The Bookmine
By Kadi
Rated K+
Disclaimer: This is not my sandbox, but I do love playing in it!
A/N: Written for the #MCHiatusChallenge - Week 2. I was inspired by all of the "book store" & "coffee shop" art that I have been seeing… but it is also baseball season. Enjoy!
The first time he went into that bookstore it was just on the off chance that he might find something to help out one of his boys. He didn't actually pick that particular store, he just happened to be walking along the sidewalk, returning to his truck, when a display in the window caught his eye. It was for a book that his daughter had mentioned wanting to get for her stepsons. He remembered thinking that he should let Nicole know that the book was already released, and then his mind had wandered, and he found himself questioning whether or not the answer to his problems could be found inside that store. He took a chance on it, because really, what did he stand to lose besides half an hour spent browsing? Nothing at all, and he ended up finding a lot more than he ever imagined.
Andy Flynn was not a man who believed in fate. He didn't much care for coincidences either. Life was what you made of it, and it could go well or badly depending on how much effort you put into it. That was the same thing that he tried to teach his boys, whether it stuck or not, he couldn't say, but he tried.
His boys.
Every year he got a new crop as upper classmen graduated and freshmen cycled in to the program. Such was the life for someone who had chosen to work at a Junior College. Andy had been coaching baseball at that level for just over fifteen years. It was an opportunity that had shown up just when he needed it. It had given him a new career, but it had also saved his life.
Coaching was not something that he had ever aspired to, but he settled in to it after a couple of years and realized that it wasn't just a job. It gave him a chance to help other guys avoid some of the mistakes that he made, to give back while still being part of something that he loved.
There was something very quaint about the little bookshop that he stepped into. Andy wasn't sure if it was the ringing bell over the door, the smell that permeated the interior, or the way that every wall seemed lined with shelves, but he felt as if he had stepped into something different and special. He looked around as he entered; there were a couple of displays near the front of the shop, they depicted popular titles that he recognized from media outlets, although he wasn't that big of a reader himself. There was a freestanding shelf near the main counter that sported a sign promising a selection of New York Best Sellers. What drew his attention, though, were the way the shelves in the store seemed to be near to bursting. Even those that lined the middle of the store seemed to be filled with a number of titles. There were stacks of books at the end of each shelf, and at first glance it might look cluttered, but it was the farthest description from his mind.
It was cozy.
Drawn by the sound of the bell, a woman appeared through an open door behind the main counter. She was carrying a stack of books that she set on the end of the counter before greeting him with a smile. "Hello," the low tones of her voice were warm and welcoming. "Welcome to the Bookmine. Can I help you find something?"
"Just looking around." His response was automatic, but his gaze didn't leave her right away. They were drawn, as they always were when he encountered an attractive woman, to her legs. His gaze swept over her quickly, even as he turned to take in the shelves and the signs above them that indicated their genre. Shapely legs and a pair of strappy, wedge sandals. He had quite an appreciation for the skirt that was dancing playfully around those legs. Even if he didn't find what he needed in the store, it wouldn't be a completely wasted trip, Andy thought.
Self Help or Social Sciences, he had no idea which section he needed. He grimaced quietly as he walked toward the former, since it was closer. He usually hated browsing through those books. It set his teeth on edge and made him sigh.
She watched the man as he seemed to move, quite grudgingly, toward one of the middle sections of her store. Sharon Raydor arched a brow as she lifted the stack of books that she brought from the back again and moved to an empty front display to begin arranging them. Everything about the way he moved spoke of a man who wanted to be anywhere but where he currently stood. Her head tilted and a smile played at her lips. She knew his type. They came in looking for something specific, but didn't want to admit it. Far too macho to ask for help, so they would browse for a while, ill at ease and trying to avoid the inevitable. Sharon wondered what his particular quest was?
He was good looking, but older. There was still some dark peppered through his hair, but it was mostly silver, not that she found anything wrong with that. He wore a sport coat over a t-shirt and a pair of jeans, all of which appeared to fit him well. She would even go so far as to say that he was attractive. In her experience, that usually did not mean anything. He had gone directly to the Self Help section, which could indicate that he was looking for something to spruce up his middle life existence. It could be as simple as figuring out how to date after fifty to needing help in the bedroom.
