Big City Bachelor

by Gretchen S. B.

  "Well, that's an interesting tattoo."

  Lila spun around, in shock, even though she knew the source of the voice. Knowing it was Dylan standing behind her didn't stop the jumpy surprise hearing his voice caused.

  As she looked at him, she could see an almost suggestive smile on his face, that didn't quite reach his eyes, which made her more curious than anything else. It made her think there was something going on or something amiss. Part of her wanted to ask and find out what could be bothering him so but she stopped herself. He doesn't know me from Adam, there is not even remotely a reason for him to tell me anything about himself. Or what could possibly be bothering him during a fun holiday weekend.

  Instead, she concentrated on his comment. She had gotten her tattoo just before her twentieth birthday; it sat just inside of her right shoulder blade, and it was, of course, a Cry Baby movie reference. She had been introduced to the movie at nineteen and watched it at least once a week for the next year. She had fallen so deeply in love with the movie and its characters she, in her young mind, wanted to immortalize it on her skin. The tattoo was just shy of three inches wide with red licking flames and below it. Along the slightly wavy baseline of the fire was the quote, 'I'm burning inside to touch you baby'. To this day, she didn't know what it was about that particular line, but hearing the young Johnny Depp say it always sped up her heartbeat a little and made her pine for the day when someone might just say that to her.

  Before she could answer, she felt little tingles in her shoulder where his hand was suddenly touching her. Wowzah, that's a strong reaction to such a little touch!

  "Hold on, let me re-read it," he requested, but there was not much of a question to his light but insistent touch.

  As Lila turned back around, she saw the questioning looks from her roommates. They clearly did not recognize Dylan and weren't sure of his intentions. She gave them a reassuring smile; she did not know his intentions either but she was secretly thrilled to find out.

  Remember, he has a player's reputation. Don't read too much into anything!

  She heard him reading the wording to himself twice before the exclamation, "Oh, this is from that movie last night! Johnny Depp says it! Wow, you really are a fan of that movie."

  Her heart sped up as she readied herself to give the time old defense of her beloved tattoo. To her surprise, Dylan looked amused and interested. Whatever she expected it hadn't been that; it stole the retort from her lips. "Yeah, it's my favorite."

  He nodded. "I have always loved My Cousin Vinny but somehow I don't think a tattoo saying, 'Two Yutes' would look as good as yours."

  She grinned, she couldn't stop herself. "Yeah, people would just assume you couldn't spell."

  Why am I just grinning at him like an idiot? she asked herself after a moment.

  Luckily, she was saved from further embarrassment by the next band finishing their warm up and beginning to play.

  "Mind if I dance with you ladies for a bit?" Dylan asked, but he wasn't looking at her, instead he was looking at her three roommates.

  Lila looked at her friends in time to see them nod and exchange knowing glances. They might not know who he was but they most likely recognized her interest in him and were curious.

  --------------------

  Lila was pleasantly surprised when Dylan not only danced with her but with each of her roommates. Granted he danced with her decidedly more, but she was still impressed with the fact that he went out of his way to make her friends feel more comfortable.

  She didn't know how long he stayed with them until her roommate let her know it was probably time to head out. In the evenings the downtown would become more crowded with visitors from out of the city all headed to dinner and drinks; every year Lila and her roommates went out of their way to make sure they were heading out by then.

  When she turned to let Dylan know they were heading out, she was struck by the look she saw on his face. He legitimately looks disappointed. From what I have heard about his playboy reputation from Bryce, that seems at odds. He couldn't possibly like me that much, could he? We just met.

  Before she could open her mouth, unsure what words were about to come out, he beat her to it. "Hang out with me tomorrow. I can ditch my family responsibilities for a bit and we can see the festival together. It has been a long time since I was able to experience the Highland Lake Fourth of July like a normal person."

