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“I didn’t mean that it was okay for those idiots to talk about you like that. I meant it was okay that you’re autistic.”
“I know it is. I just would have vastly preferred telling you in my own way.”
“I can understand that. It’s your truth to tell. Have you shared it with Luke?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“B-because I was afraid he wouldn’t teach—” A weird hiccupy burp escaped her, and her hands dropped from her hair. “Well, shit, this night can’t get any more humiliating. Might as well just tell you the whole story?”
“What’s the whole story?” he asked softly.
Andy removed the other earplug and shifted closer to where she thought he was sitting on the other side of the booth. “It’s a stupid one about a girl who had a crush on a boy she spotted one day at the beach. She used to sit in her secret spot every morning with her favorite binoculars watching him surf.”
“Wow, this girl sounds like someone I used to know,” Kyle said with amusement. “Tell me what happened next.”
“The girl had a really awkward meet-cute with one of the boy’s friends – one who happened to be freakishly tall andreallyannoying.”
“Now that definitely sounds like someone I know.” There was another snort — two of them, the second slightly deeper than the first. Or maybe it was just her imagination.
“What then, sweetheart?”
A chair shifted. Followed by a muffled“oof.”
“Kyle?”
“Sorry. Stubbed my toe,” he responded with the same affable charm he’d displayed to her all evening.
“Continue please.”
Okay, she so wasn’t imagining things.Thatvoice, the second one asking her to continue, was deeper and raspier than the first, and she knew it well. Intimately so. Inching closer to the door, Andy felt a rapid swell of emotions. Joy because her wingman was here, and she’d really, really wanted him to come. Chagrin because he’d found her runny-nosed, hiding in a sex booth. And a twinge of anxiety because he wanted her to continue her story, which was, of course,theirstory. Swiping a cocktail napkin from the table, Andy cleaned up her face and endeavored to do so.
“So then I – I mean this girl. We’ll call her Little Bird.” A tremulous grin tugged at Andy’s lips as she tossed the napkin aside. Because screw it, if she was going to put her heart on the line with this confession, she might as well have some fun doing it. “So then Little Bird talked Henry’s annoying friend into doing something – we’re calling her crush Henry, okay?”
“Yup. I’m following you. And the annoying friend?”
Andy smirked. “We’ll call him His Tallness.”
The deep rasp of the answering chuckle made her belly flutter. A lot. “So what did Little Bird talk His Tallness into doing?”
“She talked him into giving her lessons on how to woo him.”
“Him?”
“Henry.”
“I see. What happened during these lessons?”
“His Tallness taught Little Bird all kinds of things. He taught her about Henry, who he was so close to. Close as brothers. But he also helped her overcome her fear of the ocean and taught her how to surf.”
“His Tallness sounds like a pretty decent guy.”
Andy placed a palm up against the wall of the booth, wishing she could feel the vibrations of that deep voice she’d come to know so well. “Oh, he is. He truly is. And Little Bird’s mostly not annoyed by him anymore.”
“Oh? What does Little Bird mostly feel when she’s with him?”
Here it was. Moment of truth. Andy swallowed, her heart picking up its steady pounding beat as she prepared to lay it bare.
