. If you had your eye on any other guy in town, I could likely give you a full criminal and family history. You chose one nobody knows.”
“I don’t have my eye on him. Not like that. I’m not interested in getting involved with a neighbor, but it was a relief to meet him and see he isn’t the sinister graveyard creeper that I had built up in my head.”
“That is a relief.” She steps back so I can slide the fresh donuts onto the glazing table.
“How was your anniversary date?” I ask, changing the subject.
“It was good. Kyle took me dancing and out to dinner.” She drops her voice to avoid her mother overhearing from the nearby office. “I’m thinking about asking him if he wants to move in together.”
“Wow. Ready for that next step?”
She leans against the table. “I think so. I love him. We get along great and spend like four nights a week together anyway. His lease ends in a few months. If I’m going to ask, it should be soon.”
“He told you when his lease ends?”
“Yes, kind of out of nowhere, too. He may have been hinting.”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
“I was talking to Sandra about it, and she thinks I should wait.”
