Page 33 of Let Me

“Did you hear me?”

I blink out of my trance and look at her.“Yes.I heard you.”

“If you heard me, what did I say?”

“You said you like holding my hand.”

“What did I say after that?”

I shrug.“I have no idea.”

“See!”She giggles.“You ain’t paying me no attention.I said you feel tense.”

I think I’m more nervous than tense.I’m not sure what I’m doing with Autumn or if I should be doing this at all.I’m enjoying myself so much, I’m not thinking about the consequences of my actions for both of us.

“I am a little tense,” I say, agreeing with her just because.“Maybe if you’d loosen the death grip you have on my hand...”

She cackles.“Oh, so it’smyfault.”

“It is.”

She slips her hand away from mine, much to my dismay, and asks, “Better?”

No.

I reach for her hand and say, “No one told you to release my hand.”

“Oh.I thought I wasgripping you too tightly,” she quips.

“You can hold on to me as tight as you want to, sweetheart.”

Sweetheart?Did I really just say that?

She’s all smiles as we head outside to cross the bridge.

“Hey, we should take a selfie.”

“I don’t like pictures,” I tell her.

“What?Why?”

“I just don’t.”

“As handsome as you are, you don’t like pictures?Stop the nonsense.Gimmie your phone?”

“Do you know how to take no for an answer?”

“I do, but not in this instance.Phone,” she demands with her hand out, waiting for me to hand it to her.

I take my phone out of my pocket, unlock it, and tap the camera.“You want me to take the picture, too?”

“Yeah.With those long arms, you should be able to get a good shot.”

I extend my right arm, getting into position to take the shot.

“Hey, I can take that for you,” a woman says.

“Oh, that would be great,” Autumn tells her.

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