Finding June (7 page)

Like that was going to stop me, though. While everything was yelling at me to stay away, I couldn’t help my curiosity. I needed to know what was going on in that head of his. His calm demeanor made me edgy. My mind was telling me it wasn’t natural how easy and laid back he was. Even during the crazy rushes we had at work, he still held his cool and was always there to lend a helping hand.

However, this was something different, a different emotion he was feeling, which I usually didn’t get to see at work. So, yeah, I was bit curious and I cared. Although, that didn’t answer the why part now did it?

I decided to be honest because honesty was always something I felt I could fall back on.

“I guess I’m trying to get to know you.” I answered truthfully.

“Why do you want to get to know me?” Reece asked with his eyes still turned on me. It was like he was trying to memorize me. I was slightly unnerved, but I wasn’t going to back down even if he was being stubborn and asking such hard questions.

Damn. Why
was
he asking such hard questions? Can’t a girl just get a little bit of information? When it came to Reece, I tried not to give off any mixed signals. I wasn’t ready to date, let alone get close to another guy, and I had this sinking feeling Reece could easily be a guy to get lost in.

I admit, I usually wasn’t like this, but I was realizing this was not going to be easy. Reece was going to make me work for it. What was a girl to do? I wasn’t even sure why I wanted to get to know him. I just knew my curiosity was piqued; I wanted to know what made Reece Day tick.

“I’m going to be honest with you.”

He raised an eyebrow. “That sounds interesting. I like Honest June.”

This time it was myself raising an eyebrow. “That makes me sound like a president.”

Reece leaned back and laughed, only to return to his previous position and gently take my hands into his much larger ones. His thumb made little circles on the backs of my hand, causing me to lose concentration. I was only able to focus on the feeling of his hands on mine.

I took a deep breath and glanced back up at Reece. He asked me again, “Why do you want to know me?”

The million dollar question. “I don’t know, I can’t explain it.” His hands never left mine, even with that lame answer.

“Let’s do this, okay? We’ll trade. You tell me something about your story and I’ll tell you something about mine. And we have to be honest. You said the other day that yours is in revision. Well, to me it’s all new. I’m a clean slate, you can tell me anything you want, however you want to tell it.”

A part of me wanted to tell him my whole story, every part despite whether it was good or bad. The appeal of him not knowing my past—the expectations people had of me—was intriguing … even if mine was in shambles. It was in need of a complete rewrite because everything I thought I knew about my life and my future was changing, and for the first time, I have no idea where it was going.

“Why are you holding my hands?” was apparently my first question.

This brought a small chuckle from Reece. I started to realize I could easily get used to the sound of his laugh, a warm one that could heat up any cold day. “Because I want to. When I look at you, I see a woman with all these different layers. All I want to do is unwrap each one, finding what’s underneath.”

This man should write poetry.

“I’m looking for friendship, Reece.”

“Okay.”

“A friend,” I emphasized.

“I can be your friend.”

“I don’t know if friends unwrap layers.”

Reece only gave me a sly smile and squeezed my hands before letting go to stand up and grab two more beers.

“Where were we? Oh, yes, where I have lived in the last seven years. The list is long, so be ready for it.” He was totally deflecting, but this had already been a lot to take in this afternoon so I let it slide.

“Here, I will go first,” I volunteered. “I have lived in Portland and Boise. That’s it. A city native with the heart of a country girl.”

Reece laughed as he took a sip from his beer. I smiled as he set his drink down and rested his elbows on his knees. It was like he was going to give a pep talk.

“When I said I lived here and there I wasn’t kidding. Right after school I moved to New York and worked as a bike messenger during the day, and served at one of those tiny little diners hidden away in the city at night,” Reece told me.

I raised an eyebrow. “New York? Wow, that’s pretty far. You weren’t kidding about wanting to get away.” I had never been east, except for a quick trip to the airport in New York during high school when I went on a trip to Japan. I had always stuck close to home for the most part.

“Yeah, and New York was the furthest east I have been. Since then I have steadily been moving back west. After about a year in New York I moved to Miami and took another serving job. That one only lasted about six months, and then I moved a bit more north to Michigan, where I worked in a tiny town as a construction worker. That one lasted about two years. I liked the tiny town living and work was steady.”

“P.s., Michigan is more than a bit north of Miami,” I interjected.

“Noted,” Reece replied with a smirk. “Next, I lived in Kansas, working with farmers and harvesting corn. That was again short-lived; only for six months. After my corn expedition, I moved to Colorado and lived in Denver, where I served and taught skiing lessons. About a year of that and I moved to Salt Lake, serving during the day and teaching more skiing lessons on weekends. That was where I was living before returning to Boise.”

“If I understand correctly, you have served, worked as a construction worker, a bike messenger, a farmer, and a ski instructor?” I asked, ticking each occupation off on my fingers.

“I’m a jack-of-all-trades kind of man.” Reece leaned back and put his hands behind his head. Damn, this was a nice view. His shirt rode up, allowing me to see defined muscles and a mess of dark hair leading down into his jeans. I swallowed as I thought of him being a jack-of-all-trades and wondering if it transferred into the bedroom. Ugh, totally not appropriate friend thoughts. Fail on my part.

