“Keep walking,” Dawson said. I gasped when I felt him place his hand on the small of my back. I knew it was just a friendly gesture, but it made me feel like, like, I don’t know, like maybe I liked it.
I thought Starlight was going to have a heart attack when she finally made it to the front. She took note of every little detail, not missing a thing, and commenting on every little alteration.
She loved the new look and thought that my design was magnificent. She thought we had painted there too, and couldn’t believe it when I told her that we only scrubbed the walls. I told her that I had wanted to get the ceilings painted as well, but didn’t want to use all of her petty cash.
“I will get the ceilings painted for you,” she almost demanded. She walked around the new counter and slid the deli case open just in time for Phyllis to bring in the Saturday morning doughnuts.
“Oh, I better get the coffee going,” I said, forgetting the time after getting wrapped up in showing Starlight everything.
“Oh no, you don’t. You’ve done enough. I’ve got it,” Starlight demanded, taking a bite of an oatmeal cookie.
“I love the cookie idea, and I love you, Riley Murphy,”
she stated. Dawson and I smiled at each other.
Dawson didn’t hangout as long as he normally did, and Starlight was again amazed at the traffic that came in and out all day. We didn’t get to close until an hour later than normal and stayed another hour restocking the sold merchandise.
“Riley, I don’t know if we can keep up at this rate,” she said as she replenished the tie-dye shirts on the rack.
I smiled at her, and she shook her head. “Let me guess, you already have it covered?”
“I do,” I said. “I sent for a catalogue from this company out of Oregon. They have the coolest stuff ever,”
I explained, disappearing to the office to retrieve it.
Starlight followed me, and we sat across from each other at the desk while she turned each page. I had corner pages folded of the things that I thought would be nice for the store and she circled a few things, as well.
My cellphone rang, and I answered the call from Dawson.
“Are we eating ribs or not? I’m starving.”
“I forgot all about it, Dawson. You go ahead. I think I am going home and making homemade pizza.”
“You made me wait until eight o’clock at night and didn’t call me. I’m coming over for homemade pizza,” he demanded, and I laughed.
I wasn’t nervous around him anymore and wasn’t worried about anything happening between us. We had been hanging out for a month, and he had never even tried to kiss me.
“Okay, I have to stop at the store and then I am headed that way.”
“Sheriff Dawson, uh?” Starlight smiled.
“No, we’re just friends. There is nothing romantic between Dawson and me.”
“Why not? Dawson is a great guy.”
“I just got out of one mess. I am not interested in another one. No thank you. I will see you Monday,” I said, taking my purse from the hook.
“No, you won’t. You take the day off, take a couple of them if you want. You deserve it.”
“I really would rather be here, Starlight,” I admitted, not wanting to be home alone with my thoughts.
“Well, only if you want to be. Thank you so much for all of this, Riley. I couldn’t have asked you to do half of what you did.”
“I’m just glad you like it.”
“I love it. Have a good night.”
It was almost nine before I got the pizza in the oven. Dawson came, and I told him to chill out while I grabbed a shower. I didn’t care that he was there, and I was putting on comfortable clothes, done with the whole impressing somebody else situation. I put on a baggy comfortable t-shirt and a pair of soft flannel pants. I figured we would end up sitting on the deck, and although the days were fairly hot, the evening ocean air was brisk.
“I brought a couple of movies,” Dawson said as I entered wrapping my hair in a ponytail.
Lauren was there and sitting on the sofa.
“Hey, what are you doing? I figured you would be with Joel tonight,” I said when I saw her.
“I am. Dawson answered your phone and said you were making homemade pizza.”
I laughed. I don’t think the girl ever cooked. She just came to my house and helped herself.
The three of us sat out on the deck and ate pizza and drank beer. I tried to tell Lauren to invite Joel over to my house, but they wanted to go to the bar because they had a band. She tried to get us to come with them, and I refused. She didn’t push it. My turning her down to hang out in the bar was starting to catch on, and she didn’t badger me about it as much.
She drank two beers, ate two slices of pizza and left to meet Joel.
Dawson and I stayed out on the deck and consumed more alcohol than I should have been drinking. I could feel it, and knew that was my limit when I stumbled a little when I went into the bathroom.
“Comedy romance or action romance?” Dawson asked, holding up the two DVD’s.
Romance? Awesome.