Page 60 of Hogging the Hunk
Flying over the hill by Button Blossom’s welcome sign, I pressed hard on the brake. It wasn’t Clint parked in his usual hiding spot behind the sign, prompting me to slow down. It was the state of the main street through Button Blossom. A solid line of cars was parked on either side of the road, and slow-moving traffic congested the road all the way to the outskirts of town.
“What on earth is going on?” I muttered, leaning over the steering wheel to watch the flow of traffic. A snail could have outpaced us.
It wasn’t until I saw a woman carrying a crate and fumbling with her keys when she reached her car that it clicked—it was the annual garlic harvest.
Maybe it wasn’t as glamorous as a strawberry or watermelon festival, but people around here loved their garlic. We were especially proud that it was homegrown and plucked right from our soil. I recalled Maren saying something as I half-snoozed in the backseat from the airport that she was entering one of her elephant garlics into a contest to see if she could beat the record.
She was the only woman who could talk about vegetables like they were her own children and not sound absolutely off her rocker.
Figuring I could walk faster than I’d be able to drive to Milo’s clinic in this grid locked traffic, I abandoned Granny’s truck after a sloppy parallel parking job where the rear tire was propped up over the curb. Stuffing the keys for safekeeping into my pocket, I hid my billfold in the glove compartment and hurried the rest of the way into town.
Passing Clint’s house, it was quiet and locked up. I abandoned my plan to stop and ask if they knew of Milo’s whereabouts. Next door, I spotted Remi and Asher on their front porch, swaying in matching rocking chairs as they watched the crush of people across the street.
“Hey, you two.” I stopped at the gate.
“Look who’s back from outer space!” Remi cried happily when she looked up from what she was cuddling. A towel? There was probably some hairless, helpless orphaned baby animal tucked snugly inside. “How was your trip?”
“Good.” I knew my answer was curt. It was necessary if I was going to find Milo before we were hit with a spring deluge. The sky overhead was moody, with lumpy gray clouds that looked as angry as Becky, who was nearly full term with twins. “Hey, I don’t have time to chat at the moment, but I wondered if you’ve happened to see Milo.”
“I have!” Asher jumped to the edge of his seat.
“Careful, bud,” Remi said in a calm, yet firm, voice. “You might startle him, and then you’ll be sorry.”
Her warning made me inquisitive. “What do you have wrapped up in there?” I asked.
“Baby skunks.” Asher worked the bottle he was holding back into the towel. “Wanna see them? They’re so cute.”
He was talking in a baby voice while I took an enormous step back. I drew the line at animals that sprayed putrid anal glands as a defense, no matter how adorable their face was. “Uh, pass. I’m in a hurry to find Milo. It’s important.”
“Are you finally going to tell him how you feel about him?” Asher asked. Remi punctuated his question by making overt kissy noises. Both she and Asher cracked up.
My jaw unhinged and dropped to somewhere around my knees. “Who told you…?”
“Everyone knows. Even my teacher at school predicted that you two are going to end up together before summer break.” Leave it to sweet, naïve, blunt Asher to let me know I was possibly the last person who accepted what everyone else assumed was inevitable. “Right, Mom?”
Remi hid her outright laughter behind the half-consumed bottle of milk she’d been feeding her skunk kit. “They have to choose to be together. Just because it makes sense to the rest of us doesn’t mean it’ll necessarily happen.”
A zing of excitement raced in a jagged line from my stomach and up my throat. I did choose Milo. I just needed the chance to tell him. “Thanks for your vote of confidence. That won’t happen unless I find him though.”
Remi swung her head across the street where the majority of people were congregating, awaiting their orders of fresh garlic. “He drove past about ten minutes ago and while he was stopped in traffic, he rolled down his window to chat. Said he was going to grab a crate of garlic before he stopped by the clinic. I can’t remember if he said Ellie was walking there after school or going to her friend’s house.”
Thunder growled nearby, prompting me to be on my way. I hated the feeling of being caught in the rain. The drowned rat look, with my clothes soaked all the way through my unmentionables, was not flattering on me, and as romanticized as kissing in the rain might be, I preferred for any potential kissing with Milo to be done while we were both dry as the rain pounded outside.
Another explosion of excited anticipation detonated in my heart, crackling like it was a glittery firework. I hadn’t spoken to Milo in three months, and there I was making plans for our first kiss. That was the very definition of putting the cart before the horse. Granny was right—I needed to allow for some spontaneity in the unique situation I’d gotten myself into, in love with a man I hadn’t ever had the courage to tell before.
“Wish me luck,” I said, rapping my knuckles on Remi’s gate.
“You don’t need it,” Remi said with a tiny smirk. “That man’s hopelessly in love with you.”
Hoping her prediction was right, I hurried across the street, searching with the focus of a hawk for Milo. Interspersed with people I knew were plenty of out-of-towners, some of whom looked like Milo’s doppelgangers from the back. After grabbing a man I was sure was Milo until he turned around with coal-black eyes and a sloped nose that would have made a good toboggan hill if it were any bigger, I decided I’d better be certain before I pounced on anyone else.
Walking out of the thickest part of the multitude, I stood under a towering sycamore that swayed in the wind as a gust of cool air clashed with the humidity down below.
Then, it happened.
Greg used to laugh at me when I’d cheer at movies when an idyllic, if corny, big moment happened for the love interests. When everyone parted on the dance floor so the guy and girl have a straight line of sight to one another? Swoon. Running to each other across a meadow? Be still my heart. Then, one of them would say something clever or funny or heartwarming, and their love would be solidified forever.
I could feel it into the deepest recesses of my soul that a moment like that was about to happen for Milo and me.