Read Online A Small-Town Reunion by Terry McLaughlin - Free Book Online Page A

you’re all set.”
    “That chore can wait until tomorrow.” She checked her watch before flipping the sign in her shop door to Closed. “Another day closer to retirement.”
    Mick stooped to toss wood scraps into the box Addie handed to him. “What do you think you’ll do when that day comes?”
    “Probably the same things I do now,” she said as she swept sawdust into a pan. “Only I’ll be retired, so they’ll be just for fun.”
    “That’s a nice way of looking at it. You’re a ray of sunshine, aren’t you?” He stepped closer, and ran a fingertip down the side of her face. “I sure do like that about you, Addie.”
    She forced herself to stand very still, to appreciate his touch and absorb the sweetness of his gesture. “What will you do when you retire?” she asked.
    “Settle some place where the summers are long and warm and I can get season tickets to the local ballpark.Going to sit in the stands on game nights and out on my front porch on the nights in between.”
    “Sounds wonderful.”
    He lowered his gaze to his boots and scrubbed one toe over a crack in her concrete floor. “Coming to the game tonight?”
    She was careful to keep her smile in place as she moved away to put the broom back in its place. “Going to leave a ticket for me at the gate?”
    “Going to have a drink with me after the game if I do?”
    “Going to hit a home run for me if I say yes?”
    “Now darlin’,” he said with a put-upon sigh, “you know I can’t deliver one of those babies every game.”
    “I’m not asking about every game.” She closed her cash box and locked it away in a file drawer. “Just the ones I come to watch.”
    “Then it’s a good thing you don’t travel with the team.”
    He coiled the extension cord he’d brought and dumped it into the box with his tools. “Are you sure you don’t want me to add a little piece of trim to the front edges of those shelves and dividers? It wouldn’t—”
    “I can’t afford anything fancy. And no,” she said, holding up a hand to halt the argument she knew was coming, “you’re not going to toss it in for free. You’ve already spent way more time on this than I’d figured. I can’t take advantage of your generosity like that.”
    “You don’t seem to mind taking my free game passes,” he said with a wink. “Of course, I don’t mind handing them out to such a pretty fan.”
    “I am a fan.” She walked willingly into the arms he’dspread wide and wrapped her arms around his waist. “And it’s not just ’cause you’re a terrific ballplayer.”
    “I’m a mighty terrific carpenter, too.”
    “Yes, you are.” She rested the side of her face against his warm T-shirt, listening to the strong, steady beat of his heart. “And a fine human being.”
    Beneath her cheek, his chest raised and lowered on a long sigh. And then he lifted a hand and softly stroked her hair. “I’m not usually one to find fault with such a nicely phrased compliment, but when a woman starts lumping me in with humanity in general, I have to wonder if I’ve slipped a couple of notches in her list of priorities.”
    Addie stilled. “I don’t know what to say.”
    “You know, my daddy has a saying for just about every situation you could name. Right about now he’d probably say, ‘You can put your boots in the oven, but that don’t make ’em biscuits.’”
    She laughed and drew away, gazing up at Mick’s smiling face. “I love your Texas sayings.”
    “But not the man saying them. It’s all right, Addie girl.” He gently grabbed her arms when she tried to pull out of his. “I figured this talk’s been coming on for quite some time now. I knew it for sure when I saw you with Dev Chandler.”
    Mick released her, and she backed away, shaking her head in denial. “You said yourself I don’t like him much.”
    “No, I asked you how you feel about him.”
    “And I told you he brings out the worst in me.”
    “Ever ask yourself why that