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“I’m sorry. I didn’t know that they didn’t know. I wouldn’t have said anything if I did.” She looked at him. “It’s...a lot of stuff. I can bring it in.”

He snorted. “Come in.”

Rory had been fourteen when he’d left. A kid. Then, as now, she had freckles all over her face. She hadn’t grown any since then, either. She was short and petite, and with a finely pointed little face, sculpted cheekbones and a nose that turned upward. She’d been stick thin back then; he remembered that.

But now he noticed she had a petite but luscious figure, and her limbs were what could only be described as willowy. She was... For some reason, she was a certain kind of beautiful that got right under his skin in a way nothing else had for years.

She made him ache and he didn’t like it.

“I brought you a potpie,” she said.

“Thanks.”

“It’s hot. I’ll cut it for you, and then I’ll get out of your hair.”

“I know how to cut a pie.”

“Yeah, I know. You had some of my pie last night. I’ll just serve it for you because it’s a little tricky when it’s hot.”

He stared at her. She didn’t have a very nurturing or mothering sort of energy, but she was sure as hell giving it a try. A testament, he thought, to the friendship that she had with his sister.

“So, what have you been up to, Rory?”

What he wanted to do, the only thing he really wanted to do, was haul her into his arms and see if she was as soft as she looked. But he couldn’t do that. So he decided to play small-talk games. To see if he could.

It was so hard for him now. He wasn’t that interested in people anymore. He didn’t know what that was a side effect of. His brain injury, or just generally being in kind of a shitty place in life.

Either way, he didn’t care. But he was supposed to go to town tomorrow, and there was going to be a banner. And he had decided to move back here, and that meant he had to get better at playing this game. He had to try and find it in himself to do this sort of thing. So why not practice on Rory?

She’d been easy to talk to back when she was a kid. Or she’d done a lot of talking at him. Either way, she seemed like an easy port in his mental storm.

“Oh. Well. I haven’t done much. I mean, the property management, yes, and we opened the farm store. But I...” She scrunched her nose up. “I didn’t go to school.” For some reason, he felt like that was an incomplete comment, but he didn’t press her on it.

“I didn’t go to school and I am leaving here at the end of the month.”

“Leaving?”

“Yeah. I’m moving to Boston.”

“That’s a long way. You have a...a boyfriend or...” Was this how small talk worked? He hated it.

“No. I have a job. And a place to live. I’ll be managing an old apartment building. It’s a little bit different from what I’ve been doing here, but I’m sure that I can do it. And I’m looking forward to it.”

“That’s a big change.”

“It is,” she said hurriedly. “It is. But I’m more than ready. It’s been a long time coming. But anyway, yeah. That’s... I’m leaving. And you’re back.”

“Yeah. I am.”

“You’re going into town tomorrow for...”

“The parade that isn’t a parade?”

Rory looked concerned. “I don’t know that it isn’t a parade.”

“My sister said it isn’t.”

“I’m sure she doesn’t think it is. I’m just saying I’m not entirely convinced that it isn’t. That’s all.”