the unknown.
His big hand appeared in her field of vision as he reached for a bottle of shampoo. “This stuff makes me feel like an idiot,” he muttered, startling her into glancing at him.
“Shampoo?” She knit her brows together in a slight frown. “What’s hard about shampoo? Wet, lather, rinse. Don’t tell me you failed Shampoo 101.” The words popped out, and it felt as if someone else was saying them. She knew better; don’t engage with strangers—especially strangers who looked as if they could snap her neck with one hand—don’t be provocative, don’t … She knew there were more “don’ts,” more directives she should be following, but they were fraying, falling apart even as she tried to bring them to mind. She wasn’t a smart-ass; she tried to be polite to everyone, tried not to be intrusive, yet here she was busting this guy’s chops and the weird thing was … it felt almost natural.
“Passed with flying colors; I was the teacher’s pet,” he returned, his mouth quirking up on one side in a lopsided half-smile that showed he wasn’t at all offended. “But look at this.” He turned the bottle so she could see it. “ ‘Volumizing and clarifying.’ What is it, and do I need it? Will it make my hair stand straight out, and I’ll understand the universe better?”
She looked up at his dark hair, thick, straight, and slightly unruly, as if he’d combed it by dragging his fingers through it. “I don’t think you need any volumizing.” Pointing down the aisle, she said, “Besides, this is a woman’s shampoo. You need that manly man stuff down there.”
He looked where she was pointing. “What’s the difference?”
“Packaging.”
His gaze returned to her and his lips quirked again. “So I’ll still understand the universe better?”
Her heart started beating a little harder, a little faster. “No, but you’ll feel more manly while you’re not understanding it.”
The expression in his eyes changed, lit, and he laughed, kind of, a rough little chuckle as if he didn’t make the sound very often and didn’t know how to let it go. Her heart gave a funny little bump, followed by another skin-prickling chill as she abruptly realized she’d let her guard down. She had to get away from him, had to be safe, because whatever he was, was more than she could handle.
“Excuse me,” she said, turning on her heel before he could say anything else. She reached the end of the aisle as fast as she could without actually running, darted to the left, set her basket down, and headed for the door. She needed the antinausea stuff in the basket, as well as the aspirin, but taking the time to check out was more time than she had. She’d go somewhere else to get what she needed. She’d go to Walmart. She had to get away from him and she didn’t care if she made a fool of herself doing it.
Her heart was pounding as she all but sprinted across the parking lot to her car. She used the remote to unlock it just before she reached for the door, threw herself inside, and relocked the doors. Fumbling a little, she pushed the key into the ignition and started the engine.
No one followed her out of the store.
Knucklehead.
She sat for a few seconds, breathing hard, exasperated with herself. She’d panicked for no good reason, just because some big guy had made some casual conversation with her.
Maybe. Maybe that was all he’d been doing. But maybe there was more, something she didn’t understand and couldn’t remember. How could she tell the difference?
Answer: she couldn’t.
She blew out a breath. Oh, well, she needed to go to Walmart anyway, to buy a replacement for her cell phone. She’d still have to pay for her plan with her current cell server, but until she figured out what was going on, she wanted a phone that was more anonymous. Make that two phones, because she needed a burner phone—
Shit!
She didn’t have time to hum or read labels. The agony in her head made her whimper as she tried to curl into a ball, but the steering wheel was in the way and she banged her knee, hard. That helped, in a strange way, as if she could process only so much pain at one time, and this new source jerked her focus away from her head. The headache promptly began ebbing.
Her eyes were watering from the pain, but at least she hadn’t started vomiting again. She