“It’s just on the edge of town.”
Mom jumped right back into action. “Oh, why don’t you ride with him, Katie? I’m sure someone can get your truck home for you. You wouldn’t want him getting lost, now, would you ?” There she went, emphasizing words again. This time, I was fairly sure she was telling me not to let this one out of my sight, ever.
Owen didn’t need any encouraging to get out of the store. As we settled into his rental car, he said, “I see you moved to New York for the peace and quiet.”
I laughed, and the strange tension between us eased. “I’ve missed you,” I said. I might have hugged him, but he was driving and I had the strangest fear that he’d dissolve into a magical mist if I broke the spell by touching him.
“Which way do I go?”
I directed him back through town toward our house, trying not to feel stung by the way he’d ignored what I’d said. “You’re probably going to regret staying with us. You’d have been much safer, and you’d have had more privacy to work if you’d gotten a room at the motel.”
“It didn’t sound like I had much of a choice.”
“No, you probably didn’t. She might have kidnapped you from the motel. Then again, it might not have been such a good idea to give her any sense that we might be involved.”
“How else were you going to explain me being here? It doesn’t look like there’s much to do here on business, and it’s not a tourist center. The only reasonable explanation for my presence is if I’m your boyfriend.”
It was the first time he’d ever used the b-word with me, but it wasn’t the best context for it. This was definitely not the way I’d imagined our reunion. Of course, I’d tended to picture us running toward each other across a flower-dotted mountain meadow or him walking into the store, sweeping me off my feet and carrying me away, so my ideas of the reunion were highly unlikely. Still, even my sanest, most rational versions of the reunion fantasy had been nothing like this. I’d been rather partial to the one where I secretly went back to New York, then showed up at a meeting at work as though nothing had happened, much to his shock and delight.
I’d had a lot of time for daydreaming over the past few months, and I’d spent it well.
“Okay,” I said, nodding as though we were agreeing on a business deal. “You’re my boyfriend here to visit me from New York. How do we explain the fact that I’ve never said anything about you?”