Page 35 of Falling for Autumn Again

I don’t take five seconds to turn to see who the gawkers are—Autumn is on a Diet Coke mission and if I pause now, I’ll lose her.

“Hey!” I call, jogging to catch up to her once my feet hit the dirt floor.

Her hair flies outward, like the world’s biggest Chinese fan, and her brown eyes land on me. “What?” she barks, as if that whole Diet Coke fiasco was my fault.It was not.

“You forgot your hat,” I say—since I have no other answer.Andbecause I’m a nice guy and her hair really is somethingspecialat the moment.

She snatches it away from me and mashes it onto her head, her ears poking out, reminding me of Don.

“Why are you following me, Ezra?”

“Why are you so angry, Autumn?” It’s just something to throw back at her. But it’s exactly the right question. She’s angry. And I don’t understand why.

“I’m not angry!” she yells, solidifying my point.

I reach for her elbow, forcing her to stop on the dirt floor behind the stands. My sore feet go weak. I peer down into those amber brown eyes and tan face and—I want to kiss her.

I have no business kissing this woman. Or even wanting to. And if anyone here should be angry, it’s me. But I can’t change the fact that it’s what I want. No matter that it’s coming out of left field.

Or maybe it’s not.

Phil and Dr. Appleby would tell me thatleft fieldis a wrong assessment. Left field means it came out of nowhere, and they would both accuse me of being dishonest with myself.

But I shouldn’t want to kiss her. Not after the way she left things between us. Still, when I look at her all those feelings, thegoodand the bad, they all come back.

I cup her cheek and lean my head a little closer to hers. Breathing her in is like inhaling your favorite drug after it’s been out of your system for a time. It’s never truly never gone. And that’s just it, Autumn Green has never truly been out of my system.

“What about Bre?” she says, stopping my descent.

Bre? My ex? How does she even know about Bre?

“Why are you here, Ezra? Because I don’t understand why you’d leave New York, the Yankees, or yourwifeto come back here.”

“My—” I blink, a thousand blinks, trying to make sense of herwords. Blinking is easier than speaking, but I finally find my voice. “I’m not married, you loon.” My heart betrays me with a flutter—is that why she’s so angry? She thinks I’m married?

“But you got engaged. I saw—” She clamps her lips closed.

I tug her a little closer, my left hand still wrapped around her elbow, my right still at her cheek. “You saw what? Bre and I broke up a long time ago. I don’t know what you saw. But it wasn’t accurate.”

She swallows, her cheeks flooding a pretty pink. “It doesn’t matter.” She dips her head away from my hold and I drop my hand altogether.

“And yet it feels like it might,” I say.

I loosen my hold on her elbow, trying to find some semblance of an answer in her eyes, when she yanks her arm from my grasp and charges over to the long concession stand line.

The Prairie Dog crowd roars and the cannon booms once more, distracting me for a second. I turn toward the field, but I can’t see what’s happened. When I circle back around, Autumn is yards away, headed for the exit.

“What about Billie’s drink?” I yell.

She lifts one hand in the air, waving back. “You get it!”

Chapter Sixteen

Autumn

It’spast seven when I end up at Mom’s.

I slip into the house, ignoring the chipping paint on the exterior of the house. I don’t know how to worry about that. I can’t. There’s no time. There’s no money.

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