Love and Secrets - Kit Morgan Page 0,5
and tea aisle, remembered she needed some chicken, and made a sharp right turn. One of these days she’d come to the store with an actual list…
Thud!
“Oh!” She looked to see who she’d just hit with her shopping cart. “Ohhhh.”
“Hello, Holly.”
She froze. “Hello, Zane.” They stood stock still staring at each other. Her, because she was mortified she just rammed his derrière. And him … well, he was probably trying to think of something polite to say.
He cleared his throat. “It’s… nice to see you.” He looked her up and down.
What, he couldn’t smile? Did she look that bad? Or was it because she just rammed his butt with a grocery cart?
She swallowed hard. “Hey. Wow. You’re here.” It was lame, but it was all she could manage.
“Yeah. Imagine that.” He still wasn’t smiling.
That had her worried. “I’m so sorry …”
He waved it off. “Don’t worry about it. It didn’t hurt.”
“Are you sure?” She leaned to the right, then left as if to see around him and make sure his rear end wasn’t damaged. When she looked up at him again he arched an eyebrow. “Um, you staying with your folks?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Motel.”
She blinked a few times. “What? Why?”
He let out a shaky breath. “I like my privacy.” He smiled but it looked forced. “You know how my mother is.”
Okay, he had a point. Mrs. Brody made it her business to be in everybody else’s business. But then, she was the pastor’s wife, and didn’t she have to know things so she could pray for people? It’s not as if she was a gossip, but she did watch people like a hawk. Her son more so. Probably because he was their only son. Of course Holly had to ask, “Are you back?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know.” He backed up a few steps putting some distance between them. “I should go. I’m late.”
She studied him a moment, there was definitely something wrong. “Well, okay.” She started off as he turned his basket around. “Zane?”
“Yeah?”
She watched him. He’d already headed down the aisle. “It would be great to catch up.”
He looked over his shoulder, and she caught the sadness in his eyes before he smiled. “That would be great.”
She smiled back. “When?”
He turned around. “Give me your number.”
Holly dug through her purse for her cell phone. “I can text it to you.”
“Sure.”
She noticed his hands were trembling as he pulled his phone out of his jeans pocket. Good grief, did she make him that nervous? What was wrong? He gave her his number and she sent him hers. That done, she looked into his eyes. “How are you?”
He let go a nervous laugh. “Well, to be honest, I’ve been better.”
“Yeah,” she said with a nod. “I can see that.”
He chuckled. “You always could.”
She didn’t know what was wrong, but her heart went out to him. She smiled and glanced around the aisle. “Wow, imagine bumping into you here,” she said with a giggle. They were in the baby aisle. She quickly cleared her throat. “You married?” She cringed. “I mean, sorry. It’s just that…” She glanced in his basket. Fruit, vegetables, snacks, nothing out of the ordinary. “Sorry. I guess it’s none of my business.”
He shrugged. “No.”
“No, it’s none of my business or…”
“I’m not married, Holly.” He glanced at her hands. “You?”
“Me? Nope.” She glanced around the aisle again. “No, no, not for me.”
His head tilted to one side.
“What I mean is, I guess I just never found the right guy?”
“I hear that.” Now it was his turn to look at everything in the aisle but her. Was he suddenly as nervous and she was?
“Well, call me,” he said.
She stared at him, unable to take her eyes from his. They were just as green as she remembered. He’d filled out. Boy did he fill out. This was no longer the gangly teenager she dated. This was a man. And what a man! She hoped she remembered to breathe.
His head tilted to the other side. “Are you okay?”
She gave him a vigorous nod. “Yes! Never better.” She plastered on a smile.
“You seem nervous,” he observed.
“Me? Nah.” But it was true. The more she took him in, the more nervous she became. Wow! Zane Brody had grown up! She didn’t know why she hadn’t noticed in church. Maybe it was because she’d been in the middle of the sanctuary and he was upfront with a lot of people between them.
“Well, I better get going,” he said. “I’m late.”
She