A few people were waiting in line at the cash register
to pay for their purchases, but no one looked their way.
Relieved that they weren’t going to be recognized, Leigh
wandered down the first aisle, then the next one, and
finally the one next to that, remembering her trips there
when money had been short, but life had been so
uncomplicated. Somewhere behind her, she heard Michael
remark with a smile in his voice, ‘You were right there
the first time I saw you.’
She turned, surprised that he would remember such a
thing. ‘Really? You remember that?’
‘Very clearly.’ He shoved his hands into the pockets of
his cashmere overcoat. ‘you were wearing jeans and a
sleeveless shirt, and you were juggling an armload of cans
and fresh oranges. An orange fell off the top of the pile,
and when you bent down to pick it up, the next one fell
of, then the next one.’
‘Where were you?’
‘Right here, behind you.’
‘Did you offer to help?’
He gave her a wicked grin. ‘And spoil that pictured?
You have to be kidding.’
Blissfully unaware of the new, dangerous ground she was
treading, Leigh laughed and rolled her eyes. ‘I should
have known it wouldn’t be my face you admired. You were
very perverse in those days.’
‘I wasn’t completely perverse. I finally walked around
in front of you when you spilled the whole pile onto the
floor.’
‘How gallant.’
‘I wasn’t being gallant. I wanted to see what you
looked like from the front.’
‘What did you see?’
‘Hair.’
She choked, laughing. ‘Hair?’
He nodded. ‘You’d gotten down on your hands and knees
to reach for some oranges that rolled under the shelf, and
when you looked up at me, your hair had fallen forward,
covering the side of your face. So all I saw was a curtain
of shiny reddish brown hair – and two great big laughing
eyes of Caribbean green.’ He shook his head, and said as
if to himself, ‘I had the damndest reaction reaction to
those laughing eyes.’
‘What kind of reaction?’
‘That would be a little difficult to explain,’ Michael
said with veiled amusement.
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SPOTLIGHT