Sharon folded her lips together to hide a smile and shook her head. She left him alone while she arranged the display. Her son was probably going to rearrange it later, but they would see about that. This was for his favorite author and series of books, after all. Sharon waited until she heard the fifth sigh and a low grumble before she stepped back and angled a look toward the man who was now scowling at her bookshelves. The corners of her mouth twitched but she controlled her expression. She smoothed her hands down over her skirt and strolled toward him.
He had a hand braced against the top shelf. He was leaning forward slightly, eyes narrowed as he read through titles. Sharon arched a brow at the pose. Her lips pursed for just a moment as she clasped her hands in front of her. Yes, definitely attractive. "Are you sure that there is nothing that I can help you find?" She kept her tone low, and when his scowl swung toward her, she offered a warm, understanding smile.
She moved closer and it was her perfume that caught his attention first, floral, expensive if he guessed correctly, but subtle. It seemed to suit her. Her hair fell in soft layers around her face and shoulders, brown, but with red and gold highlights. Her eyes crinkled at the corners when she smiled at him, and behind the lenses of her glasses, he noticed that they were the oddest shade of green that he had ever seen before. It reminded him of driving up the coast after a storm. Sea swept, he thought. The sound of her voice seemed to settle him, he realized. There was an itching between his shoulder blades as he stood there. He could feel his frustration rising. When she spoke it began to slide away.
Andy straightened. He scratched his thumb across his forehead and waved his other hand at the shelves in front of him. "I'm looking for a book for one of my boys." He made a helpless gesture with his hands before letting them drop. "I just don't know exactly what he needs."
Sharon's lips pursed again and she shifted where she stood. "You seem to think that he needs help?" Usually they needed something for a friend, so this was certainly new. "Is your son having trouble in school? Does he need help meeting friends?" She questioned carefully, wanting to draw him toward what he was actually looking for, and not what he might want her to believe that he needed.
A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. Andy shook his head at her. "No." He cocked his head as he watched her. She was looking at him carefully, almost knowingly. Like she knew what he was going to say, or what he might be looking around for. "My son did okay in school, and he's never had problems meeting girls, or friends," he added. His dark eyes sparkled at her. "Nah, this one is for one my players. I coach," he added by way of an explanation.
"I see." Now she was curious. Behind her glasses her eyes narrowed a bit. She was trying to get a better read on him. He had a nice grin, something that she noticed immediately. He was amused by her, and she decided to let that play out. "Well then, Coach," she crossed her arms over her chest and shook her hair back. "What is it that your star player needs? If his grades are good and he doesn't have any problems with the ladies, perhaps there's something going on in another area of his life?"
Now she was toying with him. Andy chuckled quietly. He shook his head and looked down for a moment. "I wish it was that easy." He placed his hand against the top shelf again and gave his head another shake. "No." Andy took a moment to look at her, the way that her eyes sparkled and her mouth almost turned up into a smile. He would almost bet that it was a great one. He sighed as his own smile melted away. His brows drew together into a frown and his eyes dimmed a bit. "Matt is my second base guy. He lost his parents last year, both of them, in a pileup out on the freeway. He's a good kid, but he's still having a hard time. Hell, he's only nineteen. I've talked to him, his family has talked to him, but he's struggling. The kid used to have an A average, now he's barely passing. He's moody most of the time, and when he's on the field, it's like he barely gives a damn anymore."
Her first response was surprise. She had read him completely wrong. It was quickly replaced by sympathy. As she watched him talk about his player, he ran his hand through his hair. He was very upset about the young man. Not the boy's ability to play for him, but the young man himself. Here he was, a bit out of his element, trying to find a way to help the boy; there was something very touching about that. The smile that had faded when he began his tale reappeared. It was softer, gentler this time. Sharon didn't know why, but she reached out and laid a hand on his arm. "I think I have an idea."
The lower inflection of her voice moved through him. Once again he felt himself calming. When she turned and walked away, Andy followed her. He watched the way she moved, rounding shelves and striding purposefully toward her destination. There was something graceful about it. She pivoted on those wedge sandals, but he was too busy concentrating on her to appreciate the way the muscles in her legs flexed. When she reached a shelf in the back and stopped, Andy stopped beside her. She pulled a book forward and held it out to him. His brows drew together. He read the cover quickly as he accepted it.
