Page 116 of Where Roads Lead

He knew that. I knew that. But he didn’t press the matter, reminding me why we’d always been friends.

“Hey, are you going to the Fall Fest tonight?” he asked, hanging his jacket on the hook by the door.

I snorted.

“Yeah, I guess that was a long shot.” He laughed. “You haven’t been since, what, high school?”

“Middle school,” I corrected.

“And I can’t convince you to tag along?”

“Negative.”

“Come on, Will,” he pleaded. “It’s fun. Something different, at least.”

I never understood why Theo stuck around in Colbridge. He craved novelty that a town like this just didn’t offer. He chased after excitement, took every opportunity to take a vacation, and had no real roots tying him here other than family and a job with his dad’s company that his heart had never been entirely invested in.

Sometimes I thought he picked up shifts at the café just to escape the monotony of it all.

“Yeah, I’ll pass on the hayride and bobbing for apples,” I said, climbing off the chair I’d been standing on. “But thanks.”

I had no desire to walk around the town I grew up in, talk to the same people I already saw every day, and spend money on useless crap I didn’t need. It’s not as if it weren’t the same thing every year, anyway.

“I guess I didn’t really expect any different.” Theo shrugged. “It would take nothing short of a miracle to get you involved in any type of town extracurricular.”

I snorted. “I doubt even divine intervention by the Big Guy himself could talk me into going.”

“Somehow,” Theo laughed, “I really believe that’s true.”

The bells jingled, and for the millionth time that day, my idiotic brain forced me to turn in the direction of the door to see if it might be Elsie walking through.

And this time, it finally was.

I paused mid-motion, wondering how to proceed with the situation.

Would it be weird to talk to her as if nothing had happened after the other night?

Would it be even weirder if I didn’t talk to her?

I stood frozen in place, watching her unwind the burgundy scarf from around her neck and slide her green jacket around the chair I’d come to think of as hers.

She looked casually unbothered, because why wouldn’t she be? It’s not like anything happened. Maybe she hadn’t even known I was going to kiss her, maybe she thought I was, I don’t know, examining her freckles or something?

Because if she knew, she surely wouldn’t be going about her normal routine. Right?

Or maybe I’m the only idiot in town who gets hung up on an almost-kiss.

Throwing caution to the wind, I set down the pot of coffee I’d been holding and set over to her, ready to clear the air once and for all.

She was only here for another month. I wasn’t going to ruin the time I had left with her by letting an uncomfortable interaction change the dynamic between us.

“Hey,” I said, pausing a few feet away from her.

“Hi,” she said, nearly toppling over the chair she’d been about to sit in.

My hand shot out, steadying her, and she blushed, her face reddening before my very eyes.

“Are you okay?”