  Lila was caught off guard by his request; she wasn't sure what to make of the known playboy turning his attentions to her. What do I do? I think it would be fine and even if it isn't, I can always bail. But I don’t want to get involved with someone who's known for being a womanizer. Oh, snap out of it, Lila; it's not like he's asking for some kind of commitment. He's not even asking you out on the date - just someone to pal around with at the festival other than his family, what have you got to lose? Lila chewed on her lower left lip in indecision, and old trait of hers that she tried to break the habit of since it tended to get lipstick on her teeth. She took a deep breath and looked Dylan in the eyes. "Sure, I'll meet you in front of Reid's Pies at eleven a.m."

  Dylan cocked an eyebrow at her and the sides of his mouth twitched, "Isn't eleven a.m. a little early for pie?"

  Lila felt the stress drain from her as she snorted, "Don't be silly, it is never too early for pie." She then gave her turn extra bounce so her ponytail would swish behind her as she turned to join her roommates a few feet away.

  She was immensely proud of herself for managing to not trip at all in the grass, which would have marred her perfect exit. The rest of the walk home was spent with her friends questioning her on Dylan. Lucky for her, their interest in her and Dylan only lasted about two thirds of the walk home before they started discussing things like dinner and if anyone wanted to watch a movie. Lila was grateful because she wasn't entirely sure she could handle much more scrutiny. How pathetic was it that her friends were this excited about her merely hanging around with a guy. What did that say about her love life? Shaking her head to clear it, Lila honed in on her roommates’ conversation and gave it her full concentration. She was not going to think about Dylan until tomorrow, even if she had to force herself to think about something else.

  Chapter 8

  When Dylan finally managed to break away from his mother, that is he bribed his brothers to make excuses for him so he could walk away for a couple of hours, he was jogging through the rows of tents to try and find the pie place he knew he had seen somewhere around this section of the park. It wasn't the high table he noticed first but instead it was Lila in a white retro dress with a slightly puffy skirt and what appeared to be little red cherries decorating the fabric. She was chatting with a woman who looked to be about the same age, standing behind the table, with a stick resting on her ruby red lower lip. After a quick look on the table Dylan was able to figure out the stick belonged to a cake pop.

  He couldn't help the smile forming on his face at the sight of her; he couldn't remember the last time simply looking at a woman filled him with this much joy. What is it about her? I find myself drawn to her, just wanting to know what it is she's thinking or what her thoughts on any certain subject are. Get yourself together Dylan, she is just a woman and you will be outta here, first thing Tuesday. Something about that last thought bothered him, it didn't ring as true as it should have. Maybe it was his father's offer that had him so tangled up. Something in him said it wasn't the only reason but he pushed that aside and went to stand directly to the left of Lila.

  He was content to simply watch her for several beats as she interacted with the other woman; they seemed to be talking about Scotland if he wasn't mistaken. Then after a few seconds the other woman seem to notice him and it wasn't until she was watching him blatantly that Lila turned and saw him, jumping in the process.

  "Oh, hi. How long have you been standing there?" she asked, giving him a bit of a nervous smile.

  Does she even know how attractive she is? She has to, right? It's not like she would
n't have noticed. "Not that long, I just did not want to interrupt your conversation," he lied.

  She nodded before waving and saying goodbye to the other woman, almost seamlessly turned and looped her arm through his since his hand was in his pocket. It was a very familiar and comfortable gesture that made his heart speed up in excitement, but also made him nervous. She didn't do it in the way the party girls did in Seattle, as if showing him off like he was a trophy. Lila was simply being companionable.

  Thinking, he tried to focus on something besides the warmth of her arm through his sleeve. "Where would you like to go to lunch? I know it's a little early, though I don't have much time before my mother notices I'm gone and sends my brothers to hunt me down. I know I said yesterday I would be able to spend the entire afternoon but as it turns out, my mother has the entire afternoon booked. In fact, I'm apparently helping her Judge some kind of food contest later. I'm not 100% sure what - I get the feeling my brothers played a 'not it' contest before I got here and I might've gotten something terrible like homemade sauerkraut or something."