Remember the Dragonflies
Sharon watched him turn it over in his hands. He was already reading the back. She smiled gently. "It was written by a woman who lost her husband, and then her mother, but she has to go on a personal journey through her grief to reach a place where she is living on the other side of it. The point is that she realizes, ultimately, that she is living. I found it on the shelf a few years ago when my father died. It helped. It explained a lot of what I was feeling that I didn't realize that I was feeling. When we lose someone at our age, we think that is just the way that life is meant to happen. We are not really prepared for the grieving process, or the healing. Nothing prepares us to move through life without someone we love, and we all experience grief differently, but the point is that we feel it." She touched his hand again as he stared at her. "Matt may be struggling right now, but I am sure that he will surface soon. He may always be a little changed, losing his parents was sudden and tragic, but he will get through this."
He didn't know her. They had never exchanged words before. Hell, he had never even laid eyes on her, but she spoke to him like she knew him. She spoke to him like she knew Matt. Andy held the book in his hands. He didn't know that it would help. Matt didn't really strike him as the reading type, but he would give it a try. That was why he had come in there, wasn't it? To find something to help that young man, "We'll try it." Andy held the book up. "Something is better than nothing right?"
"That's right." She held his gaze for just a moment and smiled. Suddenly, without warning, she felt a little uncomfortable. They were staring at one another, and the moment felt entirely too intimate for a pair of strangers that had not even exchanged names. Sharon turned away from him and walked toward the front of the store. "Was that all that you needed?"
He had watched her cheeks flush a light shade of pink before she turned. She was suddenly flustered and he wasn't sure why. Andy strolled along behind her at a more leisurely pace. He watched her fidget with her hands and tug on the hem of her sweater. He grinned crookedly. He tapped the book against his thigh and cocked his head. "First dates after fifty," he teased. "Got anything that helps make those less awkward?"
He was teasing her. Sharon rounded the counter and looked at him over the rims of her glasses. "I have a copy of Dating For Dummies if you think that will help," she drawled.
Andy placed the book on the counter beside the register and leaned forward. "I don't know, you don't seem all that dumb to me." He flashed his most winsome smile. When she laughed, it broadened. It was a good sound, musical. He realized he was right about her smile. It lit up her face and made her eyes sparkle. They turned a deeper shade of green. Her skin flushed again, but it was glowing. "If you think it will help…"
She rubbed her lips together. Sharon shook her head slowly. "You know, maybe I should get that for you." She gave him a knowing look as she scanned and packaged the book. "I believe that it is right next to my copy of Avoiding Troublemakers and Pitfalls of Dating."
"I didn't think that you would be trouble." Andy dug his wallet out of his back pocket and slid his card out of it. He handed it over to her before she even gave him an amount. What the book cost didn't matter. He continued to grin crookedly at her. "It just goes to show, it's always the quiet ones."
"Assumptive." She swept the card through the reader and passed it back. When their fingers brushed, her skin tingled. Her lips pursed. "What makes you think that I am at all quiet, Mr…." She paused here and raised her brows at him. She had no idea at all what his name was.
"Flynn." He shifted where he leaned against the counter. His eyes swept over her. "My friends call me Andy." He paused for a moment. His dark eyes sparkled teasingly. "You can call me Coach."
She laughed again. He was the devil in disguise and laying it on a little thick. Sharon shook her head as she tore his receipt and the credit card slip off and placed them in front of him. "I am going to need your signature, please."
Her tone had gone throaty. He liked it. Andy took the pen that she handed him and quickly scrawled his name. "How about coffee?" He continued to grin at her. "Maybe you'll tell me your name, and I'll decide if we can graduate you from titles."
"I…" It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him that she couldn't. She had the store to look after. She wanted to spend a little more time with him, Sharon realized. Coffee wasn't a bad idea; it was a nice, casual way for them to continue talking. At the same time, she didn't know him at all, but that didn't feel like a deterrent. Before she could utter another sound the bell over the door rang. She looked toward it. Right on cue her son had arrived. He was a little early, and she wondered if his last class had ended before it should or if he had skipped it. Sharon decided that she would worry about that later. She blinked once and looked back at the man who was waiting for an answer. "How about now?"
