Page 19 of It's a Brewtiful Day
“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry.” A fresh wave of selfish embarrassment swept over me. It had never occurred to me that he might not be comfortable, and yet, he was unbelievably kind to not have saidanything about it either. Who was this guy? “I really am sorry.”
“Sage, it’s not your fault. I should’ve shifted more, but I didn’t want to disturb you.” He braced himself against the armrests, slowly rising, and putting his weight on his right leg as he shook out his left one. “Won’t take it too long to get the circulation back.”
I took a few steps over and cautiously glanced out the window. Even though the dark clouds from the intense storm had passed overhead, the sun had set, and nightfall had descended like a bad dream.
No streetlights were on, but through the hanging and damaged branches of the tree beside the Coffee Loft and Tiger’s Tail, a car drove by, headlights dancing in the rain. But that was it for manufactured light. Even the two-story building across the street was dark and moody, its tiny balconies making it look as though it was glaring at us.
The winds shook and shimmied the fallen tree in front of the door, but thankfully the nasty gusts had calmed to a steady breeze.
“It’s a full moon this weekend, isn’t it?” I asked.
“No. That’ll be next weekend for the Dark Sky event. We’re just a few days out from the new moon, so it’ll be a waning crescent if the clouds disappear. But from this viewpoint, we wouldn’t see it at all.” His voice grew louder as he approached, still shaking his leg. “There’s still a thick covering ofclouds, which if there were power in the town would give us a lot of light, but it’s seriously dark.”
I sighed while looking at him out of the corner of my eye. Feeling a strange rush of erratic emotions at the sight of him, I pulled my no-longer-smooth hair over my shoulder. It had dried out and felt as smooth as a frizzy rat’s nest. “What do we do until we’re rescued?”
“Sit tight, I suppose.”
“Well, we’ve done that already. Next?”
He chuckled, even though I hadn’t meant to be funny. “Good one.”
“Would’ve been nice if Environment Canada could’ve warned us about the storm.”
Storms often came fast and furious. It was all part of living in the mountains. The warm weather of late and the humidity along the Rockies; it all combined with the wind sheers down the slope of the mountain and added to a storm build up. Typically, the weather people knew this and could warn the small mountain towns ahead of disaster.
Elliot’s voice was low and throaty. “There’ve been warnings all day. Thought you knew and that’s why you wore your leather jacket.”
“No, I wore this because last night at book club we were discussing our favourite heroines and I mentioned mine was from a modern-day retelling of the fairytales, Emma—”
“Swan. FromOnce Upon a Time?” He hadn’t even taken a breath.
I inhaled sharply. “You know that show?”
“Know it? Yeah. I love it but don’t tell anyone. I get made fun of enough for being slightly strange and unusual, so there’s no sense in adding agirlyshow to the mix.”
“Your secret is safe with me.” I mocked zipping my lips and throwing away the key.
That had to be a first. When Cassie and I would watch, Chad had to leave. He couldn’t stand that show and said it wasn’t just him. In his defence, most men would never be caught dead watching the frou-frou silly girl show either. So, we ended up bingeing as many episodes as we could when he was on the night shift rotation.
Guess Elliot wasn’t justmost men. Give the guy another checkmark. And another thumbs up in my book.
Elliot carried on. “Got to meet Lana Parilla, Rebecca Mader, and Sean Maguire at the Edmonton Expo once. I was going to go and meet Rose McIvor last year, but I needed to head out of town on an emergency.”
“Oh my gosh, you met The Evil Queen Regina and Robin Hood?!” I could do without meeting the actress who played Zelena. She was probably a sweetheart in real life. I knew from her Instagram that she and Lana were good buddies, but her character was just plain awful, and I never did feel she redeemed herself. After she tricked Robin and got pregnant, Regina wasn’t the only one crushed.I was, too.
“I sure did. Even got my picture taken with them.”
“Were they in costume? Oh, please tell me they were in costume.” My voice pitched in excitement. Them in costume, me dressed in my red leather jacket like a poor imitation of Emma Swan. Oh, the fun I could’ve had.
He put his hands on my shoulders. “Sorry to disappoint you, but no. They were in regular clothing like you and me.”
“Oh, dang. I would’ve paid a fortune to have my picture taken with them. They’d be framed and hanging in my living room. I don’t care what my sister would say.”
“I think the picturewasa half-fortune, and combined with Sean’s, almost a full fortune.” He winked and then closed his eyes, showing off those beautiful long lashes in the process.
“You are the luckiest guy I know.” I patted his arm, and a surprisingly peppy surge of electricity zapped through my fingers.
His eyes popped open.