  Lila chuckled, "I like sauerkraut but I could see where it might go wrong, so good luck." She let out an adorable little giggle. "How about the Thai place about four blocks away? That's far enough to not really be with the festivities but close enough that you won’t get in trouble for being gone too long."

  Dylan nodded then gently turned them in the direction of the restaurant in question. "Sounds good, in fact it sounds perfect." The Thai place hadn't been around very long, only about three or four years, and it was surprisingly good considering it was the only Thai place in Highland Lake. Dylan was used to having many Thai places around in Seattle. He had expected the one in Highland Lake to not be anywhere near the same standards, and he had been pleasantly surprised.

  They walked to the restaurant in a companionable silence; to be fair they were passing a good number of people as well as the stage where bands played. It was much easier to just remain silent than to try and uphold a conversation while walking through the festival grounds. It wasn't until after they had gotten into the restaurant and placed their food orders that Dylan felt he had a good chance to break the silence.

  "Forgive me if this is too forward, but I have to ask, what made you move back here? If memory serves, in order to be a librarian most of the time you either have to have experience or a degree in that kind of thing. So what made you settle in Highland Lake instead of heading west?"

  Dylan cursed himself when he watched her face fall for a moment. It didn't fall completely but crumbled around the edges a bit before she could catch herself and a sad smile replaced the happy one that had been there moments before.

  "Actually, I went to school in Seattle, even got a Master's degree in library sciences, which I know isn’t everybody's cup of tea. I had even gone so far as to make it to the final round of interviews in the Seattle Public Library system when I got word that my father had gone to the doctor because he hadn't been feeling too well. Turned out he had cancer, it was in the early stages but it was still there. So with treatment and surgery and recovery and all that, he had to bump himself down to part-time at work so I came home and took a position at the Highland Lake library to help out. I still have three younger brothers, the oldest of which just graduated high school, that were living at home so the extra income was definitely needed. I was only there for about a year when my dad was pretty much recovered, in remission and could work again. By that point, I don't know, I wanted to stay so moved into a house with a couple of my friends and that's where I'm at."

  Silence overwhelmed him; he couldn't imagine being in that situation. He would like to think he would do the same thing if roles were reversed but if Dylan was honest with himself, he wasn't sure he would have. Here his dad was asking him to take over the family business and he was balking, whereas Lila picked up the slack for her family completely unasked and didn't seem to be bothered by the fact that she had given up an opportunity to help her family. Not only was it eye-opening but it made his heart ache for her. Being the oldest sibling he understood wanting to put on a stronger front for the younger siblings and having to do that in such a hard situation couldn't have been easy.

  "I'm sorry you and your family went through that but I'm glad to hear he's in remission."

  The sad smile softened a little. "Thank you. But enough about sad things; what is this I keep hearing about you being one of the most eligible bachelors in Seattle?" She said it as if it was an overly dramatic award he received and it made him smile.

  "Yeah, I'm sure my brother told you but I made that list three years in a row. It is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it gets me a lot of business connections and clients because it shows I'm rather successful; on the other hand it means that I get a lot of gold diggers coming after me."

  There didn't seem to be a conversational place to go from there so there was a bit of a lull until the food arrived. It wasn't a bad silence; there was a sort of contentedness to it Dylan was completely unused to. He could imagine himself sitting across from Lila for many meals in this companionable silence and being completely happy. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to live in a quiet city with a woman as interesting as this. Hello, where did that thought come from?

  Dylan blinked hard, then he realized Lila must have said something because she was looking at him expectantly. "I'm sorry, say that again."

  Her smile jerked in the corners. "I said with your love of Seattle, your brother’s words not mine, what brings you out here for the festival?"

