“Thanks for blowing my cover, and I’m Alexis McKinley.”
He smiled and let go of her hand.
Cory winked and said, “Anytime.”
Wait. What? Was he flirting? Was she flirting? Alexis conspicuously watched him walk to the cash register, willing the unfamiliar blush in her cheeks to disappear. She didn’t flush around men. Surely, she had come down with something. It was the only explanation. Not now. She couldn’t get sick right now. There was too much going on. She was too busy to get sick.
Cory Baker pinky waved as he strolled by her in a strut.
“Have a good day, Rosaline.”
“Nice. Really?” Alexis questioned with a frown. Sort of. It was a mix between a smile and a smirk. Using witty commentary, she knew she’d flirted back. Alexis shook her head and waved for Carol to bring the check. Carol and the check were safer than that strut. Whoa. What was that? It was like step, dance, and step. She liked it—too much.
“Do you want dessert, sugar?”
“No thanks, Carol, just the check.”
“Honey, you don’t have a check, your good-looking friend took care of it for you.”
Alexis turned and looked at Carol’s nod, but he was nowhere in sight. Only the wet streets from the earlier rain, an occasional car, and her own black jeep.
***
Alexis had just finished up with a family of four from Canterville, about fifteen miles north of Cedar Springs, when Paige arrived. She watched the slow, steady rain, and Jordan Casino’s four-wheel drive Chevy pickup truck with big tires and loud exhaust—a Cedar Springs tradition. All the teenage boys had to have the biggest truck in town. It had been that way for as long as she could remember, and she didn’t see it changing anytime soon. Alexis once slid to the middle of the bench seat in a too-tall pickup truck, too. Her eyes squinted while she watched the make out session, pretending to do something on the computer. The young lovers kissed for what seemed like an hour before Paige finally got out and ducked under her backpack. The backpack, along with running, did little to shield the downpour. Paige squealed and shook cold water from her long dark hair.
Paige shook with a chill, shaking the rain from her long dark hair. “Hey, Aunt Lex.”
“Hey, girl. You look happy.”
“I am so happy,” Paige answered while emphasizing the word “so.” “Jordan drives me crazy sometimes, and I mean that in a good way.”
“You’ve seen a lot of Jordan lately.”
Paige popped a pink bubble around her happy smile. “Yes, I have. What do we have this afternoon?”
“Not a lot,” Alexis replied with her finger gliding down the screen. “The Hartley family is next, a sixth-month-old little girl, the Baylor boys, professional portraits for Bradford Realty—um…four of them—and a seven-year-old. I’m not sure if the seven-year-old is a girl or a boy, Bernie booked it.” Alexis hated when she did that. How hard was it to check the box? It made her job easier when setting up the studio if she knew she would be going with tiaras or footballs.
“You can have the Baylor boys. Those boys are the meanest kids I’ve ever met.”
Alexis took a deep breath and spit it out. It was now or after the Hartley family shoot. The last time she photographed the Hartley’s, they took over an hour. Please don’t let them take over an hour. Alexis had been hungry for Chicken Divine for a week. She’d been looking forward to her favorite casserole and a six-pack of bottles, chilled to almost slush.
“Are you having sex?”
Paige beat herself in the chest as her eyes went as big as saucers. Alexis was sure she’d just swallowed her gum. “Aunt Lex!”
“I just don’t want you to get into trouble. Are you on the pill?”
Paige dropped her eyes to the floor before responding. “No.”
With all the confirmation she needed, Alexis suddenly felt anxious. The head drop was a dead giveaway. “Do you need me to take you to get on the pill?” Her tone stayed neutral with little mirth while she fought control to be the understanding aunt. Paige having sex? Nooooo! She was a baby. Paige couldn’t have sex. When did this happen?
Astonished, Paige looked up with raised eyebrows. “You would do that?”
“Yes, even though your parents would kill me, especially your dad,” Alexis added while thinking about what her brother would say. He would kill her—probably shoot her right in the head.
