Page 5
CHAPTER FIVE
Christy
No, I didn’t get a wink of sleep last night, and, yes, I tried on three different outfits this morning before deciding on my normal go-to of jeans and a T-shirt. At first, I thought of wearing a cute summer dress, but it’s still March and definitely not dress weather. When I actually thought about wearing a Yankees T-shirt—which I have from when Nolan played on the Yankees T-ball team—I knew I was going too far, so I decided to just be me.
I was able to move around my day to have two clients early, and then he’ll be here to pick me up. How I’m going to make it through those two clients is the hard part.
I don’t remember the last time I was this excited about anything—especially a date.
With everything that happened with Nolan’s father, I all but gave up on dating. At least for now. It was Nolan and me against the world. I would actually envision us standing on a cliff, holding hands with our fists in the air and my mom cape blowing in the wind as the sun went down. I know it sounds ridiculous, but with what I went through, I felt I needed that mom-superpower status to protect my little boy.
I’m finishing up with my last client when I hear the door chime and a male’s voice respond with, “I’m here to pick up Christy,” when asked which of us he was here to see.
Margo, our front receptionist, pops her head around the wall that separates me from the entryway. Her voice is as normal as possible, but her facial expression is anything but as she says, “Someone is here to pick you up?”
I grin, trying to act unfazed. “That’s Evan. Tell him I’m almost finished.”
She raises her eyebrows, tilting her head as she whispers, “Who’s Evan?”
I let out a small giggle as I wave her away and whisper back, “I’ll tell you later.”
“Hell yeah, you will,” she teases as she moves back behind the wall. Then she tells Evan, “She’s just finishing up. Have a seat, and she’ll be right out.”
I look at my client in the mirror, who is waiting patiently for me to spill the beans. When I don’t say anything, she raises her eyebrows in the same way Margo did, making me stop and laugh under my breath so he doesn’t hear.
“Who’s Evan?” Amber, a longtime client of mine, asks.
“Nobody,” I singsong with a cheesy grin on my face as I get back to work.
“Nobody, my ass. Do you have a date?” she asks with so much excitement in her voice that I laugh out loud. “Is this why you needed to move me up today?”
I grin. “I’m going to help him pick out furniture.”
“Furniture? I’m confused. Is this a thing now?”
I shake my head as I grab some finishing spray. “No. He just moved here and doesn’t have anything, so he asked for my help.”
“And how did you meet him?” she asks in a playful tone.
I match her tone. “He came in for a haircut.”
“How awesome! So, he sought your cute ass out.”
“Hardly. His sister made the appointment. He just showed up.”
“So, what, he just asked you to go furniture shopping as he sat in your chair for the first time?”
I think about the first time we met and then how I ran into him at the baseball park, but don’t feel like sharing all of that, so I just respond with, “Yeah, something like that.”
I place my hands on her shoulders and look at her in the mirror. “You’re all set.”
She shakes her head around with a big smile on her face. “Love it, as always.”
I undo the drape around her shoulders and start to clean up as she stands and gathers her belongings.
She hands me cash, and we hug our goodbye as she whispers in my ear, “Have fun. You deserve it.”
I grin as she pulls back and pats my hand, giving me a knowing smile. She was here through it all with Nolan’s dad, so hearing her say that means more than it should.
“Love you, girl.”
“Love you too,” I respond.
I finish cleaning up, then poke my head around the corner to where Evan is sitting. The smile he gives me when his eyes meet mine makes my heart dance a little bit.
“Let me just grab my things, and we’ll get out of here,” I say.
He nods, and I turn to head to our staff room. After I make sure I’m presentable and I don’t have color smeared on my face somewhere, I make my way out to him.
He’s flipping through a magazine, so he doesn’t see me approach until I say, “I’m ready.”
He stands with ease, and towers over me as he gives me a small grin. “Let’s go.”
He motions for me to go first, so I do, and we exit the salon.
“This is me.” He points to his truck that’s parked out front and stops to open the passenger door for me.
“Thank you.” I give him a smile, which he returns with the sweetest expression as I step into the vehicle.
