Taking two steps back, he disentangled our bodies, and a grave look grew in his eyes.“You don’t want me, AJ.I’m no good for you.”
“Wait.What?You just kissed me.”
“I’m sorry,” he said.“That was a mistake.”
A mistake?
A surge of anger and a whole boatload of humiliation had me stumbling backward, and I caught my heel on the edge of the sidewalk.Dixon reached out for me, but I pushed his hands away and regained my balance on my own.
“How dare you say that to me, Dixon Lee?”
“Wait, AJ, I didn’t mean?—”
“No,” I said, turning to storm away.“I don’t care what you meant.That hurt.I’ve spent way too long hurtin’ over you.I’m not doin’ it anymore.”
“AJ, please wait.Don’t go.Let me explain.”
“No.Screw you, Dixon.I’ve waited my whole life to experience a kiss like that with you.You don’t get to offer that to me and then rip it away.”
“Your whole life?”he said to my back, but I was halfway to the Darbys’ already.
Waving my hand in the air, I called back, “Don’t come to my shop for shitty bouquets anymore.Get them at the Food Mart like every other stupid man from now on.”
“AJ.Wait!”
When lights began to flicker on in houses along the street, I picked up my pace.If Mama and Gran learned that I was the cause of the late-night commotion, I’d never hear the end of it.
And besides, when I turned the corner and peeked back at where Dixon had just been standing, he was gone.
ChapterTen
Dixon
Shit.
“Shit.Shit.Shit.”
Walking in the opposite direction, I was lost.Something about AJ was my compass.Hurting her, owing her amends was unacceptable.For her and for me.She had no idea how much she’d shaped my recovery.And now, here she was, all perfect and pristine, a petite wonder.
She didn’t deserve the confusion I’d just caused her.
“Shit.”
I rounded the end of the block and headed back the way I’d just come, and when I got to the Darbys’ fence, I walked faster, trying to avoid the sleepy, prying eyes of neighbors.
I still remembered where AJ’s Gran had lived when we were in middle school, after AJ’s granddad died and they sold their farm.AJ and her mom had moved in with Gran in her downtown bi-level soon after that, and it had put an end to my nightly wandering, when I’d curl up in her grandpa’s barn and wait for her to find me.
Three generations of Harlowe women in one square block?The world better look out ’cause that was enough power to fuel a rocket.I wasn’t at all surprised that AJ had taken over the flower shop, and I wasn’t surprised that it was successful and thriving.
Standing outside her Gran’s gate, I used a breathing technique to slow my heart.
AJ said she lived out back in the guest house, but I felt like a prowler walking back there uninvited.Her family probably wouldn’t recognize me in the dark if they woke up and spotted my ass in their yard.
But this was too important, so I opened the gate, walked quietly to the path that led to the backyard, and followed the worn stones.An orange and white cat peeked its head out of some kind of low bramble bush, and as I walked, she followed carefully, but every time I turned to get a look at her, she darted back into the leaves.
Quietly, I asked, “Is this your mama’s house?”
She peeked out again and then emerged, but she kept a careful distance and stayed low to the ground, ready to run if she needed to.
