Elijah nodded. That sounded wonderful. “All right,” he said. “But if we’re having movie night, we should get some candy too, don’t you think?”
“That sounds like a great idea.”
He pointed to a booth where hand-molded chocolates were being sold, and they made their way over and bought a box. Farther down the way, they found a stand that had sticks of hard candy in various flavors, and they bought peppermint and orange and cherry.
At the end of the road, one of the vendors was selling sandwiches made with his homemade pesto sauce, and they each bought one for the walk back up to the beginning of the market where they had come in. As they strolled along, Elijah remarked, “I would never have come to something like this if it hadn’t been for you.”
“I believe that,” she said with a smile. “I just hope it wasn’t too irritating for you being here. I know this isn’t exactly your scene, but I really wanted to come, and I figured you’d do it for my sake.”
“It wasn’t irritating at all.” His hand found hers again. He had gotten used to walking hand in hand lately, and it had come to be something he really enjoyed. That was odd. He had always assumed that hand-holding was the province of the needy and insecure, but with Stephanie it didn’t feel that way at all. He just liked having her close. “I’m glad we came,” he said. “I wouldn’t have done it on my own, but it was nice to try something new. I would do it again sometime.”
“Really?” She beamed. “I guess I hoped you would enjoy it, but it did kind of seem like a long shot.”
“I wouldn’t have liked it if I wasn’t here with you,” he said. “But I think… I think I could do just about anything with you and have a pretty good time. Honestly, we always do enjoy ourselves together.”
“We really do.” She bumped her shoulder gently against his and didn’t move away, and as they walked along together, Elijah couldn’t help reflecting on just how true his statement was.
He would never have come here on his own. If anyone else had tried to bring him, he would probably have dragged his feet and refused to allow himself to get into it.
It was Stephanie’s presence that had made this special, that had allowed him to have a good time. And he knew at once that he would go anywhere she asked him to. He would disrupt his habits, change the patterns he had spent years establishing, to make room for her in his life.
That was a frightening thought. But also, in a way, it was kind of a pleasant one. That he had managed to grow so attached to someone that he would be willing to change his own life around to make room for her… it was new.
It was exciting.
This farmers’ market, he sensed, had been only the beginning. He could hardly wait to see what she would introduce him to next.
He let her pick the movie that night, without any of his own input. It seemed only right, given the fact that the rest of the day had been hers. Might as well go on as they’d started.
He had never heard of the film she’d picked. It turned out to be a post-apocalyptic thriller, and she was stunned that he didn’t know what it was. “I can’t believe you haven’t seen this,” she said. “I thought everyone in the world had. I thought you were going to make fun of me for picking something I’d seen a hundred times before, but if you’ve never seen it, this is actually important. You can’t not see this movie.”
He put it on, and she pulled the bowl of popcorn she’d made for them into her lap. It was even better than the bag they had bought at the farmers’ market—hotter and fresher, and there was something delightful about curling up together around a bowl of it. As the movie started, Stephanie rested her head on his shoulder, and Elijah felt a strange warmth spreading through him.
It wasn’t attraction. He was attracted to her—it was never far from his mind. But this was something different, something he had rarely experienced in his life.
Contentment.
Her hair spilling onto his shoulder, the way her whole body rose and fell with every breath she took, the way he could feel her relaxing against him… she was so at ease, and that knowledge made Elijah feel at ease himself. It was amazing to be holding her like this and to be able to stop worrying about everything else, to just be here in this moment with the woman who was coming to mean so much to him.
All he wanted to do was to sit here with Stephanie in his arms. He didn’t need anything else. They could have stayed like this all night and he would have been perfectly happy with it. He would consider that to be a night well spent.
Today was the kind of thing I would never have planned for myself. Not one thing has been what I would have chosen. And yet, it has all been perfect, because all of it was with her. And in spite of all the odds, being with her has become more important to me than almost anything else.
That proposition terrified him more than the images of apocalyptic horror flashing on the screen in front of him.
To be so attached to another person—it was dangerous. Because you couldn’t control what might happen. You couldn’t know. At any time, Stephanie might choose to go away, and there would be nothing he could do to stop her. That hadn’t been a concern with any other woman he had ever been involved with, because he had never minded the thought of losing them. But if he lost her, it would hurt. He would actually struggle with it.
And all he could do was hope and trust that she felt the same way he did.
CHAPTER 18
STEPHANIE
Stephanie’s stomach churned as she fought her way back to wakefulness.
A week had passed since the night of the movie, the day of the farmers’ market. In that time, she and Elijah had seen one another regularly, and they had fallen into a pattern of taking turns choosing the date activities. He’d taken her to a nightclub, and she had taken him rock-climbing. He had brought her to a museum, and she’d picked her favorite independent bookstore. Life was filled with adventure lately, and she found herself constantly wondering what the next day would bring.
But today, she felt sick to her stomach, and she knew at once what the reason for that sickness was.
