The guy must be close to seven feet tall. His ample bulge sitting level with my chest it seems. Making me feel like I need...something
Something this man has.
In the silence that follows, his hand shoots out.
Almost as if he wants to touch my arm or hold me.
As if he needs something of his own from me suddenly.
“Well… I’ll be alright. Thank you,” I sigh and his hand drops once his eyes shift past me to the diner.
I’m figuring my once-in-a-lifetime brush with an actual hot guy, a real man to boot is drawing to a close.
The sound of my mom’s voice from the diner confirms the feeling.
“Jacinta! Jesus Christ girl get out of people’s way will ya,” she shrieks, sounding like a fishwife.
I force an awkward smile.
But inside? I’m back to square one.
Dying again. And for all the wrong reasons.
“Jacinta…” he growls back, his mouth creasing with satisfaction again as he lets his gaze travel to my chest before I hear myself gasp.
A single look from this man and it feels like he’s reached deep inside me, pulling something loose or prying something open.
Either way, it’s not a feeling I’m used to, but if he can do this with a glance, I can only imagine what those huge hands are capable of.
“Jacinta!” My mom cries out again, clicking her tongue, rushing to interfere in a way that I guess only moms can.
“I’m so sorry mister,” she pants, wiping both her hands down her apron.
“Welcome to Cherry!” she adds nervously, giggling like a schoolgirl as a few of the regulars saunter out from the diner to see more of the commotion.
The most exciting thing to happen in Cherry for a long time, I can just tell. Where the chubby girl is almost run down by a handsome man from out of town.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it makes the town newsletter. Being too small a place to have an actual newspaper, we have a monthly pamphlet, ‘The Cherry Bugle’.
The stranger looks at my mom with an air of restraint.
Like a man who wants to say plenty, but knows better than to get off on the wrong footing.
“I brought your purse and name tag, Mom,” I say, cutting the silence as I pass them to her and only because somebody needs to say something.
“You’re Jacinta’s mother,” he says, a matter of fact. Almost sounding surprised as he shifts a look between the two of us.
If I didn’t know any better I could swear the man in front of me would be happy just staring at me without interruption all day.
But there must be something else on his mind.
Like I said, nobody in town or anywhere else has ever stopped to give me the time of day.
With no real harm done, and no real action, the few locals who ventured out murmur to one another and shuffle back inside. My mom eying me before she shifts her attention to the stranger’s car.
Without taking his eyes off me, my new favorite stranger tells my mom he’ll move his car in a minute.
“I’m Kyle,” he finally says, instantly giving me a word to put to this feeling inside me.
I repeat his name a hundred times in my head, wishing I could be whimpering it instead.
“Kyle,” I echo back dreamily, almost missing the fact he’s also holding his hand out by way of formal introduction.
Once my small fingers curl around his, he smiles again, and with just a gentle shake, I know I’m done for.
Finished.
Whatever was holding me together in this world has started to unravel, and I don’t mind what happens next.
He’s seen me.
He’s told me his name.
He’s actually touched me.
My life feels complete.
“C’mon in and have a slice of pie when you’re ready, on the house,” My mom says after clearing her throat.
No smiles for her.
No handshakes from Kyle either.
It’s like he’s all mine if just for a few seconds.
“What kind of pie?” Kyle asks me, ignoring my mom. I flush with embarrassment as he insists on keeping a grip on my fingers.
“It’s cherry,” I smile bashfully. “Like the town.” I nod and look away, almost scared to look at him now because of the effect he’s having on me.
Can’t anyone else see it? Feel it?
Jesus, I’ve never been so wet in my life.
As quickly as he’s taken my hand in his, there’s his other huge hand on the small of my back, guiding me inside.
“Your car—” Mom starts to protest, but he moves us both past her, muttering something about moving it if it’s in anyone’s way.
And somehow I don’t think my mom or anyone else in the town would even dare to ask him to do anything.
Kyle has… presence, I guess would be the word.
A huge man with huge energy and a look in his eyes that I know could cut someone in half as much as it could lift them up like he’s doing with me right now.