He glanced at the kid, watched him walk across the front of the store and drop his bag on a chair behind the counter. "Presumptive," he fired back at her with a grin. He didn't know what it would take for her to do a quick shift change, so he jerked his head toward the door. "How about that place on the corner?" There was a small coffee shop within half a block, perfect walking distance. I'm going to toss this into my car," he indicated the book.
"I'll just wrap up here," she said. "It will only take a minute or two." She would bring Rusty up to speed on the morning's deliveries and where they stood with the afternoon orders. She felt her stomach flutter with anticipation. How long had it been since she felt that?
"Take your time." Andy pushed away from the counter. His grin softened into a pleasant smile. "I'll wait for you."
Rusty watched the exchange. Once the man was gone he gave his mother a careful look. "Who was it that told me, two days ago, not to flirt with the customers?" His brow arched. He smirked at her. "Was that you, or some other woman?"
"I do not know what you are talking about." Sharon turned on her heel and walked into the stock room to get her purse. "I do not flirt," she said primly, but the effort to contain her smile was difficult. "I also believe that what I said to you was to keep the flirting at a minimum when we have three customers waiting in line." She flashed a knowing look at him. "You can hand out your number to the cute boys when there are not other people waiting to be helped."
"Yes, yes, yes…" Rusty rolled his eyes at her. "Work on my timing. I got it."
"Good." She flashed a smile at him. "Now then…"
Sharon didn't have much to tell him. It only took her a couple of minutes to fill him in on what she had done that morning and what she needed from him during the afternoon hours. She felt a sudden flurry of nervous energy sweep over her as she left the bookshop and made her way down the street. Her eyes landed on her date almost immediately. He was leaning against the hood of a truck with his hands tucked into his pockets. She smiled as she approached. He pushed away from the truck and stepped back up onto the sidewalk. "You could have waited at the coffee shop," she told him, but was pleased that he hadn't.
"Could have." Andy fell into step beside her. "But then I would lose the five extra minutes trying to get you to tell me your name. It's all part of a bigger plot," he told her. "You should know all about plots, you work in a book store."
"Hm." She hummed thoughtfully. "Yes, I should. Come to think of it, since I own that bookstore," her eyes danced with amusement, "I should be very well versed in the subject." It was a mild day, and she was glad for that. The breeze wasn't quite as cool as it had been that morning, but the sun was bright. She had to squint when she looked up at him. "Sharon," she told him. "My name is Sharon."
"Sharon," he repeated it, let it roll off his tongue and found he liked the way it sounded and felt. He cast a sideways grin at her. "You can still call me Coach."
She laughed at him again. "What does a lady have to do to earn the right to use your name?" Her brow arched. "You are awfully formal for a guy who asked a woman to have a drink with him before even knowing her name," she teased.
"Well here's the thing," he explained, and his words rumbled quietly between them, "it's all going to depend on how you take your coffee. It's a test."
"Oh, I see," she said quietly, in a slightly breathy tone. Her lashes fluttered and she looked up at him, only to simper playfully, "I do hope that I don't disappoint you."
For some reason his first thought was that she couldn't. Andy just winked at her, however. "I guess we are about to find out."
He held the door for her as they entered the coffee shop. It wasn't terribly crowded for midday. They only had to wait in line for a few minutes, but once they had their drinks they were able to find a table in a quiet corner. Sharon smiled when he held her chair for her. Subtle gestures, like holding the door and deferring to her when the barista had taken their orders; he wasn't smothering her in gentlemanly gestures, they seemed to have come naturally to him. Sharon filed that away for later musing.
She tilted her head at him when they were finally seated. "Well? How did I do?"
"Cheated." Andy grinned at her from across the table. She had ordered a tea, a softly fragrant herbal mix. Somehow, he wasn't surprised. "I've decided to let it go, though. You may call me Andy."
She placed a hand against her chest and gave an exaggerated exclamation. "Oh. Finally!" Her lashes fluttered again and then she laughed. She held the tall, disposable cup between her hands while her smile softened. "So tell me, Andy, how long have you been coaching? Baseball, right? From what you said earlier about bases."
