She jumped when her phone rang instead of signaling a text. She’d put his name with his number, so she knew it was him. Why was she so nervous? She put the phone to her ear. “Hello?”
“Amanda?”
“Yes. Hi, Jason.”
“Hi there. I had to hear your voice for myself. I hope that’s okay.” His voice was deep and his accent sounded strange. They certainly hadn’t sounded like that on Happy Days.
“It’s fine. I almost asked you to call, but I was afraid I would seem too pushy.”
He laughed softly. Her voice didn’t have as strong of a Southern drawl as he’d expected. “You should have. I wouldn’t have minded.” He paused for a moment unsure of what to say now that she was on the phone. “So tell me what you look like, Amanda.”
She sighed. Here was the killer. In her experience, men liked tiny women. She was an Amazon. “I have blond hair and blue eyes. I’m thin.” She trailed off after that. “What about you?”
“Brown hair. Brown eyes. Pretty boring really. How tall are you?” He sent up a silent prayer that she wasn’t a tiny little thing. He was way too tall to mess with a girl like that.
“Here’s where you quit talking to me,” she said sadly. “I’m six foot two.” She waited for him to tell her he wasn’t interested in keeping the conversation going.
“Really?” He couldn’t keep the excitement out of his voice. “I’m six six.”
“Are you serious? You’re actually taller than me?” She knew that she probably sounded like an idiot she was so excited.
“I’m serious. I’ve got to meet you now. You need to fly up here and spend a weekend with Stephanie so I can meet you.”
She smiled. “I might be able to do that. After school is out, of course.”
“How ‘bout tomorrow instead?”
She laughed softly. “That’s probably not going to work.”
“Darn. You can’t blame a man for trying, right?”
“I guess not. I wish you’d called me a few weeks ago. I probably could have gone up during spring break.” She hadn’t done anything else. “Do you always have such terrible timing?”
He laughed. “Yeah, I do. Always. I’m cursed!”
They talked long into the night. When he finally glanced at the clock and realized it was after midnight, he mentally kicked himself. He had to work tomorrow, Saturday or not. “I really have to go. The cows need to be milked bright and early.”
“I understand. I really enjoyed talking to you, though,” she said honestly. She was going to be sad to hang up.
“I enjoyed talking to you, too. May I keep texting you? Maybe call again?”
She smiled. “I’d really like that.”
“I’ll text you tomorrow. G’night.”
Amanda set her phone down with a smile. She felt like a girl in high school with her first boyfriend. She thought. She’d never had that first boyfriend in high school. She’d seen how her friends had reacted, though. She knew all the symptoms, and she was feeling them. Yeah, it was just a few texts and a phone call, but they hadn’t had a problem thinking of things to say. Maybe, just maybe, she wouldn’t always be alone. She fell asleep with a smile on her face.
Saturday was errand day for Amanda. With everything she did, she found herself wondering what Jason was up to. Was he working? Eating lunch? Doing his grocery shopping?
She finished grading papers early in the day, and had her lesson plan done for the following week. She ate her dinner alone, as usual, and this time, she didn’t mind it as much as she usually did.
Amanda had moved back to the small town she’d grown up in after college. Her mother had been ill, and she’d felt that it was her duty, as an only child, to take care of her. She’d loved her mother, and nursing her for the last two years of her life hadn’t been a burden. After her mother’s death, she’d thought about moving somewhere else, but where? Everyone she knew, and everything she knew was centered in that small town.
She knew she needed to make a fresh start. As she ate, she decided that this would be her last year teaching in Maypearl. She was going to find somewhere else to live and just start over. She would let the principal know on Monday and start sending out resumes. There was a school somewhere just right for her.
She had just finished washing the dishes when her phone beeped to signal a text message. She almost danced over to where her phone lay on the table. “Hey, did Jason ever contact you?”
Amanda sighed. She’d hoped it was from Jason. She quickly keyed, “Yeah. We spent hours talking last night.”