What little she could see of his face looked nervous, but Audrey only smiled softly and rested her chin in her hand. “Until you came here, huh? And what was so different aboutthiscafé?”
He didn’t say anything. He only looked at her, the little corner of his face finally softening more and more the longer he studied hers. His leg, which had a tendency to bounce under the table while they talked, stilled. Even his hand, which shook as he’d played with his coffee tumbler, stabilized slightly.
“I don’t know,” he finally murmured. “Must have been something about a very pretty barista who was very kind to me and very patient every time I came around. She didn’t seem to mind that I had trouble ordering, or talking to her, and she also happened to make me very good coffee—and tried to make me laugh. Maybe that made me feel safe after a while.” He shrugged. “But who am I to say?”
She grinned over the top of her cup. “I guess we’ll never know.”
His gaze warmed, the swirling colors in his eye more whiskey and amber today than they usually were. “I guess not.”
They talked through her break like they normally did, with Audrey drinking her coffee while Theo simply clung to his like an anchor. When she went back to work, Theo stuck around this timeinstead of leaving. Whenever she looked up to check on him, he was busy with his iPad. He was hard at work on something, the pen stylus gliding relatively smoothly across the glass surface despite the tremor in his hand, his eye never straying from his design, and she found herself trying to catch glimpses of the screen from across the café.
Not only that, but when she hung up her apron and gathered her things in the back room at the end of her shift, he still hadn’t left. She came out to find that he’d packed up as well and was waiting for her by the door, fidgeting back and forth on his feet and clutching the strap of his satchel across his chest.
“You waiting for me, Theo?”
His eye crinkled as he nodded. “You’re heading to campus, right?”
“Yeah.” Her face brightened. He’d paid attention when she talked about her schedule. “I’ve got an hour and a half before my next class.”
“I thought maybe I could at least walk you to the subway? If that’s okay?” He held his right hand out.
Audrey took it with a soft smile and marveled once again at how his entire palm engulfed her own. “Yes, please. You never have to ask.”
It was another beautiful fall day outside, the air crisp while the sunshine was warm, and she took her time strolling down the Brooklyn sidewalks with Theo, enjoying the way he radiated heat at her side. She also savored the way he looked in the light. Hints of auburn glinted in the shadowy depths of his hair beneath his cap, subtle highlights brought out by the sun. It was another little thing, cataloged and filed away in her mind, every new detail she noticed about him only adding to the overall portrait that was coming more and more firmly into focus. Every stroke of the brush added depth, and she saw more of him than she had before.
Layer by layer, he was letting her see him. She still wondered what she might find as more details emerged in the viewing.
But if she knew one thing, it was this:
Theo Sullivan was a sweet man.
He walked her all the way to the station, stopping only at the stairs leading underground.
“What are you up to the rest of the day?” Audrey finally asked him, giving their interlaced fingers another squeeze. His hand shook harder when he squeezed hers back.
“I had signed up for a charity art auction before my accident.” He had a hard time meeting her eyes. “I’m trying to come up with something for it, but I think I’ll have to quit. I don’t think I can execute on anything with my hand like this, and I can’t handle failing the organization I was hoping to support. They need the money.”
Her heart ached for him.
“Theo—”
“I’m not sure I can even call myself an artist anymore,” he muttered. “I might just give up.”
His eye was downcast.
“Don’t say that. I’ve seen your work. I know it’s beautiful.” She cupped his cheek and glanced around the subway stop, eyeing the crowds. There were a lot of people around, and while she desperately wanted to kiss Theo goodbye, she knew he wouldn’t want to take off his mask in public. Not in broad daylight, and not here.
She was about to turn back to him when he answered the question that must’ve been written on her face.
“I’m sorry, Audrey,” he whispered.
A large hand slid up to the back of her neck, and he bent down and pressed his forehead to hers, closing his eye as he leaned in close. “I’m sorry. I’d like to kiss you, but—”
“It’s all right.” She put her hand gently on his left cheek over his mask and closed her eyes too. “I know. It’s okay.”
He drew in a deep breath and stood with her for a moment, his thumb gently stroking against the heated skin at the nape of her neck, his fingers twining in the base of her hair. Her heart thundered in her ears, and the longer they stood there, the more she realized how okay itwasn’t.
It was, but it wasn’t.
