Chapter Thirteen

Sophie tilted her neck, hearing the satisfying pops as she turned from side to side, trying to work out the kinks that had formed from unboxing books and creating displays at the shop all day. She and Matt had worked long after the shop had closed, organizing and reshelving books to be ready for another busy day tomorrow before calling it a night.

With as much energy as she could muster, Sophie meandered out the front door of Fairfields towards the post box in the lane to retrieve Auntie Barbara's mail. She'd received a few postcards from her father, and one letter penned by her mother, but otherwise the mail was for Auntie Barbara alone.

Sophie stifled a yawn as she reached the box, digging out catalogs and bills, letters and advertisements for Auntie Barbara. As she turned back towards the house, she saw movement out of the corner of her eye.

Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Daniel Davies lifting huge sacks of what looked like grain into the bed of his farm truck.

Mostly, though, what she saw was that Daniel Davies was naked from the waist up.

She watched the muscles of his back and shoulders shift with each movement, and her eyes drifted to the hard planes of his stomach, which she knew had been earned through hard, honest work and not hundreds of meaningless reps at the gym. His skin was smooth and bronzed, and looked almost like silk over steel. She thought about what it would be like to touch that smooth skin…

He was a jackass through and through, that was true, but my, he was a credit to men everywhere with that body, Sophie thought appreciatively, continuing to watch him work, a light sheen of sweat covering his body, the black pants he wore hanging on his slender hips as he moved.

The view sure was nice, but…

This is ridiculous, Sophie chastised herself. Just go over there, make peace with the man and move on with your night, she thought sternly. Standing around watching him work or cursing his name with a voodoo doll wasn't going to close the rift between them.

Squaring her shoulders, Sophie put the mail back into the box for safekeeping and strode across the lane, opening Daniel's gate with a squeal. He stopped what he was doing immediately, his eyes burning into her as she approached him as she would a stray dog.

She thought of a number of pleasant ice breakers to start with as she walked over, and he straightened, waiting for her. "Yeah? What is it?" He asked, his baritone voice low, suspicious.

She tried to remain positive, but as she came to a halt before him she blurted out instead, "Why didn't you wave at me today? That was just completely rude."

He blinked, and then took a step back from her. He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, but instead said nothing with a small shake of his head.

Sophie sighed heavily and continued. "Nice. Good answer. Appreciate the honesty."

"I didn't want to disturb you," he said, his voice still quiet but steely. "You looked to be busy."

"Disturb me with a WAVE?" Sophie squawked. "Give me a break!"

"I apologize," he said simply, still watching her with those midnight blue eyes. She waited a moment to see if he would expand on his apology, or to try and make conversation on his own, but to no avail.

Sophie sighed then, biting back about a hundred nasty responses. "Listen, can you tell me something?" she finally said after a pause, trying to offer an olive branch of some sort, the opportunity to discuss something mundane.

He lifted his chin a fraction of an inch. "What?"

Sophie caught her lower lip in her teeth, nibbling slightly with nervousness. "Can you tell me where a super center or a big grocery store is? I… I'm running a little low on supplies, and really need to find a Wal-Mart equivalent to stock up. I'm a little tired of soup and sandwiches for every meal," she said, with a self deprecating smile in the hopes it would win him over.

Daniel's expression changed a bit, and for a moment she thought he might actually break character and smile, but his face remained wooden. "We don't do super centers in England the way there's one seemingly on every corner in America. We prefer small groceries with food cultivated by local farmers, rather than subsidized food sources like you. Local food by local people. But I'm sure you think farmers are beneath you, preferring your anonymous, characterless grocery centers."

Sophie put her hands on her hips, her temper flaring. "You know what, you may think all Americans are stupid, senseless, brainless lumps of humanity, but I'm not one of them. For your information, I was friends with a lot of farm families growing up and I have the utmost respect for what they do and how hard they work. In fact, I would probably say the same about you, except that you are so nasty and hateful and prickly you'd never accept the compliment, so I won't even share that with you. Instead, I'm going to wonder why you have been so insanely rude to me when I've done nothing to you. I asked a simple question, as someone not from this 'world', and you are just… scornful."

She took a breath from her rapid fire dialogue then continued. "Thanks, Daniel Davies. Thanks so much for your help in answering my question. I guess that answers that – if you had been raised a gentleman, you might actually act like one. Instead, you're just…" She trailed her eyes up and down that stomach one last time. "You're just an animal." She paused, and then lowered her own voice. "This may not be my 'world', but at least I'm a part of it. From what I can tell, you're dead to everyone around you. So be it."

And with that parting shot, she turned on her heel and fled back to her own side of the lane, forgetting the mail in the box altogether.

(Author's Note: Wanna see the inspiration? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvKgrAqtkBs *rawr*)

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