“You okay?” Reece asked me as he narrowed his eyes to me and lowered his arms.

“Yeah …” I stammered.

“You sure? You looked really flustered there for a minute.”

Great, my thoughts of a naked Reece were written all over my face. This time I only nodded and thought back to his journey in the last seven years.

I took in the information and wondered why this man had been all over the country since high school. Usually you graduate, go to college, and get a job. That was the order of things, the accepted way of things.

“Why?” I asked.

Reece took another swig of his beer before answering. “Why did I live in all those places instead of going to school?”

“Yeah.” I copied Reece’s movements and took a swig from my own beer.

“I had my reasons. I wanted to do my own thing. Find my own way.”

His words sunk in, and for a few moments I didn’t know what to say.

“What if you get lost?” I whispered. I couldn’t look at him; instead, my eyes focused on the record player.

“Then you take in the scenery and know, eventually, you’ll find your way.”

“Did you?” This time I looked directly at him, wanting to see the hope in his answer that I would figure this all out.

“I think I’m getting pretty close to finding my home again.”

It was enough, for now, to know his story had direction.

“Eventually, you’ll find your way”

It had been a week since my crash and burn in front of Reece’s house, but his words still ran through my head. We hadn’t seen a lot of each other since we kept working opposite shifts. However, even if I wasn’t working with him, he was on my mind more than I wanted to admit. I didn’t know if it was because Jolene had encouraged me to become friends with him or because he was someone new that had no attachment to myself before I left for my summer job. So far, though, our limited interactions and conversations were rich in authenticity. Each word he spoke was strung together to create these thoughts that were like a lighthouse to my ship lost at sea. I secretly looked forward to working with him, but made sure to put a disinterested look on my face. I couldn’t help but think he was different, and that scared me.

“June, did you hear that?” I looked down and realized I had been wiping circles into the counter for the last few minutes. I had gotten lost in my thoughts, which had been happening more frequently lately.

I glanced up to Reece standing with his hands on his hips. Images of Reece’s black scripted tattoo on the inside of his arm came into my mind, giving me chills. “No, sorry. Repeat what you said?” I replied as my mind cleared.

Reece cocked his head to the side, and after a few seconds he said slowly, “That you’re phased. Looks like it’s starting to slow down, so get out of here. That way you might get a bit of a break before your shift tonight.”

I nodded my head and threw the towel back into the bucket of water.

“Hey,” Reece’s voice cut through the noise of the restaurant, “what part of your story do you want to tell me today?”

I smiled. “I hate lunch shifts. I would rather work dinner even if I do have to spend all night here.”

“What, you don’t like tables full of stuck up ladies with Diet Coke addictions?”

That was the perfect description of lunch. “And what will you be sharing with me today?” I countered.

“I enjoyed spending time with you over a couple of cold beers. Even if you were bleeding all over everything. I hope to share more drinks with you in the future.” I felt my stomach drop, a world full of butterflies attacking me. As Reece walked off, I immediately felt guilty because this was a friend thing, nothing more, but I couldn’t help that feeling of floating among the clouds and Reece Day was to blame for it. I was also blaming Jolene for putting ideas in my head.

As I started my sidework so I could go home, I thought about how Jo was trying to get me to go out and bar hop tonight. Most people went out on the weekends, but servers went out whenever they could. Hell, usually it was going out after each shift to wind down after the stress-fest a shift could bring. But I was riding the lame train and usually went home after work. When I was with Owen it was because I thought I was past the ‘go out every night’ stage, and now it was because I didn’t feel up to being pawed at a bar by the lonely of Boise. Jolene was more of a shining light in that group because she loved being the center of attention and was content with how her life was. Jolene and I had bonded over our ability to speak our mind and how we were both comfortable in our own skins.

Well, at least I thought I was. I was now realizing I had been spending the majority of the last three years pleasing everyone except for myself, and I had lost who I was along the way. Hell, at the young age of twenty I didn’t even know who I was and never had a chance to figure it out. Now I had time, and while it was scary as fuck to not really have a direction, I wouldn’t let that stop me. For a brief moment, I had a surge of confidence.

I was putting my coat on to leave when I heard Reece behind me. “Hey June.” His smooth, deep voice made me think of the sound of it in my ear as he whispered sweet nothings. I turned around, trying to hide the heat rushing up my neck that I was sure was becoming quite apparent. I had no idea why something as simple as his voice had that affect on me, especially since I had heard it all morning.

I was seriously losing it.

With a heart stopping smile I was starting to love and hate, Reece asked, “Look, I have tomorrow night off and I saw you do, too. I was wondering if you wanted to grab dinner?”

“No,” I replied.

“Wow. That was the fastest rejection I have ever had,” Reece said as he crossed his arms over his chest. I was also surprised by how fast I had turned him down, especially with all the thoughts about him that had been in my mind today, mostly running toward the naughty side. I held my ground though. I wasn’t going to let another man veer me off the path of finding myself. I wanted to be friends, but going out to dinner would be a slippery slope.