I laughed at that. “You can be the one to tell him so,” I said, heading for the stairs. “Give me one second to get set up and I’m all yours.”
* * *
“I just wanttwo minutes to talk to him.”
I hesitated halfway down the stairs. That voice wasn’t quite familiar yet, but I recognized it anyway.
Xander.
“You know I wouldn’t hurt a fly, right? I won’t… I get feeling protective of your brother, but this isme. You know me, I’m harmless. I’m here to explain myself. And apologize.”
A lump stuck in my throat.
“He looked upset,” Dawn said suspiciously. “But you’re right, I know you. I know this is a misunderstanding. I just… he’s… highly strung.”
Great. Now my sister was telling the cute boy I’d had a crush on for months that I was difficult to get along with.
I made sure my foot fell a little heavier on the next step than it needed to so my appearance wouldn’t come as a surprise.
Xander was standing there in his short-sleeved baker’s jacket and checked pants, dark eyes huge and soft, one corner of his lower lip caught between his teeth. He glanced at me, and then looked at one of Dawn’s arrangements like he’d never seen a flower in his life.
At least I wasn’t the only one feeling painfully awkward about this.
“Well?” Dawn said.
Xander looked at her, and then at me again.
“I’m so sorry,” he said.
Dawn nodded with satisfaction, but kept her eyes on him.
Whatever had happened earlier, Xander was my friend. He’d felt like a friend for months. I wanted to rescue him.
“We could talk outside?” I offered.
That must’ve been the right thing to say, because he looked at me like I’d just told him he’d won the lottery. He nodded and held the door open for me while I strode out of the darkened florist and into the afternoon sunlight outside. The clouds had eased up again, and out front of the shop, surrounded by all the flowers, everything felt like spring. There was even a bird singing somewhere.
“I, umm. Promised you coffee. If you were ever in town,” Xander said. “Would you… do you think…?”
“You know me well enough to know I’d never refuse coffee,” I said. He sounded as nervous as I felt, but I didn’t want it to be like that. Xander had been the most comfortable person in the world for me up until this morning.
I hated the thought of losing that over one misunderstanding.
Again, Xander looked like I’d handed him everything he could ever have dreamed of on a silver platter.
I didn’t hate him looking at me like that.
He broke into a grin, and I couldn’t have stopped myself from smiling back even if I wanted to. “Follow me, then.”
The bakery was already dark with the closed sign flipped as we passed by. “Closed up early?”
Xander shook his head. “I close at three,” he said. “You really are a city boy, huh?”
I shrugged, but followed him a little way further down the street into a coffee shop that was almost as full of house plants as the florist was. By the counter, a chocolate Labrador looked up from where it’d been napping and wagged its tail lazily.
“I should’ve asked how you feel about dogs,” Xander said, pausing. “We can go somewhere else if—”
“It’s fine, I love dogs. One of my favorite coffee places back home has a little one-eyed terrier who greets me by running into my leg.”
