Sachi and the other woman both finished with their clients. Once Mandaline knew they had things under control, she motioned him over without a word and led him upstairs to her apartment above the store.
“Can I get you anything to drink or eat?” she asked.
“Just some water would be nice, thank you.”
She waved him over to the sofa. A little dog approached him, tentatively at first.
He held out his hand. “Hi, Pers.”
The dog launched itself at him, practically tackling him, jumping up and hitting him squarely in the chest and excitedly whining while licking Brad’s face.
“Pers!” She hurried over with Brad’s glass of water and tried to peel the little dog off him. “I’m so sorry. He’s friendly but usually not that rude.”
“It’s okay.”
She held the dog in her arms as he whined and tried to get back to Brad. “How’d you know his name was…” She blinked and looked down at the dog. “Never mind. I know.” She set him down and he immediately returned to Brad’s lap.
She collapsed into a chair and stared at Brad. “He knows, doesn’t he?”
Brad stroked the dog’s head. “I think so.”
She stared at him for a moment. “Ellis said Julie really seemed to take a liking to you when you met her. Did that…that, did it happen between you and her, too?”
He shook his head. “No. I felt a little shock when we shook hands that day, more like a tingle, but nothing like that.”
“I felt that, a little shock, when I touched Ellis’ arm yesterday. I sometimes feel that with people, but not often. I’ve always been reluctant to develop that sense. Being an empath is enough for me to deal with. Sometimes it’s overwhelming.” She crossed her arms over her chest, her hands slowly brushing up and down her arms as if trying to ward off a chill. “What am I supposed to do with this?”
“I don’t understand.”
“This!” She threw her arms out, at him, before crossing them over her chest again. “This information. What am I supposed to do with it?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m sorry.”
She slumped back in her chair and stared at him for a few moments. He waited for her to speak again.
“Why did you tell me about Julie?”
“I needed to know I wasn’t crazy,” he quietly said. “I needed affirmation I wasn’t imagining her. I needed confirmation what she told me was true and not a figment of my imagination.”
“No, you’re not crazy. Not any crazier than the rest of us. You know stuff no one else knows or could know.” She studied him for another moment. “You said this started after your accident?”
He looked down at the dog as he stroked his fur. “I remember after my accident, in the ICU. I woke up, but I couldn’t speak. I had a breathing tube. A buddy of mine from…” He took a deep breath. “A guy from my platoon kept coming in to visit me. He’d sit with me half the night sometimes. Talk to me. He was never there when Ellis and Mom and Dad were there. I didn’t know how he could stay there for so long when no one else could. Nurses never seemed to pay him any attention.”
He shivered. “I found out later, once I was out of ICU, that he’d died a couple of days after my accident. Brain aneurism. That’s the last time I said anything about it. I’d told Ellis about it, but he said it was probably my imagination because of the medication they had me on, that I was usually unconscious in the ICU. But I wasn’t really. I was still aware. I know what I saw and heard.”
They both looked up as a loud crack of thunder split the air nearby. “Guess I’m getting wet going home,” he said. “Ellis has appointments today until seven in the office. I don’t want to bother him.”
“I’ll drive you.”
“You’re not scared of the crazy, brain-damaged ex-vet?”
She sadly smiled. “You’re one of the least scary people I’ve ever met.”
He loved her eyes. Today she’d pulled her long, brown hair into a ponytail low on the back of her head.
She cocked her head and studied him again. “Can’t lie, huh?”
He shrugged. “Sucks. Means I can’t even not hurt someone’s feelings. I’ve learned sometimes I can get away with playing semantic games or by saying something like, ‘Are you really sure you want my opinion?’ or, ‘I’d rather not say.’ But not always. Sometimes that just makes them want to know my answer even more.”
She crossed her legs in front of her. A smile creased her face. “I usually want a guy to buy me dinner before he tries to poke me on my desk.”
He burst out laughing. “I’m usually far more of a gentleman, and get to know a woman better, before I shove my tongue down her throat.”
“Then how about I let you buy me dinner and I’ll drive you home after? I can have a preliminary look at your house while I’m there.”
“Trying to keep me away from your desk?” he teased.
Her smile broadened. “You realize I’m going to think of that every time I sit down to do paperwork now, right?”
Mandaline thought Brad was a total sweetheart. As she recovered from her initial shock, she warmed to the idea of maybe getting to know him better. She tried to tell herself it had nothing to do with Julie, but she knew that was a lie.
Julie had always gently chided Mandaline about her proclamations she was giving up on love. They’d known each other since high school, and Julie’s shoulder had absorbed more than her fair share of tears throughout the years over Mandaline’s rocky and sketchy love life. Even though she’d known Julie didn’t approve of or like her ex-husband, Carl, she’d loved her friend for choosing to be supportive and available.
And when she’d finally given up and ended the marriage, and suffered through the vicious divorce her ex-in-laws financed against her, Julie had been there to help her pick up the pieces.
Keep your heart open. Believe. That had been Julie’s final message to her that afternoon, while the storm raged and halfway across the county her body was already cooling.
Had she meant about love? About Brad’s message to her? About all of it?
She didn’t know. But grieving hurt. It gave her comfort to focus on something else for a while.
Kim and Anna had both arrived to read for customers and help out in the shop. When Mandaline went downstairs to talk to Sachi about leaving, Sachi waved her hands at her. “Shoo. Get out of here. We’ve got it under control.”
“Are you sure?”
Sachi let out a sarcastic laugh, her brilliant blue eyes flashing with good humor. “Um, sending you out to dinner with a hunky dude? Duh. Get the hell out of here already.”
“Thanks.” She hugged her before dashing upstairs to change clothes and fetch Brad. She wanted to put on jeans and comfortable shoes for exploring their house.
And, yes, to put on a fresh pair of panties.
She drove them to a small, family-owned pizza parlor on the north side of town. They made it inside during a brief break in the rain and she was pleasantly surprised when he held the door open for her.
“So is this a date?” she playfully asked after they were seated and had placed their drink orders.
She loved how his cheeks filled with color. “I haven’t been on a date in a long time. I guess it’s a date. If you want it to be.”
“Ellis told me about that woman. The one who dumped you.”
He nodded but didn’t look up from his menu. “I’m my own worst enemy now, I guess.”
She reached across the table and touched his hand. No sexiness, but he looked up and met her gaze. “I’d like it to be a date. But let’s become friends and get to know each other, at the very least before I let you bend me over my desk again.”