"Yeah." He turned his coffee in his hand and grinned at her. "I've been doing that for a while now. I coach over at LA City College. I guess I've been there about fifteen, almost sixteen years." He shrugged and turned his attention on her. "What about you?"
"Hm." She took a sip of her tea. "We've had the store for several years now. I suppose that you could say it fell into my lap. It has been an interesting adventure, but a rewarding one."
His brows rose. He leaned forward against the table. "You didn't always want to own a book store? What did you do before?" He was curious now; she had seemed so at ease moving between those stacks.
"If I did, I wasn't aware of it." Sharon smiled back at him. She leaned back in her seat and crossed her legs. "I was a lawyer," she explained. "It just never really felt as rewarding as the bookstore has been. It was not a bad way to make a living, but there is only so much lying and fighting that one person can take in their lives before they have to step away. I didn't have the stomach for criminal law so I chose Civil Rights. The bookstore was actually an investment. A friend of mine was opening it and I was only meant to be a silent partner."
Andy wasn't sure that he ever would have pegged her as a lawyer. He watched as she looked away for a moment, seeming to gather her thoughts, but not lost in them. "I guess the silent part of the arrangement didn't work out so great?"
She laughed again. "No, I guess not. As we were putting it together, we both realized that it wasn't for her. I, on the other hand, fell in love with it. So after the first year, I bought her out, and now it's mine. I left my law practice and didn't look back. I have no regrets, especially as it has meant that I have more time for my kids."
"Kids?" he grinned at that. The way her eyes lit at the mention of them warmed him through. "Don't tell me that I have to worry that some guy is going to bust in here and knock me around for hitting on his wife?"
"Lame." Sharon laughed at him. "That was the worst segue into asking if I am single that I have ever heard." Her eyes were twinkling happily, however. "Divorced," she answered before he could continue. She watched him shift in his seat. His ears turned red and her smile widened. She had managed to fluster him, and it was quite adorable. "Yes, I have kids," she continued, "three of them, actually. You just encountered the youngest," she nodded her head in the direction of the bookstore. "That was my Rusty. He works in the store."
Andy shook his head at her. "I would never have guessed that you've got grown kids." He wagged his brows at her and grinned crookedly. "Was that better?"
"Marginally." She leaned forward and rested her elbow on the table. She tucked her chin into her hand. "What about you, Coach Andy. I do not see a ring, but I have learned that hardly matters at all. Any wives that I should worry about?"
"Nope." He mimicked her pose. "She got rid of me a long time ago. Vicki has been remarried for about fourteen years. She doesn't care enough to be jealous over who I spend time with. You're safe."
"Hm." She filed that away too for later pondering. "You mentioned a son, any other children?" Sharon had the pleasure of watching his eyes light up. She realized that there were gold flecks in their brown depths. They seemed to come alive. His eyes crinkled with his smile. It was bright and open. Filled with joy. "I guess that is a yes?"
"Vicki and I had a couple. Charlie and Nicole. My daughter lives in the city, but Charlie is up in Sacramento. I don't see him as much as I'd like, but I guess that's the price we pay when our kids grow up. They're both good kids, though. Nicole has a couple of boys, stepsons. I'm trying to teach them baseball, but all they want to talk about is ballet."
"Really?" She smiled at that. "My daughter is a dancer. Emily is in New York. I understand what you mean about being away from them. She's with a ballet company there. I could not be more proud of her, but it has never been easy to have her so far away."
"You said you have three." Andy tilted his head at her. "What about the other one?" He took a drink of his coffee but his gaze never left her. The color of her eyes changed with her mood, he was learning. Talking of her kids made them more vibrant. He wondered how many different shades they could turn and what it would take to prompt the shifts in her mood that seemed to affect them.
"Ricky." Sharon smiled warmly. "That would be my little computer engineer." She laughed as she said it. Ricky was anything but small. He was as tall as her brothers and all of the men on her side of the family. At his questioning look, she waved a hand through the air. "Ricky started towering over me around the age of thirteen. He did not stop growing until he was almost twenty. He's hardly little. He lives in Palo Alto, he and a couple of his fraternity brothers started a software company right after graduation. They are doing very well. "
"So that brings us back around to…" He paused for a moment, "Rusty, right? The youngest? He still in school, or?"
