Shoe Strings

and Kerri Ann
watched his smile fade when he took a look at her face and saw her
brooding.   “What the hell’s wrong
with you?”
    She didn’t even try to hide her scowl.   Bryce always could gauge her temper
lightning fast.   “I’m not in the
mood for you right now, Bryce.”   She
leaned against the window.   “I’m not
trying to be mean, I’m just telling you like it is.”
    “Hell, Kerri Ann, you’re never in the mood for me.”   He pushed his considerable body inside
the small door and with his over-the-top presence took up what seemed like
every available space in the office.   “That’s never stopped me before.”
    “Yeah,” she agreed.   “Why is that?”
    A broad smile came over his face.   The creases that nearly resembled dimples,
but were too long and pronounced to qualify as such, transformed him from
boyishly cute to handsome.   Bryce
Jenson was a big hulk of a man, the kind of man a woman would call if she
needed furniture moved to a different part of her house or needed a tree
chopped down—all things she herself had called Bryce to do.   He was always there, reliable, smiling,
and never let her slide too far into a sulk, even when she wanted to.  
    “Don’t know,” Bryce said.   “For the life of me, I just don’t
know.”   He plopped into her chair
and scanned the top of her desk.   “Doing the books always gets you in a foul mood.   I should’ve known.”
    “It’s not the books,” she said and then instantly wished she
hadn’t.   She didn’t like to talk to
Bryce about Jesse and made a point never to.   He and Jesse had been best friends since
kindergarten.   Until high
school.   Until Tyler, really.   “I’m just sulking.”
    “No one sulks without a reason.   Not even you.”
    “What are you doing here?” she asked.   “Don’t you have some papers to file at the
courthouse, some ambulance to chase?”
    “Finished up early in court today.   Thought I’d catch Ty here, see if he
wanted to try and beat my trout record.   Caught five on Saturday.”   He
rocked back and forth in her chair as if it were his own.
    “He’s not here.   Jesse’s got him cleaning rafts before the season starts.   He won’t be back until after dinner.”
    “Ahh.”
    “What do you mean, ‘Ahh’?”
    “Your mood.   I
get it now.”
    Kerri Ann pushed away from the windowsill and paced in front
of her desk.   “You don’t get anything,
Bryce.   Not even a free meal, which
is the real reason you’re here.   Just march yourself back down the street and find somebody else to
pester.”
    Bryce whistled between his teeth and slowly rose from the
chair.   “Good Lord, it’s worse than
I thought.”   He moved around the
desk and stopped Kerri Ann from pacing.   “Why don’t you share that free meal with me and tell me all about it?   Misery loves company, ya know.”
    Kerri Ann put her hands on her hips and cocked her head at
the man who never could leave well enough alone.   No wonder he was the best lawyer in
western North Carolina.   “Why would
you even want to spend an evening with me, Bryce?   I’m in a foul mood, as you pointed out,
and I’ve just insulted you.   You’re
young and relatively attractive, in a lawyerly sort of way.”   In every sort of way, she wanted to
admit.   “Why not go try to find an
available woman who’d be a hell of a lot better company for the night?”
    “I’m a glutton for punishment, I guess.   Besides,” he took her hand in his,
“you’re available.”
    “Hummmph.”
    “You’re not available?”
    She turned away, hoping Bryce didn’t see the blush she could
feel creeping up to her cheeks.   She’d long ago accepted she wasn’t good enough for him, but her body
betrayed her sometimes.   “I haven’t
felt like an available woman in so long I wouldn’t know how to act if someone
were interested.”
    “Lots of people are interested, Kerri Ann.   You just don’t see it.”
    “I see just fine, thank you very much.   And what people see when they look at me
is a thirty-year-old mother of a teenaged boy.   A woman who smells like pizza half the
day.”   She pushed her hair behind
her ears and sank into her chair, ready to end a conversation that had veered
way off course.   “A woman whose
business isn’t going to be sound unless she gets her books in order.”
    Bryce stood in front of her desk, his hands in his pants
pockets, his tie loosened, and studied her with eyes as