“Thank you, Jesus,” I murmur back.
“How did you get it in here?” Rhodes asks as he’s snapping away.
“Very carefully,” answers Nana. “We had to take the doors off the hinges, and it took six grown men to finagle it.”
“So it should be fun getting it out?” he asks, grinning.
“I’ll leave that up to you,” she says. “I certainly can’t move it.”
Once he has about thirty photos, he walks over and offers his hand to Nana.
“Honey, we hug in this store,” she says, grabbing him and wrapping her arms around him. She holds him for longer than she should and peers around his arm to wink at me.
I roll my eyes.
“Of course,” he says. He turns his attention to me. “Micah, I have a business associate in town today, but I’d love to take you to lunch tomorrow before I go back to Birmingham.”
“Oh, I can’t,” I say. I feel myself blush again. I hate that I turn bright red every time he looks at me. I don’t even need a mirror to see it—the heat is radiating from my face. It’s so embarrassing. “We’re closing the shop tomorrow to go to an estate sale outside of town.”
“Oh, that’s too bad,” he says with a look of disappointment that makes me feel awful. He pulls out his phone, but Nana interrupts him.
“Why don’t you come with us?” she asks. “There’s plenty of room in the car.”
I open my mouth to object, then realize I have no idea why I’m objecting. I’ve been obsessing over this man for weeks now. Maybe it’s the weirdness of hanging out with him and my grandmother together all day? I should be jumping at the chance to see him, but it does feel a little awkward.
“I’d love to go,” says Rhodes before I can think of anything to say.
“Wonderful! We can pick you up. Where are you staying?”
“The Mossy River Motel south of town.”
“Great!” says Nana. “That’s on our way.”
Rhodes looks at me, and I simply smile.
“We’ll pick you up at eight.”
“Perfect! If you’ll excuse me, I have a meeting with my GC at the Florablanca Inn. I’ll see both of you tomorrow.”
“We’re looking forward to it,” says Nana.
He nods at her, then puts his hand on my arm. I feel my entire body turn to mush, and not from the heat. “Goodbye, Micah.”
“Bye,” I say, my voice sounding weak and squeaky. He makes me nervous, like he’s so dreamy it wipes my brain.
“Well,” says Nana after he walks out, “we may need an extra storage unit after all. We’ll have a lot of room after the fountain is removed, but who knows how long that’ll take.”
“I’ll talk to Garion.”
The rest of the day we spend compacting as much as we can without compromising the navigability and aesthetic of the store. It keeps me busy, which is good, since it also prevents me from obsessing about Rhodes and wondering what I’m going to wear tomorrow.
We go home late, and I’m in the middle of baking salmon and green beans for our dinner when I get a text from Garrett.
Hey sexy – wanna come over tomorrow night?
I pause.
Normally I’d drop everything and jump at the chance to see him. He has so little free time, and this is the first instance he’s wanted to see me since the weekend he cancelled at the last minute.
