Off The Market by 12 NA's of Christmas, Magan Vernon Page B

At first I thought that they were just playing tricks on me, but there he was. Andrew Lawson. My first love. My first everything. Of course he wasn’t the same Andrew I remembered. He was definitely older and the years had been very good to him. Instead of the body of a lanky teenager he had put on definite muscle that I could even see beneath his leather jacket and faded jeans. I had to take a deep breath before I could even speak to him.
    “Hello, Andrew. Good to see you again.” I couldn’t believe I could even utter the words. It had been almost two years since I’d seen him or spoke n to him.
    “The pleasure is all mine, Etta.” He smiled that brilliant white smile that always made my heart do somersaults. How could I have broken up with him? God I was stupid. He was probably looking at the house to buy with some new girlfriend. Candy Hawkins always had a thing for him and I knew she went to beauty school in St. Louis right after high school. She probably already snapped him up and this was his Christmas gift to her.
    “And please call me Andy. You were the only one to ever call me Andrew,” he said as he walked out of the cold and into the front foyer.
    He would always be my Andrew, I thought. The other neighborhood kids may have called him Andy, but to me he was always Andrew. My Andrew. How many times had I said his name in anger, passion, and just in general in those years that we dated? So many I lost count, but I hadn’t said it since we broke up. Now it was the only name I wanted to say, but I respected the name he wanted. This new name.
    “Well, Andy,” I barely choked the name out. “I know that you’re already well acquainted with the layout of this home, so if you would like to take a look around I’d be more than happy to wait here for you.”
    Andrew ran a hand through his hair. No longer did he have the fallen curls, but it was cropped into a short, military style. I thought about how I missed those curls, but the new cut definitely brought out his beautiful blue eyes, the same color as the sapphire bracelet he bought me on my eighteenth birthday. The one that I still kept at the top of my jewelry box. I never wore it, but I found myself staring at it every time I went to get a pair of earrings.
    “If you wouldn’t mind, I would love a tour from an expert who knows this house just as well as I do, maybe even better since you’re the realtor,” he said, taking a step toward me.
    I was sure he had to know about me coming back into town. Sure it was a pretty big area, but word travels fast. He probably knew I was the realtor and that’s why he came here. Or maybe I was thinking too much into it. Maybe he really was just looking at the house for a girlfriend.
    I took a big swallow. No one had ever made me as nervous as Andrew made me. He always did that to me, even when we were kids. I remember the first time he walked up to me at the neighborhood park. I couldn’t even look at him. I just watched the methodical way his Chuck Taylors crunched on the grass. Even when we were older he still found ways to leave me breathless. Just like now.
    I pulled myself together, straightening my shoulders and nodding. “Right this way, sir.” I pointed my arm out toward the kitchen. 
    Andrew laughed, shaking his head. "Sir, Etta? Really? I may be older now, but I'm still the same boy you knew since the day we moved to Pine Hill, and definitely not old enough to be a sir."
    I let out a nervous laugh. I couldn't believe my palms were starting to sweat. I couldn't believe he was actually there, talking to me like we were old friends. Like I never left.
    Andrew walked with the same methodical strides, like he was carefully calculating each step. I watched him move into the kitchen, examining each cabinet and piece of tile as if he’d never seen it before, but I knew, in fact, that his father had put in every element of that kitchen with his own hands.
     
    A NDREW
     
    ETTA DAVIS STILL hadn’t aged a day