True North

Chapter 40

The confines of the restaurant behind them, Brian and Stormy sat on the tailgate of his truck in Riverfront Park, eating pizza straight from the box as the sun dipped toward the horizon. The wooden archway of the Gateway Crossing footbridge against a backdrop of glorious pink-streaked sky was picture-perfect, but Brian found his gaze fixated on Stormy instead as she sat beside him on the tailgate, only the width of a pizza box between them. Her bare feet dangled in the open air above the pavement where her shoes currently lay, and strands of her auburn hair danced on the breeze as she finished her third slice of pizza with a moan of pure ecstasy. Brian chuckled softly.

"What?" Stormy asked, obviously unnerved to find him watching her.

"Nothing," he said. "I've just never seen anyone get quite so much pleasure from a slice of pizza, that's all."

"Mm," she murmured, averting her eyes as she wiped her mouth self-consciously with a paper napkin. "Sorry. 'Dainty' has never been my strong point."

"No, don't apologize!" he laughed. "It's good to see you so... relaxed. You look a lot better without that giant stick up your ass."

Stormy burst out laughing. "Thanks, I think!"

"You're welcome," Brian grinned, pleased that she could take a joke. "All kidding aside, though—you do seem different lately."

Stormy shrugged. "I guess maybe I am, in some ways." She took a long, pensive drink from her soda bottle. "I know it sounds dumb, but finally closing the door on the whole 'Gage Thing' really changed my perspective on a lot of things."

Brian nodded, resisting the urge to ask her exactly what 'things' she was referring to. He stared down at the pavement for a long moment, absently peeling the label from his own soda bottle as he debated his next words. Finally, he turned to face her again.

"Honestly?" he started. "You handled it a lot better than I thought you would. I figured you'd bolt again."

"No, I made that mistake once already, remember?"

Brian didn't know why his heart skipped a beat at that. Surprise, he assumed.

"You think it was a mistake leaving Aubry?" he asked, realizing that he sounded more hopeful than surprised, and praying that she wouldn't pick up on it.

"Yeah, sort of," she shrugged. "I mean, I could have saved myself ten whole years of misery if I had hung around long enough to find out what a dirtbag Gage really was!"

"Why did you take off, anyway?" Brian asked. "That never really made sense to me; you don't seem like the 'slink-off-with-your-tail-between-your-legs' type..."

He could tell right away that he'd said the wrong thing. She suddenly seemed tense and uneasy, and she studiously avoided his eyes as she gathered their garbage into a plastic bag. He watched her in silence, shaking his head when she held out the open pizza box to him. After closing the lid, she hopped down to the pavement and slipped her sandals back on as she glanced around looking for a trash can. Brian slid down and stepped in front of her, giving her no choice but to look at him. His fingers brushed hers as he gently slipped the bag from her grasp.

"Did I say something wrong?" he asked, although it was obvious that he had.

"What? No!" she said, although he wasn't convinced. "I'm just... stuffed." She offered up a feeble smile. "I guess my eyes are bigger than my stomach."

Brian knew that wasn't it, but he decided to let it go for now. He nodded his head toward the crushed stone walkway that led up to the wooden footbridge.