Huh, maybe that’s where all of those cut-down trees ended up: as pieces of paper strewn around this stuffyroom.
“Seriously,” Dad says, “you should go. It’s Valentine’s Day. Don’t you have a date orsomething?”
I huff out alaugh.
“Yeah, with myself. I was planning on taking myself for a nice long walk on the beach after I getoff.”
Dad looks past me as the bell over the door chimes and smiles as he cocks his head toward it as hesmiles.
“I think you have acustomer.”
“I think I heard the bell,” I say, patting his shoulder. I wipe my hands on my greasy shorts as I start back toward thestore.
And my heart seizes in my chest when I seehim.
2
Cindy
“Eli??!”
“Cindy,” he breathes as a smile stretches across his beautiful face. He starts to stride toward me and I run to him, wrapping him up in a hug. He feels exactly the same as he used to. He smells the same, like deep sandalwood and crispair.
He looks so very much the same and yet so different. His hair is long in front and shorter on the sides and he carries himself with a quiet confidence that doesn’t need to shout, doesn’t need to command attention, doesn’t need to make itself known because when he steps into a room everyone turns to listen tohim.
My gaze travel over his deep, jade green eyes that are always so cool but turn intense when he gets into something he’s passionate about. I feel my entire body flush with heat and my eyes go softer like years of stress and anxiety have just started to melt away. My skin is glittering and I feel like I need to sit down and drink a tall glass ofwater.
I’ve always admired him, but this is somethingdifferent.
“God, Cindy,” he says, his eyes roaming over me. I haven’t seen him in two years when he came to visit for my nineteenth birthday but everything comes rushing back in bright, blinding color. That was the first time I noticed how sexy he was. This, right here, is the first time I’mfeelinghow sexy he is. I exhale a sharp breath. “It’s so good to see you again. You lookfantastic.”
“What are you even doing here?” I give him a punch in the arm. That’s right. A little playful, fake violence to distract from my spiking temperature and racing heart. Hitting something actually helps me cool down alittle.
Kickboxing suddenly seems to makesense.
“He’s not here for you,” Dad says as he hobbles toward us. “He’s here forme.”
Dad puts his hand out and Eli laughs, pulling him in for ahug.
“Larry, how are you doing, oldman?”
“Dad!” I say as I gape up at him. “Why did you tell me I should leave if you knew he wascoming?”
“I knew you would never agree to it,” Dad says. He gives me the briefest little wink. “I just wanted to see if today would be the day you’d actually give yourself the afternoonoff.”
“Well. Now that I know Eli’s here, I might actually be tempted to clockout.”
Now I go in for a deeper look. He’s wearing dark jeans that are worn out and slung low on his hips. His scraggly and scruffy beard has started to gray a little, along with the temples of his otherwise dark, wavy hair, making my skin tingle. His black tee-shirt, the kind he always wears, is pulled tight across his chest and the sleeves show off the perfectly sculpted and corded muscles of his arms. His tattoos are faded and stretched across his tannedskin.
I feel my belly do a deep, rolling flip as I let my fascinated eyes roam over him. I think it’s the sensuality of it. There was something so important to Eli — many things so important to Eli — that he decided to get them permanently etched on his skin. His skin, the thing that he shows theworld.
This is me. This is who I am, he seems tosay.
“I’ve made the executive decision to close the store for the rest of the afternoon,” Dad says. I look over at him. Despite his efforts to get me to leave, he never closes early. He always calls someone else to come in if I’m not here. I don’t want to tell him closing is a bad idea just like I don’t like to constantly tell him to take it easy. I don’t think I know better than him but I know he tries to put me first and I don’t want him to put me first unless I get to put him first, too. I want us to put each other first, equally, which means I should be able to have a say in how we run things. “Eli’s doing a huge project on a house down here and he’s decided to use our services for as long as the jobtakes.”
“Wow,” I sigh. I look over at Eli. “That’sgreat.”
I feel a little lighter. That’ll float us for a while. More importantly, it means I’ll be seeing more ofEli.