"Yes. Both of my older children moved away when they went to school, but Rusty lives with me. He is going to UCLA, and, well…" She shrugged. It was a long story. "Neither of us is ready for him to move away yet. I haven't had him long enough. Rusty is adopted," she explained. "He only came to me a few years ago."
Her eyes clouded just a bit. Andy leaned closer, concerned now at the slightly downward shift that her mood had taken. "That sounds like it might be quite a story."
"Hm, and probably not one for a coffee date," she said with a smile. Sharon looked down and focused on her tea. "What about you? Was coaching something that you always wanted to do?"
She had grown uncomfortable. Andy leaned back slightly. "It never crossed my mind before I got this gig. It saved my life, though. So I've got no regrets." He watched her brows climb. He could see the question in her eyes but he also saw the hesitation. It was probably much too heavy for a coffee shop date with a woman he just met, but in this Andy had no hesitation, and he had no shame. It was who he was, and while he was ashamed of the man he used to be and the mistakes that he made, he accepted his life as it was now. "I used to play ball," he told her. "I bounced around to a couple of ball clubs early in my career, but I found a home with the Giants. I was a catcher, and not a half bad one," he admitted. "My problem wasn't what happened on the field, it was what I did off of it." Andy looked right at her. He held her gaze for just a moment before saying, "I'm an alcoholic. I've been sober for about seventeen years."
That was something that she knew a little bit about. She almost felt disappointed, and wondered that it was her lot in life to be surrounded by addiction in one form or another. He spoke so easily about it, however. He didn't avoid her gaze or make grand declarations. That was not something that she was accustomed to. Sharon found herself leaning forward. "What happened?" She spoke quietly, almost gently.
"What usually happens when you're on the highway to hell," Andy admitted with a shrug. "Crash and burn. I got wasted one night and wrapped my car around a telephone pole. I was lucky that I lived, hell, I was lucky that all I took out was the pole. I screwed up my knee, my team dropped me, and I went to rehab as part of my sentence, ninety days and a DWI. I was damned lucky, but it didn't feel like it at the time. When I got out of rehab, and after I did all the physical therapy, there wasn't a team in either league that would touch me. I couldn't move fast enough anymore, and I was a risk. My wife left me, and she took the kids, and most of what I had in the divorce. I was close to falling off the wagon again, but then a buddy of mine decided to take a chance. We had played together in school, I went into the league and he started teaching." Andy shook his head, chuckled quietly. "He was head of the Athletic Department at LACC. He offered me a job as a base coach. I didn't think I'd like it. Hell, I thought that I was going to hate it, but it wasn't bad. A few years later, I became head coach. I never looked back, I just took one day at a time."
She reached out and laid her hand over his. He spoke so openly, so candidly about his history. Sharon had been lied to and manipulated so many times in the past; she appreciated it more than he could know. He didn't know her, and he had no reason to use it to make an impression on her. She believed him, every word that he spoke, and could not explain why she felt a sense of pride in the fact that he had picked himself up and became the kind of man who would step into a bookstore, and go out of his way, for one of his students. "My ex-husband was…is," she corrected, "an alcoholic. He has fallen back into addiction more times than I can count and in various ways. I know exactly what you mean about crashing and burning. Rusty's mother…" She sighed. "His biological mother," she continued, "is a drug addict. She abandoned him when he was fifteen, but he was in and out of foster care before that." Her heart contracted and her stomach clenched. "I found him rooting through the dumpster behind the shop a few years ago. He was looking for anything that he could sell or pawn for the money to buy something to eat. He wouldn't come inside the shop and I couldn't get him to go home with me. He was too wary of adults. So I gave him my bracelet. I never expected to see him again, but he came back a few weeks later. He asked if he could sweep the floor to pay me back for the bracelet. He was cleaner, and his clothes were fairly new. I found out later that he used the money from the bracelet to buy food and a change of clothes; it got him a few nights at a hostel so that he could take a shower. I hired him to stock my shelves and clean up around the store. He came in twice a week for almost a month before I talked him into going home with me. He never left. His biological mother has been in and out of our lives. She's been in and out of jail and rehab. He wants to believe that she can do better, but he has learned the hard way that it will probably never happen."
