Lucy turned and almost planted her face right into Ryan's chest. She didn't realize she was standingthatclose to him. She suddenly felt nervous and backed away so she could have a little more room to hand him the books. Ryan gave her an awkward smile, perhaps he felt something too, but he quickly turned to the book covers instead.
"These all look good," he said. "Would you mind if I took them?"
"Nope, all yours," she replied. "And if you need more, just come back and I'll find a few extras on the shelf for you."
Ryan's blue eyes looked a little less dull. "Thanks, Lucy. I appreciate this."
"No problem."
"I'm going to head out then and stop bothering you," he said, giving her a lopsided smile.
"You're not a bother. Come back anytime."
He gave her a slight nod and then gently pushed past her, his arm brushing up against hers as he headed for the door.
Lucy wasn't sure why she did what she did next, but there was something about the way Ryan looked, about the way he was walking out of her cabin with the books in his hand that just made her heart break for him a little.
"Ryan, wait."
He turned, a look of anticipation on his face. So she walked up to him, threw her arms around his neck and pulled him close. At first, his body was stiff and rigid, but then he seemed to relax into her embrace a little bit. He wrapped his big arms around her and exhaled, his head close to hers, his breath tickling her ear. It felt like he needed this, like he wanted it, and Lucy wanted it too. For a simple moment, it was just the two of them together, warm and inviting and real.
But then Ryan pulled away from her and he stared down, his eyes stormy and pained. There was so much she wanted to say to him. She wanted to tell him that she knew that the team's loss hurt and he would be OK. She wanted to take this pain away that he was carrying around.
Instead, he pulled away and gave her an awkward smile. "I uh…" He stepped back some more and cleared his throat to try and compose himself. "I brought back some of your donuts from yesterday."
Oh, so they were going to ignore what happened. That was fine. It was just a friendly gesture anyway, right?
"Thanks, that was nice of you." She smiled and opened the lid of the pink box on the counter, checking out what was left. "No sprinkled donuts?"
Lucy looked up to see Ryan staring at her. "Sprinkled?"
"Yeah. It sounds a little childish, but I kind of like the sprinkled kind."
Ryan looked uncomfortable like he wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. "I ate the last sprinkled donut."
His voice had a bit of a dark husky tone to it and he shifted awkwardly on his feet. It was a weird reaction just for being accused of eating a sprinkled donut. Lucy figured it probably had more to do with the weird funk he was in and it was best to let him go home for now.
"It's OK," she tried to say reassuringly. "There's still plenty left in the box if you want to take one home with you."
Ryan shook his head. "I had one already, but thanks." He quickly started to head to the door. "And thanks for the books. I'm going to get started on them now."
"Cool! Well, then. I'll see you later."
"Yep."
Ryan pushed the screen door open and walked back to his place with more speed than she had seen from him in the last few days.
She shouldn't have hugged him the way she had. It probably made him uncomfortable. But she had no idea why he got so awkward when she asked why the sprinkled donuts were missing. What exactly was that about?
