Coming Home to Greenleigh

Chapter 14

[Here are the lyrics for this video...kind of fitting for Beth and Greenleigh? Shawn and Greenleigh? Leather Jacket Dude and Greenleigh? He does have a name, by the way, I'm just not mentioning it because it doesn't come up till close to the end of this chapter!

Lyrics courtesy of Genius, https://genius.com/Bt-always-lyrics

There's nothing for us in this one-horse town
You make your own luck in a one-horse town
You live in a place they forgot to pull down
How many escape from a one-horse town?

If it were me I'd be always running, always running with you, always
We're gonna be always together, always running, always
Always, always

Same old dreams of escape again
Our same old dreary fate again
That one-horse town malaise again
Let's take to the streets so we can breathe again
And we scream our names, to the heavens and the plains
Then we'll run like hell and get clear of this place
We'll have more a raging heart than grace
But I'd take that any day, always...

If it were me I'd be always running, always running with you, always
We're gonna be always together, always running, always
Always, always

We'll scream our names to the heavens and the waves
Then we'll run like hell and get clear of this place
We'll have more a raging heart than grace

We won't care
We'll be always running
Always running, with you, always
We're gonna be, always together
Always running...

Cause we are above the law, on this dance floor
The freedom drives us crazy
And we are beyond control
The music is burning through our souls
The more it drives us crazy
The more it drives us crazy
The more it drives us crazy
Always. Yeah

Cause we are above the law, on this dance floor
The freedom drives us
The freedom drives us
The freedom drives us
Always
On this dance floor
Always
The freedom drives us crazy

Always. Always. Always]

***

He had to repeat himself, because at first Elisabeth didn't answer. She sat in her seat next to the window, frozen with indecision.

"Elisabeth."

"Nice to meet you, Elisabeth."

She wasn't used to being addressed by cute guys in leather jackets, but there was no one else in the shop, there was a nor'easter starting up outside, and he had just poured her a second steaming cup of something hot and black. It smelled fantastic. Ms. Tattoo must have done up a fresh pot just a little while ago.

She could just leave, she supposed. And avoid the temptation to get friendly with this kid.

She got up slowly.

"Actually, let me bring it to you. Don't leave. Really, it's okay. I watch the place for Gina all the time. In fact, let's eat all the cookies." He nodded toward the cookie jar on the counter and reached for a plate.

"Uh—I've been here for awhile, I should get going anyway," Elisabeth said, trying to disguise her alarm.

"Don't make me eat all the cookies by myself," Leather Jacket continued. "I'm hungry, I'm gonna go for it. Mmm. Looks like snickerdoodles. Sorry, I'm going to stick my hand in here--oh, wait. There are wax paper things." He fished out a stack of cookies and set them on the plate, then brought the plate and coffee over to Elisabeth's table. To her dismay, he pulled out a chair, flipped it around, and sat down, leaning his arms against the chair back. He helped himself to a cookie.

"Thanks," she said, but merely watched as he munched. He had a flop of dark hair over one eye and had clearly not seen a shave in a couple of days. The leather jacket that had looked threatening from a distance looked comfortable and worn up close, and she saw that one of the pocket zippers was broken and had been mended with a safety pin. He looked younger than her—or at any rate, younger than she felt.