  Relieved by the welcome distraction from his thoughts, Dylan gave his best charming smile. "There are three holidays a year that a Roth son does not miss for fear of facing our mother's wrath. Those holidays are Christmas, Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July festival. While the last is strictly not one day, we are still expected to attend the entire festival, as it is basically our mother's fourth child. She spends an exorbitant amount of time planning this every year working with the planning committee and making sure everything goes smoothly. It is simply expected of us to be here; I can't really imagine what it would be like if I simply just didn't show. I think she might hire someone to kill me," he joked.

  Her smile made her eyes twinkle a little, "I… I see. Yes, best not anger the parents. Especially yours since she all but runs this town, behind the scenes that is."

  The groan he let out was unintentional but he didn't try to take it back. "I know, she should just run for mayor and get it over with."

  They both chuckled and continued to eat their food, chatting about the goings-on of Highland Lake and little quirks it had being so close to the mountains, almost isolated, and yet less than a ninety-minute drive from Seattle.

  They lingered at the restaurant for quite a while after they finished eating, but by one o'clock Dylan knew his brothers probably couldn't cover for him any longer and he begrudgingly informed Lila they should probably head back to the festival. They took the long way back, going over several blocks so they would go down Main Street instead of cutting through the downtown area like they had before. Dylan wasn't entirely sure where his family would be but he figured he would come across one of them eventually and until then he wanted Lila all to himself. There's something about her, she's funny, intelligent and beautiful; I can't seem to get enough of her.

  His plan was soon foiled as once they started walking past the larger tents along the outside of the festival grounds; he quickly caught sight of Dorian and Bryce who clearly were searching the crowds for him. It was Dorian who noticed him first and smacked their youngest brother as the two of them bee-lined for him and Lila.

  Knowing he only had a few moments before his brothers whisked him away to whatever duty his mother decided he had, Dylan turned to Lila. "It appears I can't escape my family responsibility so how about you do me a favor and spend the day with me tomorrow? Sure, you'll end up spending it with my younger brothers and most likely my parents but you have younger brothers so that shouldn't be to
o hard for you and I'm sure after a while my mother will take pity on us and let us wander away. You don't have to answer now; I know spending time with one's own family can be a bit draining and even more so if it's someone else's family so just leave it at this: if you would like to spend the day with me tomorrow then meet me along the beginning of the parade route at nine a.m. Yes, I know the parade doesn't actually start until ten but since the baby parade is something my mother, for some reason, quite loves we will unfortunately be there for that and it would be much appreciated if there was someone there to uphold the sanity at something so ridiculous. Hopefully I'll see you tomorrow." He took a step toward his brothers then stopped, turning back to Lila. "And thank you, by the way, for meeting me for lunch; that was absolutely wonderful. I only wish I had been able to give you the whole afternoon like I initially intended."

  He couldn't think of a better ending so he simply turned back around and took the last few steps to his brothers. Both started apologizing and informing him their mother had sent them out to find him because he did indeed have the sauerkraut competition to help her judge. They had approximately ten more minutes to find him and bring him to their mother before they face her wrath. Taking a deep breath, Dylan prepared himself for an afternoon at his mother's beck and call. Something about the lunch with Lila seemed to almost replenish his patience, for the moment anyway; he would see if it lasted the rest of the afternoon.

  Chapter 9

  It was louder than usual, not like a big city but there was sort of far-off ambient noise coming from downtown due to all the extra people being in the area of interest. It wasn't so loud that Lila couldn't shut it out from where she lay on her oversized picnic blanket on the beach of Highland Lake. She wasn't on the beach itself but the grassy area that had a slight slope upward farther inland. Ever since she could remember, Lila had always found something calming about the beach at Highland Lake; even when it was full of people swimming there was just something about it that hit home for her. Ever since she had come back after college she had taken to going for a walk in the evening, weather permitting, and just lying on the beach staring up at the stars for a while thinking. Sometimes one of her roommates would go with her and other times, like tonight, she would be on her own. Highland Lake wasn't like Seattle; she never had to fear being out alone like she would have if she had stayed in the bigger city. That was one good thing about her returning home: she always felt safe.