Total pages in book: 21
Estimated words: 20081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 100(@200wpm)___ 80(@250wpm)___ 67(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 100(@200wpm)___ 80(@250wpm)___ 67(@300wpm)
She stops, slackjawed. Opens her mouth and closes it again. Speechless, she turns on her heel and walks away.
I pull my phone out of my pocket and look at it. I don’t know why. It’s not like I know his number or anything.
“Uh, excuse me, sorry to interrupt, but did I hear you’re looking for Tate?”
I take a deep breath. Great, another woman, probably another one of his conquests. I lift my head, about to give this woman a piece of my mind if she even looks at me wrong, but when I do look at her, she’s smiling ear to ear, her hand on the table holding the hand of the cowboy across from her.
I take the few steps to the end of the counter to stand next to their table. “Uh, yeah, do you know how I can find him?”
She nods. “You have to ignore Kelly. She’s just mad that Tate won’t go out with her. I can tell you how to find Tate, but first, do you care to tell me how you know him?”
I let my guard down. Obviously these are friends of Tate, and she’s just looking out for him. “Well, I was in the photoshoot at the town square today and Violet catered the food. She had Tate bring it to us.”
The woman’s eyes get real big. “Oh, she did, did she?”
“Now, honey...” the man starts across from her.
The man is looking at her, and the woman is looking me up and down. “Wait, did I miss something?”
The woman laughs and claps her hands together excitedly. The man rolls his eyes but laughs too.
“You see, Violet is actually a little bit of a matchmaker. If she sent Tate to the square, she sent him there for a reason. I’m assuming it was because of you.”
“Me?” I ask, pointing at myself.
She nods big, up and down. “Yes, you. Did you meet Violet?”
I fall into the seat next to the woman. “I did... a few days ago.”
She bounces in the seat next to me. “Yep, she’s setting you two up... so what did you think of Tate?”
“Uh, uh, well....” I stammer. What do I say? We barely talked, we mostly stared and made eyes at each other, but damn the heat I felt coming off him is still stoking a flame inside me. Yeah, I can’t say that. She’ll think I’m crazy.
“Honey, obviously she liked him... she’s looking for him. I’m sorry, you’ll have to excuse my wife... she’s a bit of a romantic.”
The wife is laughing and squeezes her husband’s hand before looking at me. “That’s right, I am. Violet actually set us up. I’m Millie Yates, and this is my husband, Austin.”
I shake her hand that she’s holding out and give a small wave to him across the table. “I’m Lakelyn Hall. It’s nice to meet you both.”
Before I can even get it all out, Millie asks, “So you said you were in the shoot today. Does that mean you’re a model?”
I nod, and Millie snorts. “Violet is a brave woman.”
I’m about to ask her why when Austin interrupts. “Tate owns Jennings Auto Repair. It’s down four blocks, past the bakery and the library. Right on the corner of Joy Street.”
I breathe a sigh of relief. Finally, I’m making progress.
I stand up. “Thank you both so much for your help. I’m going to go try and catch him before he leaves. Have a good dinner.”
They both tell me bye, and Millie asks me to stop in and see her at the co-op before I leave town. I nod and walk out the door with a hopeful stride that I’m going to see Tate soon.
I practice what I’m going to say the whole walk across town. I try to block it out of my mind how he reacted when he saw me the second time. When I had my hair in the horrible knot earlier with no makeup on my face, he looked at me with interest. When I had my makeup on and hair fixed, he looked as if he’d seen a ghost and as if he couldn’t get away fast enough.
I know I didn’t imagine the connection we had. My toes curl even now just thinking about it. But there’s definitely something up, and I’m going to find out what it is.
Tate
“Fuck!” I say for what seems like the twentieth time this afternoon. The day has gone to shit. I haven’t been able to get my mind off Lakelyn all afternoon, and it’s caused me to have one mess after another.
I can hear Jeremy laughing. If I wasn’t lying underneath a 1957 Chevy right now, I swear I’d kick his ass.
“Did you drop another tool?”
“Fuck you,” I tell him.
“Sounds to me like someone had an eventful lunch today and didn’t tell me anything about it,” Jeremy sing-songs back to me.