I stare at her. She stares right back, eyes glittering.
Finally, she says, “Abilene Kentwood.”
My spine goes rigid.
“How—”
She waves a hand. “Abilene comes in here twice a month. Always buys the same thing. Always looks like she’s thinking about a hundred different tasks at once. And you,” she points her pen at my chest, “have the expression of a man who has discovered something soft and doesn’t know what to do with it.”
I open my mouth.
Close it.
Then, because apparently today is the day I stop pretending, I say quietly, “I’m going to ask her out.”
Mrs. Larsen’s face softens, just a fraction. The teasing doesn’t disappear, but there’s a gentleness under it.
“Good,” she says simply, and starts ringing me up. “She deserves someone steady.”
My chest tightens.
“That’s not…” I begin, but the words get tangled. Because what I want to say is:I’m not sure I’m steady when it comes to her.What comes out is: “I’m trying.”
Mrs. Larsen nods. She understands more than she’s letting on. “Then don’t overcomplicate it. Give her the gift. Ask her out. Then shut up and let her answer.”
I blink. “That’s… blunt.”
“It’s practical,” she counters. “Like these seeds.”
She slides the items into a small paper bag, then pauses and reaches under the counter. She pulls out a little strip of ribbon, yellow, of course, and ties it around the handles with an efficiency that suggests she’s done this for half the town at one point or another.
“There,” she says, handing it to me. “Now it looks intentional, not like you panicked in aisle three.”
I take the bag, feeling absurdly grateful.
“Thank you,” I say, and mean it.
She waves me off. “Go on. Before you talk yourself out of it.”
I head for the door, then stop and glance back. “Hey, Mrs. Larsen?”
“Yes?”
“If she throws this at my head,” I say, “you didn’t see me.”
She smiles, bright and sharp. “If she throws it at your head, Wyatt Tucker, you probably deserved it.”
The bell jingles as I step back outside.
I sit in my truck, bag on the passenger seat, hands on the steering wheel.
My heart thuds.
This is ridiculous. This is terrifying.
This is… right.
Right?
