Bryce got into his vehicle, drove around to Main Street, and parked in front of the bookstore. He turned off the engine, waited until half a dozen cars went by, and then slung open the door and slid out from behind the wheel.
Anna Grace was sitting on the sofa with a glass of sweet tea in her hands when he went into the store. She looked up and pointed toward Cricket’s desk. “She’s in the bathroom right now, but you can wait on her. How was your day?”
“Fast and furious,” he answered. “I don’t think I stopped counting pills from the time we opened until we closed, but that’s good. That’s what I’m in business to do. How about y’all?”
“The same until about five minutes ago. Cricket says that she sold more books today than she usually does in a month,” Anna Grace answered.
“It’s been crazy,” Cricket said as she crossed the floor. “Are you ready to go get ice cream?”
“Don’t you have to wait until six to close up shop?” he asked.
“Not when I have help. Anna Grace can turn off the lights and lock the doors,” Cricket replied.
“For real?” Anna Grace asked.
Cricket tossed her the store keys. “Didn’t you ever close up shop at the oil company?”
“Yes, but…”
Cricket shook her head and held up a palm. “No buts. When six o’clock gets here, lock it up and…” She dug around in her purse and laid her car keys on the coffee table. “And go home. Tommy said he would make sure anything in the garden that needed picking got picked. There’s food in the pantry and fridge. You’re on your own. If you’re afraid to cook anything else, make sandwiches and take them to the creek for a picnic. Jennie Sue says that you can skinny-dip this time of year.” She sent a broad wink toward Anna Grace. “Nobody will be home for a while to catch you!”
Bryce ushered Cricket out the front door with his hand on the small of her back, opened the vehicle door for her, and waited until she was settled before he closed it. He hurried around the back of the SUV, made sure no cars were coming, and slid into the driver’s seat.
“This is a real treat, getting to leave this early,” he said, “but what do you say we stop by the Bloom Café and have a burger for supper before we drive down to Sweetwater to the ice cream shop?”
“That sounds great.” Cricket smiled. “But you do realize that if you take me there to eat, folks are going to talk.”
“Then we’ll keep the phone lines hot tonight.” He grinned as he drove to the end of the block and snagged a parking place.
When they were out of the SUV, he draped an arm around her shoulders and kissed her on the cheek. Only one booth toward the back of the café was empty, so he drew her close to his side and whispered in her ear all the way from the entrance to it. The whole place was buzzing when they walked in, but even a deaf person could have heard a pin drop until the moment they both slid into the same side of the booth, and he brushed a sweet kiss across her lips.
* * *
Sparks flew around them, and even though it wasn’t funny, Cricket giggled.
“I hope my kisses aren’t that bad,” he whispered.
“Not at all. They make my knees go weak and my heart race. I can’t stop laughing at all the people’s faces. What they’ve heard about the new pharmacist in town is true. He’s spending time with Cricket Lawson when he could have had any woman in Bloom,” she whispered.
“But I like Cricket,” he chuckled. “She’s my kind of woman.”
Laura Kay, the café owner, came over to their table and asked, “What can I get y’all to drink?”
“Sweet tea for me,” Cricket said, “and I’ll have a double bacon cheeseburger and fries.”
“I’ll have the same, and with an extra order of fries,” Bryce added.
“Have it right out,” Laura Kay said, “and welcome to Bloom. I’ve been meaning to get down to the drugstore and meet you, but it’s been crazy in here all week. I’m Laura Kay Franklin, and I own this café.”
“It was busy at both our places today, too,” Bryce said, “and thank you for the warm welcome.”
“Sure thing,” Laura Kay said. “Hope to see you in here often.”
“Maybe not, since Cricket has been cooking for me,” Bryce said.
“Well, I’m sure what you get in here wouldn’t be as good as what she makes,” Laura Kay said and rushed off to pour refills of tea for other customers on her way back to put their order in.
“You do know that she’s telling all the folks where she’s refilling tea glasses what you said, don’t you?” Cricket looked up to find that he was staring at her.
“I hope so,” he said. “You have the most beautiful eyes, and your smile lights up the whole room.”
“Flattery will get you—” she started.
He put a finger over her lips. “That’s not flattery. It’s the pure facts.”
She closed her hand over his finger and kissed it. “With all this to feed the rumor mill, the gossip about Anna Grace will fall by the wayside.”
“I told you we’d give them something to talk about, but it’s not rumors, it’s the truth,” Bryce said.
Laura Kay must have refilled the customers’ tea glasses five times each because no one seemed to be in a hurry to leave the café. The place was buzzing with conversation when Cricket and Bryce finished their burgers and fries, and when he paid for the food, the noise got even louder.
They had barely gotten into his SUV when both their phones rang at the same time. Cricket answered hers, and Bryce stepped out of the vehicle and sat down on the bench in front of the store to talk.
“Hey, I hear that you went to supper with Bryce at the Bloom Café,” Jennie Sue said. “I should leave town more often.”
“Holy smoke! We just walked out of the place,” Cricket laughed. “How did the news get all the way to Florida that quick?”
“You know what they say,” Jennie Sue giggled right along with her. “There’s three ways of fast communication: telegraph, telephone, and tell-a-woman. The latter is the fastest by far. Someone in the café called Lettie and she called me, but she thought y’all were going for ice cream tonight and burgers tomorrow night. She’s not going to be happy when she finds out that someone else jumped the gun on her when it comes to gossip.”
“Tongues were wagging.” Cricket told her what Bryce had said about giving everyone in town something to talk about. “He did an amazing job, but he said it was all real, not just for show.”
“Like I said, I should leave town more often,” Jennie Sue said, “and you should keep me informed a little better. I don’t like getting things secondhand either.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Cricket agreed. “Bryce got a call at the same time I did, and he’s on his way back. Talk to you later.”
“I’ll expect details,” Jennie Sue said.
“I know, I know,” Cricket groaned.
* * *
A quarter moon hung in the dark sky with bright stars dancing all around it when Bryce walked Cricket to her door that evening at ten o’clock. They’d had ice cream, talked about anything and everything while they ate it, and then talked some more on the way home. She’d never been so comfortable with a guy in her whole life.