“Well …” he paused. “She was thinking about coming for a couple of months because she wanted to plan the wedding and her grandma’s been kind of sick. So, perhaps something might work out.” He shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s actually why I’m waiting on her call.”
“I thought you said she went out tonight?”
“Yeah. She went out tonight with her work friends and her bosses. And she’s going to ask her boss if she can work remotely for a little bit.”
“Oh, wow. I didn’t know that. You wouldn’t really kick me out, would you?”
“No, Nels, I wouldn’t kick you out. But it does mean that I might be here for longer than a week. If she’s coming up soon anyways, it doesn’t make any sense for me to go back to San Francisco.”
“Oh, okay. Well, that means you need to go to the grocery store because there’s, like, no food in the house.”
“Well, why don’t we go tomorrow?” he asked. “We can both go, and I’ll buy the groceries. How does that sound?”
“Works for me,” I replied. “Actually, that’s perfect because I kind of needed to drop something off tomorrow, anyway.”
“You needed to drop something off or you needed to pick something up?” He looked confused.
“Oh yeah. I mean, I needed to pick something up.” I giggled. No way was I going to let Hunter know that I was about to leave a letter for an older man. Well, when I said older, he was probably only about thirty, so not even that much older. He was perfectly age-appropriate. Not that that mattered. I didn’t want to get with him. I just wanted to school him on grocery store etiquette with kids.
“What are you thinking, Nellie? You have that wicked look on your face.”
“What does that mean? A wicked look? I’m just an innocent, sweet, little princess.” I flashed him my most innocent smile.
“You’re up to something, Nellie. And you’re lucky that Birdie is texting me to call her right now.” He held up his phone. “Or I would be asking you what’s going on.”
“Well, okay.” I sat on the couch. “Are you going to take the call here?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll go to the bedroom. Good luck with your work, okay?”
“Thanks, Hunter.”
“You’re welcome.” He leaned down and gave me a kiss on the forehead. “I love you, Nellie. You’re the best sister ever. Just remember that. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
“Oh, I love you too, big brother. But I know there are many things that you would do that I wouldn’t.” I laughed.
He just chuckled and left the room.
I waited until he was gone, and then I opened up my laptop. Yes, now was the time. It would be amazing. It would be absolutely perfect. I’d type up the letter, print it out, put it in an envelope, and then Hunter and I would go to the grocery store tomorrow. Hopefully, the guy would be there. He was normally at the grocery store right around four o’clock in the afternoon. At least, that was the time I’d seen him most frequently. I’d have to get Hunter to go to the grocery store around four. Hopefully, he’d be there, and I’d slip the envelope into his cart. I just couldn’t wait!
I brought up a Word document and started typing.
“Let me think,” I muttered to myself. “I don’t even know his name.” Had we exchanged names? No, I should have asked him his name, but I guess we really haven’t had that sort of conversation.
I chewed on my lower lip for a few seconds and then I typed:
To the single dad in the store:
I wanted to jump in immediately about his lack of responsibility when it came to his kids, but then I realized that he would know it was me. Of course he would know it was me. How many other people had most probably said anything to him about the way his kids acted? None. We were pretty polite in Bluffton, South Carolina. I was normally polite myself, but there was just something about him that had set me off.
I couldn’t start it by talking about his kids. I started writing anyway and the words just seem to flow.
To the single dad in the store: You have the most amazing hazel eyes that I’ve ever seen and the pinkest lips. They are what my friends and I would call insta-kissable.
I paused then. Would he know what insta-kissable meant? Maybe not. But that wasn’t my problem. I could explain to him that insta-kissable meant that when you saw a hottie on Instagram and you wanted to kiss them, they were insta-kissable. It didn’t mean that you were going to kiss them; it just meant that if you ever saw them, you’d want to.
No, I was not going to put the explanation in. I continued with my letter.
The things I could do to those lips. Your kids are cute, too. I paused again. The kids were cute even if they had no manners.
I continued.
They’re monsters, but cute. You are single, right? Or are you one of those creeps that just doesn’t wear a ring?
I scratched my forehead. Yes, his wife had died, but that didn’t mean that he hadn’t married someone else or wasn’t dating someone else. Someone as good-looking as him probably had several sidepieces.
“I could be one of them,” I giggled. “Get your mind out of the gutter, Nellie!” I chided myself. “You do not want to bang him.”
I continued my letter.
You could be on the bangable dad list, if such a list existed. (I may or may not be a little tipsy as I write this. Thanks for nothing, Captain Morgan.) Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that when you’re in the veggie aisle at the store, you shouldn’t just grab potatoes and melons from someone else’s cart.
Your half-secret admirer,
N
P.S. If you want to know more, text me at the number on the back of this envelope.
I paused. Maybe I shouldn’t have let Shelby add the rum to my hot chocolate. I wasn’t sure that this letter was exactly what I’d had in mind, but I couldn’t stop myself from flirting. As much as I hadn’t wanted to admit it to Shelby, I did kind of want to get to know him just a little bit better. Just so I could look into his hazel eyes one or more times … and then I would totally turn him down! That would be amazing, ’cause he was the kind of guy who needed to be put in his place.
I wasn’t going to give him my real phone number, but I had a burner phone from when I was younger and my parents had gotten me a pay-as-you-go phone for emergencies. I’d give him that number. I’d just have to make sure that it had credit on it in case he texted me.
I shivered in excitement as I reread the letter on the screen. I couldn’t believe I was going to actually hand this to him. What would he think? Would he think I was a real secret admirer? Would he wonder what “your half-secret admirer” meant? Would he even text me back? I didn’t know, but I was excited to find out.
I closed my laptop, yawned, and headed back to the bedroom. I wasn’t sure yet if I was going to tell Shelby about what I’d done, but I was glad that she’d given me the idea. And I was actually really curious about her father’s friend. I’d known Shelby for years, and she’d never been interested in older guys before, so this one must be a real hottie. I’d ask her in the morning.
It was exciting that we both had crushes. It had been a long time since the both of us had been interested in guys. The guys in college were just so immature. After you’ve been to one frat party and one football game, you’ve pretty much been to them all. Yeah, they were fun, but not as much as they were when I was a freshman. Now I was about to graduate and become a full-grown adult.