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“What are you doing?” I say, letting out all of the gruffness that’s been dying to rear its ugly head.
“Levi, she’s cute.”
“She’s a child.”
“She is not a child. Sure she can’t ride a bike, but that is a grown-up woman out there. Or didn’t you notice?” Coco pokes me in the belly and I am so tempted to poke her back.
“She’s twenty-three!”
“See? Grown up.”
“I am six years older and not interested. Besides, she has this… this look that makes my stomach roll the minute she walks into the room.”
Coco’s grin turns sly. “That look is called attractiveness. Maybe evenattraction. Those flutterings are called butterflies, Levi.”
“They aren’t. Because I don’t even know her.”
“If you aren’t interested, then what’s the harm in getting to know her? Help the girl ride a bike and move on.”
“I don’t have time.”
“Except that you do, Levi. Your brothers are grown, I’m found, Mom is healthy. You have no one to save this minute. Well, unless you count the girl out there.”
7
Meredith
Coco and Levi return from the back room, but Coco doesn’t pause. She’s headed for the door. “Nice to meet you, Meredith.”
“Yes, you too.” I’m not sure if I should follow after her—Levi said he couldn’t help me. Maybe some kid at the park would help a girl out. But then, I don’t want to ask anyone else. I want to ask this man who smells like a cool summer’s night, who gets caught holding his niece by the ankles, and who makes me ponder number five a whole lot more than I should. I clear my throat and shove down the nervous energy rolling through me.
I am not afraid of stating what I want.
Except that I might be—a little.
“Are you cooking? Or do you have time to help me?”
I study Levi’s jaw as it shifts from side to side. “I don’t have to cook.”
I clamp my top teeth down on my bottom lip—attempting to reign in the grin that’s trying to burst from my body. “So, you can help me?”
“I can.Today. That doesn’t mean I’ll be helping you every day. You understand?”
“Sure. I just need a little guidance, not much. Then I should be set.”
“The shop closes at six. Be here by six-fifteen.”
“On the dot.”
There’s only a little more than an hour until Levi’s shop closes. I go back to the park—the same one where I met Janice and Ralf. They aren't there today. They’ve probably come and gone. Still, I sit on a bench, Lilac propped up next to me and I scroll through Pinterest on my phone.
“The best chocolate chip cookies. The ultimate chocolate chip cookie. Grandma Nellie’s chocolate chip cookies. Who’s Grandma Nellie?”
A girl I’ve never seen here before sits on the bench next to me, her phone out.
“Hello,” I say, my tone chipper. It is a beautiful day. And I am going to learn to ride a bike today. So, why not chipper? “Do you have a second?”
She lifts her head, and that’s when I see the tears in her eyes. “Me?”
