“Nothing. Just a note I left for myself. I wanted to make sure that I buy a birdhouse for the birds outside of my house.” Liar. That wasn’t the case at all. I can’t let him see it. What if he took himself out of my life to save me? I wouldn’t be able to handle it. I can’t leave him alone. I turned to him and smiled. “Would you like to help me pick one?”

He smiled at me. “Sure.”

I decided to close the shop today. If anyone needed anything they could always go to Jonie’s. I didn’t think it would be appropriate to have customers in the shop with what had happened. People will understand when they look in the windows. People around here are very nosey.

We got back into our cars and headed to the hardware store. I walked in and Mary smiled at us and winked. She must think were together. I shook my head at her and walked to the bird houses. “So the story is that you saw my bird house and decided you wanted one too, so I came with you to show you the best ones.” I said to Rook as I look for a good birdhouse.

“Okay.” He said with a chuckle. “But that may be hard for them to believe.”

I grabbed the one I thought looked good and handed it to Rook. He raised an eyebrow at me. “They’re going to think I’m gay!”

“Does it really matter? None of them can get close to you anyways.” I said. “You aren’t, are you?”

“Of course I’m not! I like women, not men.”  He looked flustered by the fact that I didn’t know already. “And I can prove it.”

I raised my eyebrow at him. “How exactly will you do that?” I crossed my arms over my chest.

He leaned down and planted is big strong lips onto mine and I melted. I haven’t had a man kiss me since… well let’s just say it’s been a while. When he finally broke away I was wide eyed. “Like that. Do you believe me now?”

I nodded, unable to speak. We walked in silence to the counter and Rook put my birdhouse onto the counter. Mary looked at the two of us with a skeptical glance and rung up the item.

I Dug through my mind for a realistic lie to get us off the hook. “He likes birds too. I told him this place had really nice bird houses.”

“Mhm…” She wasn’t convinced.

“I like to watch them from my kitchen table. Their very fascinating when the dive at the ground but don’t land. It’s like their acting out a war scene.” Rook said.

I tried not to laugh at that and contained myself. Mary looked Rook up and down with a skeptical look on her face that seemed to permanently be there. She shrugged. “I guess that makes sense. That’ll be $25 dollars.”

Rook looked at me and raised an eyebrow. “I can make one for cheaper than that.”

“I’ll do it.” I replied pulling out my wallet.

“I got it.” Rook pulled out his wallet and tossed a twenty and a five on the counter. “Have a good day.” He grabbed the bag and walked away.

Mary looked at me. “Well he sure is cute.” She watched him as he walked to the doors.

“Yeah… I guess he is.”

Mary winked at me and I followed Rook out the store. I caught up with Rook with a huge grin on my face. Maybe it would be okay for me to like someone again. To fall for someone again. To let my heart out and fall in love. I giggled at myself. I was acting like a little school girl. I even felt like a little school girl with a crush on the bad boy. Maybe it was just hormones or maybe it was real. There was never any way of telling for sure at first. But I knew then that I couldn’t stop myself from caring for him.

Rook looked at me and stopped. “What?” I imagined what my expression probably looked like was a deer caught in headlights. But a grin broke out and I walked ahead of him.

“Nothing that you need to worry about.”

He caught up with me. “Yes it is. You look like you’re planning a murder. I’m pretty sure that I’m involved. Who is it and what did they do to deserve it?”

I rolled my eyes. Now he was just teasing me. “They got me to like them. That’s the worst crime of all.” I opened the door to my car and climbed in. “Just follow me to my house. Try not to get lost.” I closed my door and started my car.

Rook climbed into his car and we both headed to my house. The porch lights were on since they were programmed to turn on at 8:00. I looked at the clock on my dashboard and it shone in green letters that it was 9:00. I stifled a yawn and turned off the engine. Rook opened my door before I could reach for the handle. My heart skipped a beat when images of the ax-murderer flashed through my mind. My hand flew to my chest.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Joanne.” He had a grin on his face and he stepped back so that I could climb out of my small car. Rook shut the door behind me and I walked to the front door of my house. Grabbing the bird house out of the bag I hung it from a nail I had set up previously for this purpose. I smiled at it with satisfaction. It was perfect.

I unlocked the door and pushed it open. Flicking the lights on I walked to the kitchen in search of water. I grabbed a glass out of the cupboard that held holiday mugs, wine glasses and regular glasses with little flowers etched into them, which were the things I cherished the most from the things my mother had given to me. I turned on the water and let it run until it got cold. I watched out the window above the sink as the glass filled up. Rook came up behind me and turned off the water.

“So wasteful…” He commented. He wrapped his arms around my waist. “I know I said I wasn’t going to pry but I got a feeling earlier that you may be feeling something. You should tell me.”

“Why should I? It’s not like it matters.” I said trying to compose myself, while inside I was freaking out.