By the Book Read Free Page B

growled out loud, then took a deep breath, holding it until he was calm enough to blow it out slowly. A half-crazed laugh escaped him as he shook his fists at the ceiling.
    “Jonah, old buddy, this town and that woman are going to drive you over the edge if you’re not careful,” he told himself, blowing yet another pent-up breath out through stiff lips.
    He scanned the shop, looking for something to do, searching for something to focus his attention on—other than the woman in the window across the street. But it just wasn’t going to happen. Nothing had changed since the last time he scanned the shop, looking for something to do, searching for something to focus his attention on.
    He’d processed every strip of film he could find, developed the pictures, gathered them up, put them in envelopes, filed them in alphabetical order. He’d washed the windows, wiped off the display cases, dusted the cameras. He’d vacuumed the floor, retallied the negative balance in the books four times, done fifty push-ups in the back room, and that was all before lunch.
    Since then, he’d been kicking himself stupid for acting like a tongue-tied idiot when he’d finally gotten an opportunity to talk to her. “Duh. One of those days, huh?” he muttered to himself and cringed, remembering. Not the most intriguing opening line he’d ever used.
    Not that he’d actually used all that many opening lines for a man his age. To date, his dealings with women had been long-term sexual encounters at best, with very little emotional involvement. And to be truthful, they’d suited him just fine.
    Which wasn’t to say that on rare occasions he hadn’t contemplated the efforts involved in meeting a different kind of woman; in allowing himself to feel something for her; in marriage and children. Those occasions had left him feeling empty, alone, and small, and were often best avoided. But deep down inside, he knew that was exactly what he’d always wanted. To grow up, marry a nice woman, have children, and spend the rest of his life loving and taking care of them. Trouble was, he had no idea of where to start to build this dream he had.
    His own childhood had been fragmented. What he hadn’t deliberately forgotten was blurry and permeated with sadness and confusion. What he did remember had little to do with home and family, and a lot to do with discipline and control, regulation and achievement.
    He’d grown up in a man’s world, and while women had certainly topped the list of topics for conversation and were the ultimate prize on a Saturday night, they had remained—for him—bizarre, alien beings who were difficult to talk to, uncomfortable to be with, and hard to understand.
    Except for this one ...
    The first time he’d seen her, with all that dark red hair glinting sparks of copper in the afternoon sun, the bright white dress with the green trim, the long legs that looked as if they started somewhere near her neck—he hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her.
    She’d come out of the bank and stood holding the door open for an elderly couple coming out behind her, a frail-looking woman pushing a man in a wheelchair. The wheels had gotten stuck on the threshold. She hadn’t been able to make the woman grasp backing up to let her back in to help, and she hadn’t been able to get help from inside the bank. Jonah had thought about sprinting across the street to help her, but instead he’d watched her walk briskly down the street, turn the corner, and re-enter the bank from the rear—because soon she was gently talking the old woman into giving up control of the chair, tipping it back slightly to pass over the threshold, and pushing it out onto the sidewalk.
    She could have left them there and considered her duty done. Instead, she’d made Jonah smile as he watched her wave the couple good-bye and then stand there watching them doubtfully. He’d seen the concern come to her face as they crawled at a snail’s pace toward their