Total pages in book: 198
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
Sure enough, Mr. Rhodes and Jackie were sitting at the small kitchen table, demolishing plates loaded with Chinese food. They both sat up at Am’s and my voices. “Yeah, I just miss her already,” I told him honestly. “I’m glad she came. It’s hard not knowing when I’ll see her again.”
The chair beside Mr. Rhodes was pulled out, and it took me a second to realize he’d pushed it with his knee and it hadn’t been magic. He was chewing as he gestured to a stack of plates on the counter beside the containers of food. I picked one up, feeling a little shy all of a sudden, and loaded it up with a little bit of everything—not really that hungry for some reason but wanting to eat anyway.
“How do you know her?” Amos asked as I served myself.
My hand stilled for a moment, but I went for the truth. “We met at a big music festival in Portland about . . . eleven years ago. We both got heatstroke backstage and were in the infirmary tent at the same time, and we hit it off.”
I hoped they didn’t ask how I got backstage and was ready to explain . . . but neither one of them did.
“Should I know who she is?” Mr. Rhodes asked out of nowhere, sitting there eating quickly and neatly.
It was Amos who covered his face with his palm and groaned, and Jackie who launched into an explanation that I was sure made Mr. Rhodes regret asking.
I wasn’t sure why he’d decided to be so nice to invite me for lunch, but I really appreciated it.
He really was a decent man.
And I could not have asked for a friend better than Yuki.
Chapter Fifteen
“Wait a second, wait a second . . .”
Clara grinned as she handed the customer she had just finished ringing up his receipt.
Tidying up the stack of flyers on the counter for hunting excursions, I made a face at them. “Why do people catch bass if they don’t eat them?”
Walter, one of my favorite customers because he was so sweet and one who came in when he was bored, which seemed to be very often because he was newly retired, picked up the small plastic container of flies he’d bought from Clara just a moment ago. “Bass don’t taste good, Aurora. Not good at all. But they don’t fight much when you reel them in, and there’s plenty in the reservoirs around here. The game wardens restock them.”
I wondered who.
The older man winked in his friendly way. “It’s about time I get going. Have a nice day, young ladies.”
“Bye, Walter,” Clara and I both called out as he headed toward the door.
He threw us a wave over his shoulder.
“We should go one day,” Clara said when the door shut behind him.
“Fishing?”
“Yeah. Dad was talking about wanting to take his boat out. It’s been a while since he has, and the weather has been nice. He’s been feeling good lately and hasn’t had any accidents getting around.”
I didn’t even need to think about it. “All right, let’s do it.”
“We can launch—”
She stopped talking at the same time I spotted the man at the door, holding his cell to his face.
It was Johnny, Amos’s uncle.
“Go help him,” I whispered to Clara.
She scoffed. “You do it.”
“Why?”
“Because he dated my cousin, and I was serious, I’m not ready to date, and I like him but not like that,” she explained. Clara gestured to where he was kind of wandering around. “Go help him. You’re single too.”
I huffed. “I’ll just see if he needs help.”
I’d made it about halfway to where he’d stopped, at a rack holding a waterproof shell, when his eyes flicked to me. It took a second, but a smile crept across his mouth. “I know you.”
“You do. Hi, Johnny. Need some help?”
“Hi, Aurora.” He set the jacket back on the shelf and eyed me from my face down to my shoes and back up. I ignored it like I had when two other guys had done the same earlier.
“How are you? Can I help you find something?” I’d found that it was a lot easier to delegate work if I asked first if they needed to find something. Stuff in the store, I could find, easy-peasy. Answering complicated and specific questions, I was still not a professional at, even though I’d gotten a hell of a lot more informed about all outdoor things. The time I’d spent with Mr. Rhodes had helped, but I’d been doing research and bugging Clara now that business had calmed down a bit. The bulk of tourist season was over.
“I came in for some leaded weights,” he started to say.
I knew now that was used for fishing.
“Then I got sidetracked with this jacket here.” He eyed me down again, and the sides of his mouth curled up even more.