across the glass, smearing the ice cream. “I’ll just mess it up good, and we’ll clean it later.” He grinned as he dropped her glasses into his shirt pocket.
She raised her eyebrows. “You’re not giving them back?”
“Not yet.” Lane folded his arms on the table and leaned toward her. “Why don’t you get contacts? You have such pretty eyes, and those glasses are hiding your beauty.”
She drew in a surprised breath. Did he say
“beauty”
?
A warm feeling stirred inside Callie. No one had ever told her that before, especially not a handsome, single guy like Lane Hutchins. She leaned across the table toward him. “Well, I, uh …” She gazed into his eyes.
He gazed back.
Finally she blinked. Several times. “Um … what was the question?”
He cleared his throat and sat back. “Contacts? For your eyes?”
“Oh yeah, contacts.” Looking down, she sighed. “My eye doctor said they wouldn’t work for me.”
“So you’re stuck with glasses forever?” Lane did not look happy.
“Not necessarily.” She shrugged. “Although I might as well be stuck. He said laser eye surgery would work and I could have twenty-twenty vision, but my medical insurance won’t pay for it.”
Beverly came by the table. “Here’s your bill. Well, my goodness, Callie. I’ve never seen you without your glasses. Don’t you look pretty.” She picked up their plates. “I never realized how much you look like Tonya.”
As she left, Lane winked at Callie. “I was thinking the same thing. But you’re even prettier.”
Did he say
“prettier”
? Feeling warmth rise in her face, she squinted at her watch. “Oh no! It’s after one thirty. Cheyenne is going to have my head.”
“I doubt that.” Lane stood, took out his wallet, and threw a couple of bills on the table. “She seemed to be enjoying her stint as librarian.”
They walked out the door and straddled Lane’s motorcycle.
“Are you going to give my glasses back?” Callie circled her arms around his waist.
“Maybe. Someday.” He started the cycle, and it thundered to life.
They flew down Rattlesnake Road. Callie held on to Lane tightly, loving the feel of the wind blowing her hair back. And now it fluttered against her eyelashes. Her heart gave a happy leap. Lane thought she was pretty, even prettier than her sister.
Oh Lord
, she prayed,
please let something good come from this
. Did she dare pray that Lane would want to marry her?
But was he a Christian? She just assumed he was, but his prayer for the food didn’t give her any confidence about his relationship with God.
Lane slowed down to turn onto Main Street, and Callie smiled at the tall spots of color on the sidewalk who waved to her, even though she wasn’t sure who those people were. The entire population of Fort Lob was probably gossiping about them. After all, a person could hardly sneak through town on a motorcycle, especially on Main Street.
When they arrived at the library, Lane pulled up before the door. “I’ll drop you off here, and you can let Cheyenne leave.”
Callie dismounted.
“Now
will you give my glasses back?”
He gazed at her eyes a moment before he winked. “Not yet.” Revving the motor, he guided the cycle to the back parking lot.
Callie laughed out loud as she walked up the library steps using the handrail as a guide and pulled open the front door. She stepped inside, and her smile froze.
The navy blue blob standing behind the checkout desk couldn’t be Cheyenne. For one thing, Cheyenne had been wearing an orange T-shirt, and for another thing, this blob was as thin as a skeleton.
“Miss Brandt!” Miss Penwell’s voice rang out across the entryway, grating on Callie’s nerves. “Where in the world have you been?”
Even without her glasses, Callie knew Miss Penwell’s lips were pursed.
Chapter 8
L ane jogged up the library steps. Callie’s glasses jiggled in his shirt pocket, and he smiled.
She doesn’t even realize how pretty she is
. He
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