As he walks around to his side of the truck, I close my eyes and take a deep breath, trying to calm the nerves inside of me. Every time I see him smile, my body reacts in ways I haven’t felt in way too long, but I need to remind myself that I have a little boy and it’s not just me I have to think about anymore.
He hops in and cranks the engine before reaching around for his seat belt, then turns to me to ask, “Country music okay with you?”
I let out a chuckle. “We are in Nashville, remember? Anything else would be sacrilege.”
He turns up the Zach Bryan song playing through his speakers as he pulls away from the curb. “Then it looks like I’ve truly found my home after all these years.”
Hearing him say home feels like so much more than the word normally means.
“Have you moved around that much?” I ask.
He lets out a hard laugh. “That would be the understatement of the decade.” He pauses as he lets out a breath, like he’s deep in thought, before he continues, “Moving is both a blessing and a curse. Most of the time, if you’re moving, that means you’re going up in the ranks, switching from, say, Double-A to Triple-A.”
“How many A’s are there?”
“More than you realize.”
I look at him, waiting for him to continue, so he does. “People think there’s just Single-A, Double-A, and Triple-A, but that’s not the case. When you are in Single-A, there is Low-A and High-A divisions. Then, if you’re drafted right out of high school, they even have one lower than those, called Rookie or Class-A Short Season.”
“That’s where you started?”
“Nah. I was drafted out of college, so I started in High Single-A. Been grinding ever since.”
“And here you are now.”
He nods, then glances my way. “And here I am now.” The way he says it with so much peace makes me smile.
He already had the directions to Lainey’s Furniture in his GPS, which is only a few blocks away, so before we know it, he’s pulling into the parking lot, and we’re heading in to do some shopping.
“Okay, where should we start?” I ask, holding my hands out wide to the store like it’s our oyster and we’re going to explore every inch of it.
He pulls his phone from his back pocket and swipes it open, then stands close to me to show me some pictures he took. “I thought these would help since you’ve never been to my place.”
He swipes through a very empty home, and I look at him with a sad expression.
“You literally have nothing.”
“No. I have a couch, a bed, a TV, and a few dishes.”
I take the phone from him and swipe back through the photos. “Your TV is on the floor. You don’t have a dresser, and I can see you are still living out of a suitcase.” I swipe back a few photos to the kitchen ones, zoom in, and laugh. “And I don’t see one damn dish in that kitchen of yours.”
He nudges me playfully. “That’s why I need your help.”
I shake my head, trying to hide my grin. “Okay then, here we go. What kind of budget are we looking at?”
He pauses to think. “I have no clue what to expect or what to spend. Obviously, I don’t want to blow my entire salary, but I know I need a lot of stuff.”
I place my hand on his arm, feeling nothing but muscle underneath it. “I’m the world’s best bargain shopper, so don’t worry; we’ll be frugal.”
We head right to where the kitchen tables are in the store.
“Sit,” I say as I do the same, running my fingers across the wood.
He checks it out and starts bobbing his head up and down. “Yep, looks like a table.”
I laugh out loud. “Do you care which shape or color you want?”
“Nope.”
“You are easier to please than I thought,” I tease.
A woman approaches us. “Welcome to Lainey’s Furniture. I’m Jessica. Are you guys looking for anything in particular?”
“Everything,” I blurt out, then stop myself. “Well, almost everything. He already has a couch.”
“What exactly do you mean by everything?” she asks.
She’s probably never had to furnish someone’s entire house at one time before.
Evan speaks up. “I have an empty place, except for my couch, TV, and a bed.”
“Okay then. Let me go get a pen and paper so we can start writing things down.”
I snap my fingers. “Great idea!”
She walks away, and I hold up my hand to Evan. “Can I see those pictures again?”
He hands his phone to me, and I check out the nook area just off his kitchen.
“Did you happen to measure this before you left?”
He nods while grabbing a piece of paper out of his back pocket. “I took measurements of everything, just in case.”
Jessica heads back our way, holding a tape measure.
“Hey, it’s like you knew what we’d need next,” I say jokingly.
She hands it to me with a smile. “Yep, I tend to do this a lot.”
