Fourteen
When she got to the store the next morning, Cate and Jason were already there, huddled behind the counter with their heads together. When she opened the door, ringing the bell, they jumped up guiltily. "Well!" Cate said. "What happened here last night? When I got here all the lights were on, and your stuff was still in the office, and Sophie was starving to death!"
"Oh, right, I'm sure she was starving to death. Were you starving to death, Soph?" Sarah scooped Sophie up in her arms as she walked through the store into the office. "Ooh, yes, I believe I can feel your ribs!" She plopped Sophie into the chair in the corner. "I assume you fed her?" she asked.
"Oh, yes, we fed her." Cate and Jason were standing in the office doorway, Cate with her arms folded and Jason peering over her shoulder.
"C'mon, give," Cate demanded. "What happened? Where did you go? We thought maybe you'd been kidnapped, or robbed, or something, but the door was locked so . . ."
"Nothing happened." Sarah busied herself in her top desk drawer, rearranging the paperclips and pencils. "I just . . . left in a little bit of a hurry, that's all, and then it was late, and I figured since I had locked the door, everything would be okay until this morning. And it was, wasn't it?" She looked up defiantly.
She had intended to come back last night. She and Zach had walked for a long way along the beach, until she was so tired she was stumbling. It had been a very exciting (and emotional) night. When they turned back, he had taken off his coat and placed it around her shoulders, and she walked back to her house enveloped in his warmth.
He had left her at her porch again, but this time he had kissed her, just a soft brush against her cheek, and when she had opened the door, Dinah had startled her by rushing out and all but jumping into Zach's arms. Sarah had shrugged out of his coat and handed it to him as he handed over Dinah to her.
"I can't believe that!" she said. "Dinah's never friendly to strangers!"
When he handed her to Sarah, Dinah was purring. "Oh, Dinah and I are old friends, aren't we, Dinah?" he asked the cat, and Dinah responded by bumping her hand with her head.
"All right," Sarah laughed, "I'll leave that explanation for another time. Goodnight, Zach."
"Goodnight, Sarah," he had said, and, "Sleep well."
"Earth to Sarah." Jason interrupted her reverie.
"I'll tell you all about it, but not right now, okay?"
"Ooooo-kay." Jason rolled his eyes at Cate as he walked back out into the store, and mouthed, Find out! at her. She nodded.
Sarah still had her head down and was fiddling with something in the drawer; Cate picked up Sophie and sat down in the chair with Sophie in her lap. Finally, Sarah looked up. "What?" she asked, trying to sound annoyed, but with a smile starting on her lips that she couldn't suppress.
"Tell. I'm not leaving until you do."
"Well . . . I met this guy."
"Uh huh. Go on."
"The guy from the other night." Cate nodded, and Sarah continued. "Well, I mean that's not when I met him, I met him a few weeks ago. I thought he was stalking me, but then he disappeared for awhile, and then the other night when I stopped in at Mahoney's for dinner, he was there, and he bought me dinner, and then I ran into him again last night and . . . well, you saw."
© 2002 Willa G. Cline