Page 8 of Hello Handsome

For the first time in two months, I had a day off, thanks to a heavy midsummer rain. Working on a wheat harvesting crew was not for the faint of heart. So the other guys on the crew were bedraggled yet excited as we headed into town for some drinks at the bar.

On our way down Main Street, though, I saw the worst thing ever.

Maya, the woman I’d kept my eye on for years, talking with some guy outside the movie theater. He had a cigarette dangling from his lip and enough grease in his hair to keep a combine lubed up all summer.

My arm couldn’t work the window crank fast enough.

“What the hell are you doing?” Jack said from the driver’s seat.

“Slow down,” I told him before sticking myself out the window. I called over to Maya, “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?”

Jack slowed the truck to a crawl, and I heard him chuckle. The guys in the back seat were laughing, too.

Maya and that guy looked back at me. A small smile tugged at her lips, even though she was trying to fight it. “Thought you were holed up in a combine for the summer,” she called back.

Jack slowed the truck to a stop, and the person behind us honked. I looked back at them and yelled, “Go around!” The cop was probably parked at Woody’s Diner anyway.

A glance at Maya showed she was laughing now.

“Come out with us?” I asked her.

The guy she was with said, “What the fuck, man?”

She glanced at the guy and back to me. “A little busy here.”

I shrugged apologetically and then said, “When won’t you be busy?”

“Try five thousand years,” she retorted, folding her arms across her chest. But that didn’t deter me. Something in my gut said she was the one and now was the time. And I trusted my gut.

“How ‘bout next Saturday? Dinner,” I said. “I’m buying.”

She shrugged, bored.

Another car behind the truck honked. And then police lights flashed. Guess I was wrong about that. Sheriff Maxton called out his window, “Get goin’, boys.”

“Yes, sir,” I said, saluting him.

He rolled his eyes at me.

Then I grinned at Maya. “I’ll pick you up at six on Saturday.”

Before she could reply, I ducked back into the truck. Jack sped off while the other two guys we were with told me what an ass I’d made of myself. That didn’t matter though. I was taking Maya out for dinner next Saturday night.

The memory left a small smile on my lips as I walked into the diner. Back then, I’d been fearless–young and untainted by the tragedies of life. Now?

Deidre was right. I did get lonely out on the farm. My boys were grown and building lives of their own. Turns out when you dedicate all of yourself to raising kids, there’s a lot of time left over when that job’s done.

The Richardsons sitting up front greeted me as I walked past, and I gave them a smile. They came to the diner even more often than I did.

I slid into my usual seat across from the coffee pot. Aggie walked over, carrying a giant container of ketchup.

“Hi, Ags,” I said to her with a smile. Hopefully she couldn’t tell how nervous I was.

“I was starting to think you wouldn’t come in today,” she replied as she tucked the ketchup jug under the counter.

I chuckled. “Hell hasn’t frozen over quite yet.”

Her little laugh warmed my chest, and I felt a bit more at peace.