“I’m not giving you my blessing. My advice is to stay far, far away from boys. But... You’re not going to listen anyway. I’m only doing it because I was your age once. I, too, was in love with the captain of the football team, and I can tell you until I’m blue in the face not do it and you still wouldn’t listen. So yes, I would take you. I have to go to Canterville next Tuesday. Will that work for you? I would rather it be there than here, if you know what I mean.”
“I most certainly know what you mean.” Small towns are all the same. People talk. Some way. Somehow. Somebody would find out and from experience. They both knew it to be the truth. “Besides, Dr. Rice is so old, I would be afraid he would give me blood pressure medicine instead of the pill and I’d end up pregnant with hypotension or something.”
Alexis laughed. “Yes, one would think he’d retire. I bet he drops over dead in that office.”
Dr. Rice occupied the only clinic in Cedar Springs. He opened it himself back in 1972. The closest hospital was in Canterville. It was actually just a clinic, but they did have maybe twenty beds or so for patients that were not in critical condition. They did an excellent job delivering babies, stitching cuts, setting broken bones, that sort of thing, but nothing major. The small clinic wasn’t equipped for that.
Alexis and Paige ran through the rest of the day’s appointments with Paige doing most of the work. Alexis gave her instructions and Page listened. Paige was the ideal student. Her eyes and ears focused on every word Alexis said. She was so eager to learn and Alexis was thrilled to teach her.
“I’m tired,” Alexis confessed once they were finally cleaning up the studio. Alexis and Pagie tag-teamed and breezed through the afternoon appointments in no time. Paige wanted out of there to spend time with Jordan, and Alexis couldn’t keep her mind off the casserole. The ice-cold beer had been sounding better, too.
Paige tossed her a feather duster—used for tickling noses—and a ball. Alexis caught it after one bounce. “I’m hungry. I think I’m going to make Jordan take me to McDonalds.”
Alexis flipped the light off and Paige followed her out. “I’m hungry, too, but McDonalds sounds gross. I’m making Grandma’s Chicken Divine casserole. Do you need a ride?”
Paige gave her a sly grin just as Jordan pulled to the curb. Alexis stopped her by tugging on her backpack.
“No sex. You have to be on the pill for thirty days before they’ll work.”
“We use condoms. Stop worrying.”
“You say that like it’s no big deal. Like you do it all the time.”
“It’s not! And we do. Don’t be a hypocrite. You just offered to help me get on the pill.”
“UGH. Why did you have go and grow up? Stop it. I’ll see you tomorrow. Behave yourself.”
“Always do,” Paige called with a parade-wave goodbye. Alexis grunted a disapproving grumble while watching her slide to the center of the seat. The wish for her to be five again was felt with nostalgic memories. What was wrong with five? Five was a good age.
***
Alexis placed the random items in her cart—rice, chicken, lettuce, a six-pack of Coors Light in bottles, shampoo, and tampons. She stood in front the fresh vegetable aisle and clicked her tongue. Hmm—broccoli or asparagus?
“You could just get them both,” her new banker friend suggested. “Chicken and beer, my kind of girl.”
Alexis had smelled him before she saw him. Nice. No, not nice. Wait. What? Her eyes went from his white smile to his feet. Shit. She just checked him out. Alexis checked out a guy—one that stood right in front of her with a teasing smirk. What the hell? His cris
p white shirt and tie had been replaced with a black Journey tee shirt, stylish jeans, and sneakers. Whoa…
Cory’s smile embellished the bust. It wasn’t his fault she got caught, she made it very obvious. Alexis had been checking him out and she got caught. Her rosy cheeks increased the hilarity, and the dimple on his cheek appeared.
Once the inability to form words passed, Alexis recovered. “People are going to start talking around here if we keep meeting like this. That’s what people do in small towns, you know?” She didn’t mean for it to come out as nasty as it sounded. An automatic defense mechanism kept men like him at a distance, not that Cedar Springs had men like him, but still.
“Well, maybe we should just give them something to talk about.” Cory’s mouth curved up in some sort of wicked, sexy smile that Alexis couldn’t help but stare at. Jesus. What the hell was wrong with her? She acted like some kind of high school girl. Like Paige. Ugh.
