Her Cowboy

Chapter 29

Apparently Sally really was serious about us restocking her kitchen, and I found myself sitting in the truck, on the phone with Percy as he scrounged for items in the little West Burge grocery store.

"This grocery store looks dirtier than my—blue cookies! I see blue cookies!"

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Focus, Seaweed Brain."

This trip was taking three times as long as it could have, because Percy got distracted by every other thing in the aisle. Apparently he didn't go grocery shopping much. And apparently, he thought it was a crime that his mother never told him dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets were a thing. Then he decided she probably didn't know they existed, because she wouldn't have withheld such "precious knowledge" from him. So he added five boxes of the nuggets to bring to Sally's for her enlightenment.

"Percy, which column of the sheet are you on?"

"Uh..." I heard his whispers as he counted, and I couldn't help the slight smile on my face. "Four!"

"Percy, column four was for produce. Why are you seeing cookies?"

I heard his sound of exasperation through the phone. A second later, through the glass windows of the storefront, I saw Percy's head pop out from behind a row. Even though he was far away, I could see his pouty face.

"You're way too organized, Wise Girl. It takes me, like, an hour to read what's on the list in your tiny handwriting, and you expect me to coordinate the row you put next to the column and be in that row when I'm reading that column on the list, and be able to grab what's on the list while I continue to read and coordinate?"

I rolled my eyes.

"I can't see you through those tinted car windows, but I know you just rolled your eyes, Wise Girl."

"Seaweed Brain. Just grab some tomatoes, those should be last on your list."

"You look pretty."

"You just said you can't see me."

"Don't have to see you to know!" he responded in a singsong voice before dashing out of view into the produce section. I rolled my eyes again, but was smiling.

"Okay, tomatoes secured," Percy said a second later. "I'm heading to checkout, I'll see ya soon."

"Mmkay, miss you," I said sarcastically.

"Oh, I know." The phone beeped as he hung up, and I chuckled, letting it fall to my lap as I leaned back against the headrest.

I saw him as he made his way down the aisle toward the checkout. He shot me a thumbs up before turning to the cashier belt, and the cashier who was probably looking at him funny.

Then I realized, the cashier was not looking at him funny. The cashier was smiling at him. I squinted, leaning forward. She looked familiar.

She was the same cashier from that hardware store Percy and I went to a couple weeks back. Drew. I scowled as she burst into a fit of giggles at something Percy said, then she leaned forward to teasingly hit his arm. My scowl deepened. Her perfect brown hair and the grocery store outfit she managed to make look actually good made me annoyed.

I watched as Percy smiled easily at her, probably totally oblivious to her attempts, and grabbed the last of the bags before exiting the store.

My stomach hitched as he stepped out into the sun. The rays made his ebony hair shiny, and the ruffled locks spun lazily with the breeze. He was carrying four bags of grocery, so it was effortless for him but heavy enough to make the muscles on his tanned arms flex as he gave an endearing lopsided smile to a car that paused to let him pass.