Instead, this time, it was Ryker.
Someone who was new to all of this but was navigating it quite well.
“No sorries,” he said as he handed me another piece of donut. I looked up at him, finally meeting his gaze.
Soft and understanding.
“That hasn’t happened in a while,” I admitted. “The freezing up, I mean.”
“I was going to ask if this had happened before.”
“It has.” I took another bite he offered. “It used to happen a lot more when I was doing new things and I was alone, so I’d only go places where I had pre-planned and knew what to get. But when I’m with others, I tend to have an internal freak out where I start to clam up when I don’t know what I want, since I can’t always plan things. When Jemma is with me, she helps, but we” I motioned between us “haven’t spent much time together,so when those other people came behind us and it was a time crunch, the shutdown started.”
“How are you feeling now?” Ryker crumpled the now-empty bag and threw it away.
Somehow in this conversation, I’d eaten the whole donut and was now feeling a lot better.
“Better. Thank you.” I said with an ever-growing smile on my face. I took a deep breath, and Ryker stood there, watching me, waiting patiently. I breathed in and out, regaining my composure from moments ago, and looked back at the booth that now had no line. “Lemonade?”
“Only if you’re ready.”
“I am,” I said with confidence.
Ryker held his hand out, motioning for me to go first to the man and place my order.
“I’ll take a strawberry lemonade with juice only, and he’ll have an original.”
“Coming right up.” The man said cheerfully as he turned around and made our drinks. His assistant rang us up, and Ryker swooped in, paying for both our drinks. “Here you go.”
The man handed us both large containers with our drinks, and we thanked him and made our way over to another aisle, walking down and viewing all the different options available for purchase.
I held my drink in one hand, and the other hung at my side, sweeping next to Ryker’s hand. After the second swipe by, he grabbed my hand, once again intertwining our fingers as we meandered through the rest of the farmer’s market.
“This is quite the turnout.” Ryker’s gaze moved from the booths to those walking around with their downs, wagons filled with goodies.
“It’s like this every weekend, and with the season soon coming to an end, everyone is stocking up.”
“Season?”
“Our farmer’s market ends right before winter hits since it gets too cold. We’ll be closed for the season, and next year will open back up in full swing. That’s typically when I do my stocking up if I haven’t been able to reach the vendors directly to purchase.”
I took a drink of my lemonade; the sweetness outweighed the sour. Silence enveloped us as we walked down the last of the aisles, just as some of the vendors were packing up. I looked over at City Hall, the large clock built to see that it was, in fact, the end of the market day.
“It looks like it’s about done for the day.”
“It does.” Ryker pulled us off to the side, away from everyone else.
We stared at each other. I didn’t want this to end like this, us just leaving each other, but I had no idea where to go from here. I hadn’t wanted a date to continue or go on another in such a long time. I’d been wanting to see Ryker again, anyway, but this time was an accident, and I wasn’t sure how to make it purposefully happen again without flat-out asking him on a date.
I was not that brave.
“So, tell me about yourself.”
The smile on Ryker’s face grew, and a small laugh escaped him.
“What would you like to know?” One of his eyebrows arched as he asked his question.
I took my hand away from his and placed it on my chin to think. What to ask him to prolong his presence here.