Alexis looked down at the fresh vegetables again and tried to hide her flustered cherry-red face, wishing she, too, had on jeans. Her ill-fitted khakis and button-up white blouse did absolutely nothing for her toned figure. They weren’t supposed to. They were for crawling around on the floor, trying to get little kids to smile at her camera. She thought about what her long, dark hair looked like, knowing it was pulled back in its customary ponytail. Great.
“Would you like to have dinner with me?”
Would she?
Alexis was saved from the awkward, caught-off-guard moment when one of the locals walked up to her. Sue Maynard carried a baby and pushed a little girl, who talked busily in the cart.
“Hey, Alexis. I was going to call you tomorrow. You wouldn’t happen to have an opening this week, would you? I want to get Tobi’s six-month photos done,” the young mom asked, coming from the opposite direction.
“I don’t, Sue,” Alexis answered. There were only two days left in the week and she’d been totally booked. “But if you want, I can put you down for Monday or Tuesday. Would that work for you?”
“Let’s do Tuesday.”
Cory nodded to the local mom and turned his attention to the fresh vegetables. Sue fanned her face and mouthed one drawn out word—“Nice…”
“I’ll call you tomorrow,” Alexis said with a scowl. Her eyes had shifted to Cory before she shoved the mother away. Dumb girl.
“So, do you think maybe I could book an appointment on…say, Friday night?” Cory asked after the young mom took her children and walked away.
Alexis grimaced again over Cory’s shoulder when Sue turned to check out his ass. Susan quickly jerked around when Cory turned to look, too. Her friends were so juvenile.
“I don’t even know you.”
“Really?” Cory questioned disbelievingly. His hand moved to his cocked hip in an attitude formation. “Boyfriend, lunch, Aunt Rosaline, ring any bells? Besides, that’s why you should have dinner with me.”
Alexis couldn’t help but laugh at his playfulness. “I should have dinner with you because I don’t know you?” she clarified while failing to hide the evident smile.
“Yes. You can get to know me and I can get to know you—perfect plan, don’t you think?”
“Thanks, I do appreciate the offer, but I’m booked on Friday. Nice to see you again, though.” She smiled and pushed her cart around his.
“Ouch,” Cory said with his hand covering his heart. Alexis smiled over her shoulder, flipping her ponytail to her face. Ouch. The tips of her hair struck right to the center of her eye. She sucked at flirting.
“Okay. Fine, have it your way. We’ll just get to know each other here in the grocery store,” Cory suggested while his hand waved around the market.
Alexis laughed but continued to shop.
“So what is it you book appointments for?”
“I’m a photographer.”
“Well, that is just great. I have been looking for one of those.”
“Really?” she mused doubtfully with a slanted smile and a frown.
“Yup, what do you photograph?”
Alexis answered with her own question through a laugh. “What is it you need photographed?”
“I don’t know, you haven’t told me what you photograph yet.”
“Dogs.”
“Hmm, I’ve been meaning to get one of those, too.”
“I photograph people. Kids, babies, families, and football teams—God hates me today.”
“Excuse me?”
That’s when she froze. Alexis took a deep breath and collected herself, bracing for the impending embarrassment. No, not Bernie. Anyone but Bernie.
Cory frowned and looked to Bernie while Alexis mentally prepared to be mortified. Bernie erased the distance between them with a smirk and narrowed eyes, moving from Cory to Alexis.
“I thought you said Travis was coming home,” Alexis questioned. She wanted to make this short and sweet, hoping Bernie didn’t say anything to humiliate her. She appeared to be doing a good job of that on her own.
“He is,” Bernie answered slyly. “Just wanted to pick him up some beer.” She eyed the handsome stranger inquisitively. Alexis had been hiding something. Who was this guy? “Hello, I’m Bernie, Alexis’s best friend since the age of three.” Bernie took it upon herself to handle the introductions, offering her hand to Cory.
“Cory Baker. Nice to meet you, Alexis’s best friend since the age of three.”
“Charming too,” Bernie admitted as her eyes turned to Alexis with a knowing expression—one that expressed her frustration about her nice-looking secret.
