CHAPTER 5
Jimmy
“Hey Jimmy. Thanks!” Sammy T exclaimed as I dropped the oversized box of paper plates behind the counter and cut it open.
“No worries.”
“Seriously, man, you’re a lifesaver!” He’d already expressed his gratitude several times on the phone, but reiterated now. “P.J. called in sick and the ball and chain is at her Bible study, so her phone is turned off. If you hadn’t come through, I would’ve been shit outta luck. My customers would’ve had to make do with ribs on napkins.”
I glanced out at the line. It was eight deep, full of hungry people waiting for their orders.
“You want me to give you a hand? I can grab an apron.” I’d worked a ton of part-time jobs in high school and during college. One of them was at Sammy T’s Rib Shack on the pier.
“Nah, I got this.” He waved me off. “You’ve got better things to do than hang out slingin’ ribs all night.”
Did I?
When I’d gotten Sammy T’s call, all I’d been doing is hanging out on my back deck shootin’ the shit with Sherlock. And he’d been snorin’ for most of it. I’d been waxing poetic about Bella, and my dog couldn’t have cared less.
I’d actually been excited to have something to do. I’d hopped in my truck, rolled by the storage unit where he kept supplies, and made it down to the pier in less than fifteen minutes. All I had ahead of me was going back to my house and mentally replaying that morning on the boat again and again.
Pathetic.
Maybe I’d walk around the pier. Yeah, that could be a decent option. I hadn’t spent much time on it since I was a teenager.
I lifted my hand in a wave. “A’ight then, Sammy. I’ll see ya.”
The pier was busy. It made sense, though. The summer was coming to a close and everyone was making the most out of the time before kids went back to school and vacations were over.
I saw families and couples and, for the first time in my life, that caused a hollow emptiness to settle in my chest. I’d never given much thought to settlin’ down. Maybe that had just been because I was young, but I was startin’ to think that, at least subconsciously, it might have something to do with thinking anyone I fell in love with would be cursed.
Shit. It was a lot to think about, and I wasn’t sure I was goin’ to get to the bottom of it tonight.
I’d just finished walking to the end and back when it happened. Like something out of a movie. Surreal.
The crowds parted and I saw her.
If I’d been unsure before, now I was even less convinced that she was real, and not a figment of my imagination. Maybe she was a mirage that I’d manufactured out of thin air and onto the pier because I’d been obsessing over her so much all day.
I wasn’t sure how long I would’ve stayed there, gawking at her like she was an apparition. Thankfully, though, I didn’t have to find out.
Moonlight shone down on her like a spotlight from heaven, glinting off of her long, lush brown hair as it fell over her shoulders, framing her heart shaped face. Her golden complexion was damn near iridescent in its glow. Her full red lips matched the scarlet sundress she wore.
And her legs… damn. I wasn’t sure how a woman who was close to a foot shorter than my six two could have legs that were a mile long. It defied the laws of physics.
Our eyes met and a shy smile spread over her face. The sight was like cupid’s arrow shooting straight into my chest.
She was real.
She dipped her head the same way she had earlier that morning on the boat, when I’d called her Bella. When she lifted her gaze back up, I saw that her cheeks were flushed.
My feet started traveling toward her without running it past my brain. They were moving totally independently from the rest of my body. I was drawn to her. She had some sort of magnetic force that I was helpless against.
When I reached her, I said a lame, “Hi.”
It wasn’t the smoothest line, but it was all I could manage at the moment. My brain was still recovering from wrapping itself around her “real” status.
“Hi.” She lifted her arm in greeting and I noticed that she had cotton candy in one hand and a churro in the other.