Page 79 of Statler

“Careful,” Statler said, taking her elbow in a firm grip as they waded through the grass.

Eliza wasn’t going to tell him that she was fully capable of trekking in on her own.

She liked the feel of his fingers on her slightly chilled flesh.

Right. For the warm day in September that today had been, the night had turned cool, and until Statler had touched her, she’d kind of wished for a jacket.

Not now, though.

She loved the feel of his hand.

“I can see my breath,” Statler laughed, not sensing her rising temperature. He opened his mouth and emitted a mini-cloud. “It’s hard to believe that summer is pretty much over. Soon, this will all be under snow.”

Eliza didn’t want to talk about the weather, but she supposed it was a safe subject.

“The snow never stopped me from coming here with my cross-country skis after dark,” she told him. “I love looking at the winter sky.”

“It must be some view,” he answered.

“It is,” Eliza agreed, then shook her head. “Duh. You’re from Maine. You already know what a night sky looks like.”

“Not as a regular occurrence,” Statler assured her. “Bangor and Orono’s ambient lights tend to dull things a bit, so I don’t get to have a really good look unless I travel up the coast and look out to sea.”

Eliza immediately felt better.

“Then you’ll like this,” she assured him, slipping her elbow from his grasp to touch his hand. “Now, don’t look up until I tell you.”

“I won’t.”

He threaded his fingers through hers, and Eliza felt a pleasant shiver move down her spine.

His touch felt…intimate.

Phht. Of course it did.

Eliza hadn’t been this close to a man in two years…or more. Not since Holden had changed; distancing himself from her both mentally and physically.

Stop.

There was danger of becoming melancholy with those thoughts, so Eliza deliberately shook them off.

“Tell me about where you grew up,” she posed. “Did you and your sister go out and look at the night sky at all?”

Statler had mentioned Petula to her in passing. She knew that he and his sibling were close, and that Petula had married recently, happily living outside of Orono with her new husband.

Eliza felt an immediate, inexplicable stiffness in Statler.

“She’s a lot younger than me,” he allowed. “So, no.”

Well.

Eliza immediately felt like there was a lot Statler wasn’t saying, but since he seemed uncomfortable with that conversation, she backed off. Maybe his childhood had been like hers. Something better off forgotten.

Luckily, they’d reached their destination.

“Do you see the rock right ahead of us?” Her once favorite spot was just discernable in the moon’s bright glow.

“I do,” he answered.