I measure a few of the tables and step back to check them out one more time. “These three will fit best.” I point to them. “Which one do you like better?”
He points to a simple dark wood table with a bench on one side and chairs on the other. “This one.”
I tap his chest with the back of my hand. “Me too!”
“Glad to see you two agree right away. Most couples take quite a while to make their decision,” Jessica says with a grin as she writes down the one we chose.
“Oh. No. Sorry.” I motion between us. “We’re not a couple. I’m just helping out.”
“My apologies,” she responds.
Evan smiles her way. “Maybe one day …”
He winks, and I instantly flush all over.
“Living room? Yes, let’s move on to the living room,” I say a little louder than I should.
I don’t miss his chuckle under his breath as I walk by him, heading toward the couches.
We pick out another chair to sit by his couch, a coffee table, and end tables, opting to have his TV hung on the wall instead of purchasing a stand for it. Then we move on to the bedroom furniture, where he picks out a dresser, nightstand, and a bench to go at the end of his bed for both storage and aesthetics.
“What about decor?” I ask, totally forgetting that step as Jessica rings up our order. “Do you want to hang pictures on your wall or set things out on your coffee table?”
He searches around, seeing all the little things they have sitting out. “I guess we should.”
“How about these?” I head toward three ornate metal statues, each of a woman doing yoga poses that stand only about a foot tall. I then go into tree pose and hum, “Om,” long and slow, making him laugh out loud.
“Um, maybe not,” he teases.
“What? Too good for yoga? It’s athletic.”
“No. Not too good for yoga. And, yes, I’ve done it many times. But maybe a statue of a woman doing yoga isn’t the best decor for me.”
“Touché. Then what about this lovely peacock?” I point to a very colorful metal statue they have on the floor that sits about three feet tall.
He laughs out loud. “I’d go for yoga over a peacock any day.”
“The peacock is cool!”
“It’s a peacock,” he deadpans.
I put my hands on my hips. “It will add color.”
“I’ll get throw pillows.”
I crack a smile, and he does the same. The crinkles near his eyes make him absolutely adorable.
“Fine. No peacock, but I win with the yoga statues then.”
He raises his eyebrows at me, trying to fight back a smile. “You win? Is this your house?”
“No, it’s not. But I need something that will make you think of me so you remember who helped you buy all this stuff.”
“And you don’t think all this stuff will remind me of you?”
I pinch my lips together in thought. “Nope. You need a specific item.”
To my surprise, he wraps his arm around me and pulls me into him, and I feel his warm, muscular body against mine.
“I’m hoping you being in my house will be that specific item, but if you want me to have some statues, too, then get the damn yoga ones.”
Speechless.
For the first time in my life, I’m absolutely speechless.
I stare into his hazel eyes and can’t think of a damn word to say in response.
We stare at each other until Jessica comes around the corner.
“I have the—” She stops mid-sentence when she sees the way he’s holding me.
Evan steps back from me, then looks at her. “Can you add the yoga statues as well?”
She gives us a curt nod. “Will do.” Then she turns to get the price off the statues and leaves to add it to his bill.
His phone rings, and he motions that he has to answer it. I thank the Lord above for giving him a distraction so I can get my bearings.
Jessica joins us again with all the paperwork and Evan’s credit card, just as Evan hangs up the phone.
“Okay, delivery is set up for tomorrow at nine in the morning.”
Evan puts the card back in his wallet and looks over the paperwork, then points at the yoga statues. “Can I just take those now?”
I close my eyes, willing myself not to laugh out loud. I mean, they are really cool statues and definitely something I’d put in my house, but now they hold so much more meaning than the simple poses they are standing in.
“You sure can,” Jessica says.
He grabs them and smiles at me. “Got my yoga statues. Now I’m good to go.”
I can’t hold back anymore, and I laugh out loud as we say our goodbyes to Jessica, thanking her for all her help.
We walk to the truck, and he unlocks it and puts the statues in the back seat before climbing in and looking at me. “Lunch, then more shopping? Target maybe?”
“Lunch, then Target,” I repeat, nodding my head and reaching for my seat belt, loving how natural and easy this day has been already.