He was so tall, I barely reached his shoulders. I had to bend my neck back to look up at him. Maybe that was why I felt so unsettled, because at that angle, it felt like he was staring into the depths of my soul.
When he stood further away he appeared fit and lean, but from up this close his broad shoulders seemed to completely block out my view of everything behind him.
A blue tattoo of an owl on a branch snaked up his neck and my hands itched with the need to touch it and gently run my fingers down the branch. I wondered where it would lead me. What else would I find on his chest? How I wanted to feel his heartbeat underneath his inked skin. As the thought swirled in my head, I had a strange sensation that if I actually reached out and made the move he wouldn’t mind
It stunned me.
He was a complete stranger, but there was something about him that made my soul soar. It was not because he was so good looking, because I once took a trip to Hollywood and stood next to dazzlingly good-looking men and felt nothing. But when I was with him, I felt refreshed as if I’d been wandering in a desert for a long time drinking only the tepid, foul-smelling water from a goat-skin bag that I’d forgotten the taste of cool, fresh spring water.
He returned his gaze to mine, and it made me retreat a step backwards. I felt my cheeks flame when I remembered how inappropriately I’d touched him in my mind.
“Make something that you’d like,” he murmured. “And that will be just fine.”
10
Caleb
All my life, I’d never considered myself a coward, but right then, I felt like the worst coward who ever walked this earth. For whatever reason the words I had practiced all night long, the words I wanted to ask her like forever, were smooth stones lodged in my throat, and no matter how hard I tried to get them out I couldn’t expel them.
Furious with myself, I kept my trembling hands in the pockets of my trousers, and watched as she opened her arms and released the stalks of flowers she had gathered from around the store onto the surface of her worktable. With a pair of shears in hand, she began to cut the stems and trim away the excess leaves on them.
We were both silent, the only sounds between us was the faint sound of our breathing and the sharp sound of her shears. I’d never been much of a talker, not even when we were kids. Whenever we would meet, all I wanted to do was to simply look at her or listen to her sweet voice. Back then she talked enough for both of us.
Now I needed to stop being such a yellow wuzz and ask her out.
I searched my head for something to say as I watched her add orange flowers to the bouquet she was building, then small yellow ones, before pausing to peruse the arrangement she had put together so far.
Obviously, she was not the hot mess I was, because she spoke … and sounded sickeningly normal too. “Did the flowers you ordered yesterday arrive safely?”
I cleared my throat and swallowed the smooth stones in my throat. “They did.”
“Was everything to your liking?”
“Yes.” Even as the empty word left my lips, I knew my brief sentences would make her uncomfortable, but I couldn’t help myself. My mind had gone blank. She had reduced a big, grown man like me into a dome of shaking jelly.
“How’s it looking?” she asked, lifting those pools of warm chocolate towards me.
God. I wanted to touch her. How I wanted to. At that moment, it felt as though I would lose my mind if I couldn’t at least place my hand on hers.
“Good,” I replied, awkward as hell. I kicked myself hard mentally. Fuck it, Caleb. You’re going to blow it. I took my hand out of my pocket and pointed at one of the flowers in the bouquet. “What flower is that?”
“This one?” she pointed at one of the orange flowers.
It wasn’t the one I had referred to, but I nodded mutely.
“It’s a Marigold.”
“Can I take a look?” I asked, even my voice sounded shaky.
Immediately, she picked it out of the bouquet and held it out to me. All I wanted to do was accidentally touch her hand, but the moment my hand came near the stem, she let it go as though even the possibility of contact with me would harm her.
I pretended not to be fast enough to catch the stem. It fell through my fingers and landed soundlessly on the wooden table.
She went to pick it up, so did I.
I was a whole lot quicker this time. My hand touched hers, lingered. The contact instantly froze her to the spot. She raised her head, our faces were mere inches apart. Her warm breath tickled my face, and my eyes roved greedily around her beautiful face. The words came out then, in a rush and straight from the heart.