Page 29 of His Build
Somewhere in her brain, a buzzer sounded.Maximum awkward.
She wanted to hide behind this thing all morning.
No, she wanted to throw it at him and run away back to her room. To bury herself under her blanket and never come back.
But that was where she had the dream.
She breathed out.
Face your fears,she told her clients.Face your fears, Lucy.
She flattened the menu down on the table.
“You sure you’re okay?” he said. He actually looked concerned.
The muscles in her shoulders relaxed just a little. “I’m fine. I just…” she didn’t know what to say to him.You make me nervous? I’d like to have aflingwith you?
Luckily Aubrey came by with a carafe of steaming coffee in one hand. She took her other hand and ruffled Graydon’s hair like he was five years old.
“How’s my little Gray-Gray?” she asked.
Now it was Graydon’s turn to turn pink.
It was exceptionally cute. “Gray-gray?” Lucy said.
“It’s what all us old-timers call our little guy Gray.” The woman ruffled his hair again.
“You have got a gold medal in embarrassing grown men, you know that?” Graydon said.
“Oh, I know it.” She turned over their mugs. She poured a coffee for Graydon, then lifted the carafe at Lucy.
“Yes, please,” Lucy said.
As Aubrey poured their coffee she said, “I’m sorry for embarrassing you back there. I’m just so excited to see someone with the same head of beautiful hair yours truly used to sport once upon a time. What’s your name, darlin’?”
“Lucy,” Lucy replied, and the woman gave her such a warm smile she couldn’t help but smile back. She found, even after her initial embarrassment, that she liked this woman very much. She was so relieved to have her embarrassment transferred to Graydon, and when the woman winked at her, she realized she’d done it on purpose.
“I’m Aubrey, and before you say it, no, I’m nottheAubrey. That’s my mother, God rest her soul. But I carry the name and I carry the game, just like she did. You really do have agorgeoushead of hair, my sweet. Did that come down from your mother’s or your father’s side?”
It took Lucy a minute to catch up with Aubrey’s mile-a-minute chit-chat to understand she’d asked her a question.
“My dad’s mother, apparently. She had hair the color of carrots, my mother used to say.”
Aubrey laughed—a booming, hearty sound. Lucy would have been embarrassed again, but there wasn’t a tinge of cruelness in it.
“Well, you didn’t get the carrots. More like… like Cherrywood. It’s gorgeous. Don’tcha think Graydon?”
Graydon, just recovering from the blush from earlier, went bright pink again. “I mean…”
“What’s the matter, Gray-Gray? Cat got your tongue?”
Lucy couldn’t help it, she laughed, relaxing for the first time since they got in here.
“You going to take our order or what, Aubrey?” Graydon pleaded and Aubrey laughed again, elbowing Lucy conspiratorially.
“Oh alright.”
After she had gone, Graydon took a long sip of coffee.
