My embarrassment seemed to take a backseat to hers. Candace’s cheeks were fiery, and she looked truly mortified.
“So very sorry,” she insisted before untangling our fingers after one more deliberate squeeze.
I ignored the loss of her touch and moved my hands back to my side of the booth.
“It’s really okay,” I repeated, and bravely tapped her knee with mine. “I looked a lot different back then.”
Candace smiled, clearly grateful. “And the Mercer thing threw me off. That’s what everyone calls you now.”
Not her though. I liked hearing my first name on her lips, especially knowing she was the only one who said it.
“I still feel terrible,” she groaned.
“Don’t. It’s fine, I promise.”
But she still looked miserable. We needed something to put us back on equal footing once more.
I wondered if she remembered that time in the hallway, right before graduation. Our one and only interaction back then. Probably best not to bring it up.
After a glance toward the Grandpappy’s table, I leaned in close to Candace. I ignored that hit of lavender that lived on her skin, and how it felt for our shoulders to press together, and whispered, “Laramie Burke is at the booth right next door. I don’t know if you know this, but she went to high school with us.”
Candace pulled back, a surprised look on her face as she took in my mischievous grin. “Are you giving me shit right now?”
“Yep.”
Then she started laughing. Her pleased amusement was so loud that it turned heads from across the street.
I loved it. I loved that I could make her sound like that—free and happy, and totally unselfconscious in her joy.
I wasn’t a particularly funny guy. My humor was pretty dry, and mostly I was quiet and kept to myself. Candace was such an open, friendly person—such a charmer—that it was a little bit intoxicating to know I had the ability to put such a big smile on her face.
As the day went on, I pointed out two more classmates, a former lunch lady, and our assistant principal, all enjoying the farmers’ market. Candace cackled and whacked me on the shoulder each time I whispered conspiratorially that she might not remember them, but they’d been acquaintances of hers once upon a time.
The teasing worked to smooth things over. I didn’t want her to feel bad about what had happened her first day back in Kirby Falls.
People needed a chance to move on from the mistakes they made, especially when they were genuine in their remorse. It was hard to hold this one against her.
There were folks out there who didn’t believe insorry. They’d rather hold a grudge and give unnecessary weight to minor transgressions than ever move on. But I’d never been one of those people. I’d rather move forward than be stuck in the past out of nothing more than spite.
“Are you going to do that every time we see someone from school?”
With the echo of her laughter making my grin linger, I looked over from where I was condensing our remaining stock. “Nah, I’ll cut it out eventually.”
She grabbed a box from the pavement behind our seats and passed it to me, so we could start packing up for the day. “You said it yourself, you were different back then. I should be off the hook. Plus, I’m not totally sure the woman you said was Dolores from the lunchroom was actually her.”
I chuckled. “I guess I’m not the only one you forgot.”
We’d had fun today. I liked that I could tease her about this now. It soothed the twinge of hurt from that first day. Now we had this inside joke between us. It didn’t really matter that I was the butt of it.
We hadn’t rewritten history, but we’d put it in new packaging. One that wasn’t quite so sharp around the edges.
Grabbing a carton for herself, Candace stood beside me and started carefully loading our unsold produce to return to the orchard and sell in the pre-picked bins at the Apple House. “But you’ve obviously changed. Not just in appearance,” she added quickly.
When I turned my head, I caught her eyes tracing down the length of my arms, lingering on my biceps, before watching my forearms flex from the grip I had on the box in my hand.
Her attention snapped back to the apples she was loading up, but not before I caught her blush and the way she’d checked me out.
I fought my pleased grin and busied myself with my own task. I liked having Candace’s eyes on me. I liked her flushed cheeks and whatever direction her thoughts had taken.
