Page 14 of Again, In Autumn

I jutted my chin to the items behind him. “I also need to get some coffee.”

“Sure.” He slid out of the way.

I looked up at the top shelf, then glanced at my new neighbor who waited for me to get the bag of Heddy’s favorite organic coffee beans.

“I’m about to do something that I’m not proud of,” I said, placing my basket on the ground.

He tilted his head. “Are you going to steal some coffee?”

“No.”

I settled my foot on the second to the bottom shelf and climbed up to the top. If it had been on the edge of the shelf, I could have jumped and swiped it, but Heddy told people about this brand, and it grew in popularity. She brewed it in the sister location of Magic and Minerals, which happened to be next door.

As I climbed down from the shelf, something warm touched my skin. My feet on the ground, I discovered Adam touching me, his palm pressed into the visible part of my back.

“I didn’t want you to fall,” he said, looking down at my eyes.

“I’m fine, I do that all the time,” I said, stepping away and pulling the edge of my shirt down.

He spread his fingers wide and stuck them in his back pocket, shaking his head, cheeks pink. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to touch you like that. I don’t know why I did.”

My jaw dropped a little.

I’d never seen anything like it.

I wish I’d had a camera or a film crew making a documentary about the wild because Adam did something I didn’t know was possible: act genuinely remorseful for touching my exposed, baby flesh. I only knew handsome boys to be cocky about it, too familiar with their hands, always looking for an opportunity to touch a girl and call it heroism. They weren’t embarrassed afterward. They wanted a special kind of thank you.

Adam cast his eyes down and visually rebuked himself.

At that moment, I liked him. I had quickly put him in a box that he proved not to belong in, from what I could see in that moment, anyway. He surprised me.

I loved surprises.

“Do you want some cookies, later?” I asked him.

Adam looked up and smiled. “With coffee?”

“Well.” I held up the bag. “This is my godmother’s expensive, organic Hawaiian coffee that I had to scale a wall to get, so not this particular brew. I’m gonna go with Folgers.”

Adam blinked slowly, assessing my body.

“Not like a date or anything,” I blurted out. Then, I shut my eyes and stopped myself before the facepalm inevitably followed.

“It’s not a date if there’s not organic Hawaiian coffee involved,” he said.

I opened my eyes. Adam had a gentle smile on his face. Something in his energy made me calm, like rolling atop a warm, easy wave in the ocean. He didn’t make me feel embarrassed. He did, however, make me feel tingly and hot.

I needed to shoot down the idea of a date because of the look forming on his face. It wasn’t smarmy or predatory, but definitely interested, like he was touching me with his eyes.

The Care Bears shirt did it for him.

“I’ll bring the cookies over later,” I said, tucking my hair behind my ears. People passed. We were in the way. They grumbled and eyeballed us, but I didn’t care.

Adam said, “No need, I’m coming over to go on the boat with your sister and her boyfriend.”

“Oh,” I said, unaware of the plan.

Francesca always told me when she and David were going to take out his dad’s boat. They must have planned it without me, knowing I was going to bake cookies, because she didn’t want me to join them.

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