My Romance Novel: Retrurn to Breckinridge - Chapter 4: Strike One

Chapter 4: Strike One

A hardware store is no place for a tourist typically. Bud’s store did not sell postcards or t-shirts, and it was off the main street. No tourist mistakenly walked into Bud’s, and so Kirby was accustomed to dealing with locals, most of whom she knew and known for years. So when she looked up from Pride and Prejudice, which she had been reading for most of that particularly slow afternoon, to see the backside of a man she didn’t recognize immediately, she was puzzled and curious.
He was standing at the bulletin board just inside the front door, and that alone was remarkable. She hadn’t even heard the door open and wondered how she could have missed the bell that tinkled overhead every time it opened. Better go easy on the reading and pay closer attention, she chastised herself.
But as she gazed at the man, who was oblivious to her and seemed engrossed in the bulletin board where local services were offered from contractors and builders, she realized that missing the door opening was not at all the most remarkable thing. It was his backside that was remarkable.
Towering just over six feet, the man had a broad, strong back which tapered nicely into narrow hips, and a pair of jeans hugged his firm butt in a way that made her pulse race. His hair was shoulder-length, tucked behind his ears, and it was the color of sun-kissed straw. She stared at him, wondering if she should offer her assistance, or continue enjoying the view.
Momentarily he turned towards her, as if perhaps sensing her eyes on his back, and smiled. She was completely disarmed. It wasn’t that his smile was flirty, in fact it could not have been farther from that. It was honest, bright, happy, and the eyes that twinkled at her from beneath long lashes were green like the sea. He walked towards her then, and her breath caught mid-exhale. Was it the way he walked, or the smile dancing on his lips, or those eyes that seemed to see right through her that made her struggle to find her words? She may has well have been standing there completely naked, as exposed as his piercing eyes made her feel.
And then he talked, and his voice – Ah, what was he even saying? Her brain was processing nothing by that point – his voice and the way he looked at her…
CLUNK!
Her book fell from her hands to the floor and the noise gripped her senses and woke her from her daze.
“Hi,” she said, a bit breathlessly. “Um, can I… help you find anything?”
“I’m new in town and was just checking out your recommended list of contractors. I might be building a house. Just wanted to get a few numbers, make some calls, stuff like that,” he said, smiling at her with that warm, sexy grin that was melting her in areas that had not melted in a long time.
“Oh, well sure, help yourself. Lots of people build around here, and there are some great contractors in the area.” Brilliant. Had she really just said ‘lots of people build’? Way to go, Miss Obvious!
The gorgeous hunk before her seemed unaffected by her inability to speak intelligently and had not, in fact, turned and run out of the hardware store to protect himself from hearing more of her stupidity.
“Uh, but in the meantime, I do need a couple of things, if you could point me in the right direction?”
“Sure! Absolutely!”
“I’m renting a condo in town and there’s a nighttime intruder. A mouse perhaps. Have any traps? Oh, and a can of oil for the squeaky back door hinge…”
“You got it, I’ll get those for you,” Kirby replied. “Be right back.”
She rushed through the store grabbing the items the sexy stranger had requested and rung up his purchase, bagging everything quickly. The sooner he’s gone, the sooner I can breathe again!
He smiled at her and thanked her for her help, and she could have sworn his eyes had seared right through her clothes and seen her naked behind the counter, including her toes which still needed a pedicure. Had the man really just undressed her with his eyes? Surely not. Not me. Not looking like this, she thought.
As he walked towards the door of the store, she enjoyed the view one last time and wished him a good stay in Breckenridge. Then he was gone.
She ran back to the office, popped her head into Bud’s office and asked him for an early break. “I just need a quick gulp of air and a cup of coffee, I think,” she said. Bud agreed to watch the store, and she ran out the back entrance and leaned against the wall of the store, gulping in the chilly air and hoping it would be enough to jump start her lungs again.
When she returned fifteen minutes later with a cup of coffee from the café next door, Bud was waiting at the cashier’s counter for her. The look on his face was a puzzlement to her as she didn’t think she could recall ever having seen him look disappointed, the way he did just then.
“Kirby, a quick minute, please?”
“Sure, Bud, what’s up?”
“The man asked for a mouse trap and a can of oil, right?”
“Uh… yep, I think that was the order,” she replied. Of course it was the order! How could I forget a single second of that encounter?
“So, do ya mind tellin’ me then why you sent him away with a raccoon trap and a can of paint thinner?”
Kirby’s eyes grew wide. Had she really screwed up his order that badly?
Bud sighed, and she knew by his deep exhale that, yes, in fact, she had royally screwed up the simplest order. She immediately felt bad, and started apologizing.
“Kirby, you’re a hard worker, and it was an honest mistake, and you don’t need to worry about it this time. The man could not have been kinder when I fixed your mistake. It’s just that…”
“What? Just that…what?” Kirby pressed. Please don’t fire me, please don’t fire me.
“Well, you’re going to feel badly when I tell you this, but the fact is, the man you helped is sort of a big deal. I mean, it was Dave Kensington, and he said he’s moving here and building a house…and, well, he’s sort of a big customer for us, so I’m a little annoyed our store got off on the wrong foot with him,” Bud said patiently.
“I’m sorry, Bud. Wait, who? Dave Kensington? Who is that?”

“You don’t know who Dave Kensington is? Of the Chicago White Sox? The southpaw with the 0.32 batting average? Are you kidding me?” Bud was as breathless then as she had been twenty minutes ago, and Kirby was immediately embarrassed.
“Truth is, I don’t really follow baseball, so… I mean, I guess I didn’t recognize him. I mean, I guess he sort of looked like a baseball player, but…” she said, apologetically. Stop babbling and apologize, make this right. “I’m sorry, Bud. I didn’t sleep well last night, it won’t happen again.”
Bud was all kindness then, patting her shoulder in a fatherly way and muttering all the way back to his office about “Dave Kensington, in my store!” and “How could she not have recognized him? The man’s a legend!”
Kirby sat down on the stool at the register and sipped her lavender latte pensively. She had blown it, she knew that. But more than that, she was disappointed. She was disappointed that she had been so immediately attracted to the man, especially after she had sworn off men for good after the Trevor situation. And more than that, if she was honest with herself, she was secretly disappointed that the man who had so completely turned her on after an almost two year dry spell with men ended up being a celebrity.
You don’t do celebrities anymore, Kirby, remember? High profile men are nothing but trouble, she counseled herself. No, if she ever did become involved with another man again, it would be the kind that was low-key, zero maintenance, a complete nobody, someone she could trust because she would know he was not worried about his public image or his reputation in the community. If she ever dated again, a decision she had not yet made, she would fall only for the kind of man she found under a rock. A complete nobody. Then, and only then, could she fully trust that he was in the relationship because of her, not because of what her pretty face or beauty queen past could do for his public image.
The man with the tight rear end and strong back and shoulders was dismissed from her mind then, and she decided she no longer thought he was attractive. As of that moment, those long locks of straw-colored hair were a complete turn off for her.