Page 45 of All Autumn
“I’m right where I want to be. Go.” Although we weren’t doing what I wanted, and for sure it wasn’t sleeping, I was beginning to wonder if Autumn and I would ever manage to get naked under the sheets together. Over a year now I’d been in a holding pattern, waiting for her and the right moment. I was starting to feel like a monk, and my man parts were extremely unhappy with me.
“Connor?” she said, pausing at the entrance to her hallway.
“Yeah?”
“Tonight didn’t go like I wanted it to. The first thing I was going to tell you when you came over was that I don’t feel weird about kissing you. Or anything else we might do.” Her cheeks blushed pink. “Are going to do.”
“You can’t begin to imagine how happy I am to hear that.” And that pretty smile she gave me before she disappeared down the hallway felt like an arrow had zinged my heart. A little arrow, but one all the same.
I wasn’t falling for her exactly. Not like in love or anything, because I don’t and won’t do love, but I was liking her a whole lot in a more than “just a friend I was hopefully going to have sex with” kind of way. That was a mouthful, not to mention heavy on my mind. I just hoped to hell Autumn and I knew what we were doing.
25
~ Autumn ~
After puttingit off for a day, I arrived at theBlue Ridge Valley Newswith Beau for his interview. I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that my dog had an interview. It had been tempting to blow it off altogether, but I’d be hounded out of town if I hadn’t shown up with my dog, so here we were. I told Beau to sit, which he did, I’m happy to say—he didn’t always obey my commands—then I stepped out of view of the camera Naomi was snapping pictures with.
As soon as we left here, I planned to call Connor and apologize. He’d foundPretty Woman, one of my favorite old movies, playing on a cable channel. I’d snuggled up to him to watch it and had promptly fallen asleep. At some point he’d carried me to bed, tucked me in, and then let himself out. I had to be the worst date in the world.
“Ask him the questions we wrote up,” Naomi said to Gloria as she knelt in front of Beau to get a close-up face shot. Naomi, somewhere in her seventies, had owned the gossip rag forever, since before I was born, anyway.
Gloria pulled over a metal chair, placing it in front of Beau, then sat. She opened a steno pad, where I assumed the questions were listed, glanced at it, and then said, “Were you afraid of the bear, Sam?”
I stared at her in disbelief. Did she actually think Beau was going to answer? His butt on the floor, a grin on his face, and his feathery tail sweeping across the wood, he barked, happy to be meeting a new friend. Beau wasn’t choosy. He considered everyone his friend, even gossipy reporters.
“That was a no,” I drily said. “And his name is Beau or Beauregard if you prefer.” I watched her writenoon her pad.
“Did you see the little cubs? Baby bears are so cute.”
Beau barked twice.
“That was a yes.” This was getting ridiculous, but what the heck. Beau was having fun.
Gloria clapped her hands. “I get it. One bark for no and two for yes.”
Sure, why not? It was really hard not to roll my eyes, but I settled for giving her an affirmative nod instead.
“Have you heard there might be a movie about you?”
Two barks.
“We’ve decided on the perfect title. Sam Saves the Senator’s Sister. Don’t you just love that?”
One bark.
Gloria looked at me with alarm. “He doesn’t like the title?”
“Apparently not.” And my dog was freaking me out. Like, he really couldn’t understand a word she was saying, right? “He’s fond of his name, which is Beau. How about Brave Beau Battles a Bear?” Any minute now my eyes were going to start rolling around in my head without my permission.
Beau barked twice.
She glanced at Naomi—who was still busy circling Beau, taking pictures—getting a nod. “Okay, that could work, but I’ll have to run it by Mary and the movie committee.”
There was a movie committee now? This was getting entirely out of hand. “You do that.” I stood, got Beau’s leash, and clipped it onto his collar. “Well, it’s been fun, but Beau and I have another appointment.” At the crazy farm.
“Oh, before you go, I need to tell you our exciting news,” Naomi said. “Senator Blanton has agreed to ride in the parade. We’ve arranged for two convertibles. The Blue Ridge Valley High School band will lead the way with the cars following. The senator, you, and Sam . . . er, maybe Beau now, depending on approval from the committee, will be in the first car. Connor will be in the second one.”
By himself? “No.”