"In the meantime," Andy said quietly, "he has you." At some point during her story he had turned his hand over beneath hers. His thumb stroked the top of her hand.
"He has me," she repeated. "I adopted him a couple of years ago. He will always have me. It sounds to me," Sharon continued, "that you are right. You got lucky. When your wakeup call came, you listened to it. Not everyone is that smart, or wants that badly to be better."
"Yeah." He encountered a lot of them at his meetings and in his groups. Some guys wanted to work the program; others were using it and trying to manipulate it. "So," he shrugged at her, "now that we've completely blown all the coffee date rules right to hell, and you know most of my dark and dirty secrets, what are you going to do if I ask for your number?"
"That is a very good question." Sharon placed her chin in her hand again. Her lips pursed thoughtfully. Their conversation had taken a decidedly serious turn. She didn't feel exactly bad about that. Talking to him was easy. "I think that you are going to just have to do it and find out. You already know where I work," she pointed out with a smile.
"I do." He seemed to consider. "Let's say I ask, does that mean that you would go out with me?"
Her eyes sparkled. "I am already out with you."
Andy grinned at her. "Yeah, but I think we both know that I was talking about going out again, troublemaker."
"Well…" Sharon reached into her purse for a pen. She wrote a number down on a napkin and slid it toward him. "If you ask, I will think about it." She lifted her tea and pulled her purse onto her shoulder as she stood. "I should get back to the store. I promised Rusty that I would help with the afternoon orders."
He glanced at his watch. They had been there for quite some time, longer than he thought. As he stood up, he lifted the napkin and carefully folded it. "I'm going to ask you out to dinner," he told her.
A smile curved her lips. "I am probably going to say yes," she told him. "So try not to wait too long." She smiled as she walked around him and strode toward the exit. Sharon laughed when the phone in her purse began to ring before she had barely made it to the sidewalk. "Yes?" She answered, and drew the syllable out playfully.
"How about tonight?"
Sharon shook her head as she walked. "You are being assumptive again. I could have plans this evening."
"Tomorrow night then." Andy grinned. He had watched her walk by the coffee shop's windows as he dialed. Now he stepped outside the building and watched as she moved down the sidewalk, away from him.
"Persistent," she teased.
"Interested," he replied. "Is this how you probably say yes? Here I am, taking a chance…" He sighed, but he was teasing her.
Sharon laughed at him. She stopped in front of the bookstore and looked back. She could see him, and he wasn't so far away that she couldn't make out the crooked grin that had made her stomach flutter earlier. "I really do have plans tonight," she told him, "and tomorrow is Rusty's birthday. How about Tuesday evening?"
"My boys have a game." Andy pouted a bit. "Wednesday?"
Sharon felt like chuckling again. "How about I come to your game and you can take me to dinner after? Maybe I can meet Matt."
His face lit up, despite the fact that she was too far away to see it. Andy grinned widely. "That's a date."
"Yes it is." Her hand rested against the door to the bookstore. "I will see you then, Andy."
"Wait…" Andy had just a moment of doubt. "Are you sure? It's a college baseball game. We can do Wednesday night, if you would rather…"
She rubbed her lips together and hummed thoughtfully. "Bottom of the eighth, runners on first and second, and the Dodgers best hitter up to bat. He popped a fly foul. You couldn't get under it fast enough for the out, but you caught the runner on second trying to steal third. Giants won five to four, and you ruined a perfect series sweep. I wanted to throttle you. I love baseball. I'll see you Tuesday, Andy."
She hung up on him then, but Andy was sure that he was wearing the widest, goofiest grin anyone had ever seen. He stared at his phone for a moment, after finally managing to pull it away from his ear. She loved baseball, and she remembered seeing him play. There were not a lot of people that could recall the plays, good or bad, of a has-been catcher who had ruined his own career just as it was peeking. Andy tucked his phone back in to his pocket and walked back to his truck.
He went in to that store to find a book. He found Sharon instead, and he couldn't wait to see her again. He wondered if Nicole had picked up those books for the boys yet… maybe he would see if there was anything else on her reading list. The Bookmine had just become his new favorite place. He couldn't wait to go back.
-TBC-