I hold the stem so she can cut, and as I hand her the final flower, our fingers brush.
I expect her to move away, jump or run orsomething, but she stays put, her eyes following the touch like she’s just examining the whole interaction. Her eyes flick up to mine as she gathers the flowers in a bunch, arranging them just so for my grandmother.
“What do you think?” she asks, admiring the final product.
I make sure my eyes don’t drift from hers when I speak. “Beautiful.”
The faintest pink spreads across her cheeks as she turns, continuing along the pathway. “I hope she likes them.”
“They were picked with love. She’ll adore them.”
Eve side-eyes me.
“What?”
She shrugs, shaking her head as we continue along the path.
As we get further into the sunflowers, we pass small trails that lead to clearings with picnic tables and Adirondack chairs where a few families are sitting and eating lunch. We step to the side as a few small kids run wild among the sunflowers, parents shouting after them to slow down and stay respectful of others.
The path narrows as we get deeper in, and when we turn a sharp corner and nearly collide with another couple, Eve takes a sudden step in front of me. Without thinking, I stop short, resting a hand on her hip while they pass us with polite smiles.
When they’re gone, she doesn’t move right away, her head turning slightly toward me like maybe she’s thinking this is the time to repeat that kiss we started last time we were lost among the sunflowers.
Not that I’m thinking about that.
Not at all.
I clear my throat, taking a step back from her, and her foot lifts ever so slightly like she’s considering turning toward me. Maybe resting her hand on my chest like she did when we kissed.
But she takes a step forward instead, glancing over her shoulder as if to make sure I’m following her.
I’m quick to fall into step with her again and anxious to come upon another narrow portion of the path so she’ll step in front of me again—or maybe she won’t. Maybe she’ll gesture for me to go first so I don’t touch her like a total dolt.
But as we walk, the path narrowing and widening and all sorts of people meandering through the flowers and forcing us to one side or the other, her arm brushes mine more often than I’d expect it to, like maybe she’s searching to repeat that touch just like I am. She doesn’t hesitate to step in front of me, like she’s daring me to do it again, but I don’t—except for the time I trip over a raised root and my hand justfindsher hip like it’s naturally magnetized to it.
“You okay?” she asks, resting her hand on my arm as if to steady me.
I pause a second before I nod, because I like having her hand there. “Thanks to you.”
She rolls her eyes, promptly turning and heading for the exit, which I'm disappointed to see we’re quickly approaching. “Last chance for any more sunflowers.”
“I think you’ve got all I need,” I say, and when she turns back toward me, her eyebrows raised and a wild look in her eye, I nod to the sunflowers in her hand. “That bouquet is perfect for her.”
She nods as she directs us toward the exit again, and I drop my scissors in the bucket at the end of the trail as we leave the privacy of the sunflowers and head down the dirt road back to Gam.
And I’m so busy tryingnotto look at Eve that I don’t even realize when her arm flies out in front of me, stopping me in my tracks. I grab her, afraid I’m going to bowl her over.
“Do you see what I see?” she asks, and I follow her line of sight to my grandmother’s bench in the distance. Next to her is a man roughly her age, dressed in muddy overalls that remind me of Eve’s. He smiles at her, laughing easily at something she says. Gam has her hand on his forearm, totally at ease. “Is Gam… flirting with Vic?”
“No,” I say, becauseGam? Flirting?No way. Uh-uh. “She hasn’t so much as glanced at a man since my grandfather died twenty years ago.”
Eve looks back at me, and I become very aware of her forearm against my abdomen, holding me in place. My hand, which has found its way right back to that spot on her hip.
“Well, I think Gam found a man worth glancing at.”
Eve takes a small step toward them, pausing when she realizes my hand is moving with her. She grabs my arm, tugging me along. “Come on, let’s see what they’re chatting about.”
Reluctantly, I follow her over.