“Bernie here is sort of our town mouth. She wasn’t born with filters,” Alexis tattled while her fingers kneaded the tension in the back of her neck. She took a deep breath and exhaled, wishing Bernie away with magic she didn’t have.
Cory slid one hand into the pocket of his jeans and leaned an elbow on his cart. Amusingly, he quizzed Alexis. “Worse than Aunt Rosaline?”
“Way worse,” Alexis assured him with the flirtatious smile again, trying like hell to keep her eyes on Bernie and off of those jeans.
“Hey, I’m right here, and I am not. Nobody is as bad as—hey, how do you know Aunt Rosaline?” Bernie rephrased. How long had her best friend been hiding him from her? They were going to have a talk about this unacceptable behavior. Best friend. Pfft.
Alexis turned her cart and moved for a man, trying to get to the Mayonnaise. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Bernie.” She could tell Bernie was about to open her big mouth and wanted her to leave.
“It was a pleasure meeting you. Maybe I’ll see you around.” Bernie smiled at Cory. They exchanged a trivial goodbye and Bernie was off. Thank God. “You call me!” she demanded behind Cory’s back. Her straight finger pointed toward Alexis with an order. Like that was threatening. Hardly.
Cory jumped right back in where he’d left off before Bernie interrupted. “So, about that appointment.”
“The dinner or the photographs?”
“Which one do I have the best chance at?”
“I’m flattered, Mr. Baker. And thank you very much for lunch today and the invitation, but I’m afraid I am going to have to pass.”
“Pass on which one?”
“Both.”
“That’s okay. I like hard to get.” Cory ran his hand over his firm pecks, trying to be coy. He failed and Alexis read right through him. She wasn’t impressed. She hated arrogance, and didn’t care for the cockiness permeating his natural personality all of a sudden. And that’s why she was better off without men.
“Good day, Mr. Baker,” she coldly replied, turned, and stepped into the empty checkout lane.
Asshole.
Cory knew for whatever reason he’d just struck a nerve and decided to back off. He politely told her to have a good evening and continued his shopping.
Alexis had barely sat in her jeep when her cell phone sang, “I like big butts.”
“Oh my God. Stop touching my phone. What do you want, nosy pants?”
??
?Who the hell was that?”
“I have no clue. His name is Cory, that’s all I know.”
“Was that the first time you met him?”
“No. I had lunch with him today at April’s, but only because I was trying to hide from Aunt Rosaline.”
“You had lunch with him?! And you didn’t tell me?”
“Kind of, but it’s not what you think.”
“Oh, Alexis, he is freaking hot. Who is he?”
“He moved here from Chicago, but I have no clue why. He was dressed in business clothes, so I’m guessing he’s taking over for Pete.”
“A banker. Sweet,” Bernie dramatically said with a long draw, dragging out the word “sweet” a little too long. She always did that with that word. It was so annoying. “Is he married?”
“I doubt it. He asked me out, and he doesn’t wear a ring if he is.” She recalled him holding up his empty ring finger at the diner and internally smiled. She couldn’t help it. His smile was more contagious than Floyd’s, only different. Way different.
Bernie just about wrecked her car with excitement. “Holy hell! You said yes… Please tell me you said yes.”
“I said no. What did you think I was going to say?”
“Dear, dear, Alexis, you do not say no to a man that looks like that, let alone the president of a freaking bank!” Bernie yelled in the phone, quite disturbed with her friend. Alexis was coming up fast on the thirty mark. What was she thinking?
“Dear, dear, Bernie,” Alexis mocked in the exact same tone. “I don’t have time for men, I don’t want to make the time, nor am I the least bit interested. You should know by now that I don’t care what you think.”
“Alexis, come on. This has been going on for what, eight years now? Get over it already. You’re a beautiful girl, inside and out. You deserve to be happy. Why won’t you just give it a chance?”
“Why can’t you give it a rest? You would think after me telling you to mind your own business at least, what, Bernie? I don’t know, a thousand times or more?” Alexis asked with disgust. “One would think you would figure it out. I don’t need your help in finding Mr. Perfect because I don’t want Mr. Perfect. Get it? I’ll see you tomorrow.”