

If that smile isn’t enough of a reason to be here… “I didn’t mean you had to sign up for this project, but I’m glad you’re here.” A smile pushed into his dimples. He said hi to a couple of guys before he reached me. Seemed like this was the last place in the world he would have expected to see me. It took him a minute to spot me, and his head jerked side to side as he blinked a few times, as though trying to determine if he was imagining me there. He nudged the bridge of his glasses as he approached the crowd collected around the captain. Then, finally, I saw something out of the corner of my eye and turned to see James jogging lightly up the road, in a dirty white tee and a pair of torn dark-wash jeans. I hated how disappointed I became as we drew closer to call time.

I chatted up some of the guys as we waited for instructions, and I found myself repeatedly checking the drive to see if James would show. After parking my Hyundai at the end of the line of vehicles, I followed a couple of other volunteers in H4H shirts to the half-finished house.
