Anna Russel moves back to the small town, Cutten, California when she's offered her dream job at her alma mater. With struggling with her writing, being a professor, and her alcoholism, Anna is reacquainted with the man she left behind.
Lars Nordin...
Halloween night was upon them when Anna made the trip to the local grocery store. The English professor rarely made outings into town for she was too busy with grading. Yet, on this night, she had run out of almost everything. Her meals consisted of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which only made her all that crankier, for the woman loathed peanut butter.
All day, the professor had been locked in her office on campus, slouched over disastrous papers she had bled all over when the thought of food crossed her mind. With her kitchen nearly bareback at home, a last-minute trip into town was required.
Anna, grateful for her timing, made it through town without any issues. Just in time for it was not yet time for trick-or-treating, the grocery outlet and its parking lot almost vacant. Only but a few store employees and townies roamed the place.
Anna rushed around with an obnoxiously squeaking cart, mumbling a grocery list to herself. The need to get home before the town's children were running amok increased the longer, she went up and down each aisle.
Passing the frozen food aisle, her heart almost leaped from her chest at the sight of the giant man she once knew. The sight of him made a grimace plague Anna's face as she slowly backed away, hiding her and the cart near the stacked sodas.
The professor cursed to herself when realizing she wasn't ready to confront the man. She had successfully dodged the lumberjack the two months she had been back in town, she wasn't about to confront him now.
She looked down in her cart only to find a heavy bag of dog food, a case of Diet Coke, and two bottles of Jack Daniels. Before she could talk herself out of it, Anna made haste to the farthest check-out line that was open, rushing to put the dark liquor onto the conveyor belt.
The older woman at the register watched skeptically as Anna looked around in a tizzy, finding her suspicious, "ID, please."
Anna said nothing, rummaging through her leather messenger bag in search of the matching wallet, nodding her head rapidly. The older woman scanned the case of soda and dog food that still sat in the cart as Anna pulled out her ID and debit card. The cashier barely looked at the ID before telling Anna her total in a monotone voice.
Without another word, Anna slid the debit card into the reader as she looked around for the man but found him nowhere in sight, this made the cashier nervous, "Ma'am... Are you in some sort of trouble?"
Anna turned to her with bugged eyes, realizing how she must have looked, but shook her head as the machine told her to take out her card, "No, sorry. I'm just a bit skittish. Thank you, though."
The cashier wasn't convinced but left it alone, "Receipt?"
Anna snatched the receipt from the elderly woman's hand harder than needed, but she wasn't about to stick around to apologize. She carefully lifted the brown paper bags that held her "dinner", gently placing them in the cart before taking one more look around and then dashing out the exit.
Once outside in the parking lot, she practically ran to her Land Cruiser, throwing the "groceries" into the back and slamming the door shut. Luckily for her, the cart kiosk was right next to her car so returning the cart didn't require much effort.
That evening, her heart hadn't stopped thumping until she had finally fallen asleep in the early morning. She dreamt of the tall and burly Swedish man who had stolen her heart those three years prior.
The one she left behind without so much as a goodbye.
Avoiding town had become Anna's main concern throughout the rest of the fall semester until mid-December, the day the semester ended, and the professor finally gained the courage to see him.
Anna had finished all the final grades for her creative writing class that afternoon. After a few swigs of her preferred liquid courage from lunch, she drove to the hardware store where she remembered him working.
The Land Cruiser parked in the only parking spot open at the end of the street. Sitting in the car for only a few moments, she tried to calm herself before overwhelming anxiety got the best of her. Once jumped out of the raised vehicle, Anna decided to leave her leather bag in the passenger seat, only taking her keys and phone.
The professor tugged on the ends of her plaid blazer before running sweating palms along her trouser-covered thighs.
Anna cleared her throat as the iced wind blew around her long waves.
She slammed the driver's side door closed when she realized the frizz of her waist-lengthed waves weren't to be tamed. A huff of annoyance left her as she began to psych herself up, something she did when the crippling anxiety emerged.
"Oh, good Lord, woman..." She groaned to herself.
Anna pushed herself to the sidewalk, passing the few stores it took to get to his. Once outside, she saw him through the large windows. He was at the counter, turned away from the front entrance as he looked through receipts. His large and muscled back was what was greeting her through the store window, flexing as he shuffled through the papers along the counter.
When she opened the chipped door, cowbells jiggled above her, alerting him that she was there. He didn't turn around to halfheartedly say, "Welcome, let me know if there is anything you need help with," he passively mumbled.
Anna took a few more steps into the small hardware store. Everything was exactly where it was all those years ago when she first walked in.
When she made it to the counter, she cleared her throat, "Um..." She mumbled quietly before speaking up louder, "I came to commission someone to fix my dining room table... My puppy has chewed through the legs," a dry and nervous laugh left her. "I was wondering if there was someone here that could do that for me?"
At the sound of her voice, the large man abruptly stopped counting the receipts, his head whipped to the short angel that he hadn't seen in a year. His cheeks instantly flamed at her appearance, he couldn't deny how wonderful she looked. He almost choked when she looked up at him slowly with a small and nervous smile.
"...Anna..." he breathed out.
"Hi, Lars."
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