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Hey Rachel

Matt deleted his text.

Rachel, hey

Deleted it again.

Hey

Hi

Ho

“I thought you were getting the bananas.” Mona dropped two boxes of cereal and a loaf of bread into his shopping cart.

“Huh? Oh. Bananas. Yeah. I was just about to grab them.” Matt clicked his phone off and slid it into his back jeans pocket. “What?” he said when his mom continued to stare at him.

“Nothing. Just wondering if you’re feeling okay. You haven’t moved from this spot since we stepped inside the grocery store. Head feeling okay? You’re not dizzy or anything?”

“I’m fine. Just... thinking about bananas.” He started pushing the shopping cart toward the produce section.

Mona grabbed the cart and stopped him. “You still remember what they look like, right?” She lowered her voice. “Honey, do you know who I am?”

“You’re the loudmouthed Realtor who sold me my house.”

“Just checking.” She punched his shoulder, then immediately started petting the flannel material of his shirt. “That’s not your bad shoulder, is it?”

“Well, it certainly is now.” Matt rotated it with a dramatic groan.

“Oh, stop being a baby.” She winked and pointed to a stand full of apples. “Grab some of those on your way to the bananas. I told Gracie I’d bake her a pie. Noah made one the other week and I guess it turned out terrible. I’m going to run over and grab a gallon of milk. Meet you at the checkout aisle in a few minutes.”

“Got it.” Matt made his way to the apples, picked out some shiny ones since he wasn’t sure what sort of apples worked best in a pie. Then made his way to the bananas. He was just reaching for a bunch that was green when he heard her voice.

“Green bananas. You must really be on the mend then.”

Matt’s gaze whipped up. Rachel stood on the other side of the banana stand with all the organic produce. They hadn’t spoken for days. Not since his accident. He cleared his throat, but for some reason he still couldn’t seem to make it past the hey, hi, ho .

Mostly because he didn’t want to press her. These past couple days he’d wanted to give her space. And yeah, take a little time to recover from that whole minor concussion thing. But mostly give her space. Make sure she was on board with taking her “I’ve fallen in love with you” to the next level. Maybe even the next next level.

He actually didn’t know how many levels there were, at least in Rachel’s mind. But he knew in his mind he was ready for the “I’ll love you forever, through sickness and health, for richer or poorer” level. Which could freak a girl out if she was still on the “I guess we can start calling each other boyfriend and girlfriend and say we’re in an exclusive relationship, but let’s not rush things too fast and just sort of see how things go so that we hopefully don’t turn into crabgrass” level.

Hence, the space the past few days and his current restraint not to climb over the banana stand this very second and say Will you marry me?

She frowned at him. Why was she frowning at him? He hadn’t said that last thought out loud, had he?

She pointed an organic banana at his left shoulder. “Where’s your sling?”

Phew. She was just frowning about his sling. Except why was she frowning about his sling? What sling? It took him a second to transition from marriage to orthopedic equipment. “Oh. My sling. Right. Yeah. I didn’t like it. I took it off.”

She aimed the banana at him like a gun. “You can’t just take off your sling.”

“It wasn’t doing anything.”

“But you were supposed to wear it until you saw the ortho doctor. When’s your follow-up appointment?”

“Never made one.”

“What?” She threw her banana into her basket, then reached for another one. “What do you mean you never made an appointment? You were in a car accident.”

He really hoped she was planning to make banana bread, because the way she kept slamming those bananas into her basket wasn’t going to leave them in great shape for anything else.

“So? Doesn’t mean I need to start wearing slings and scheduling follow-up appointments.”

“It does if that’s what the doctor said you needed to do. What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing. Which is why I’m not wearing a sling or scheduling any follow-up appointments.”

“Excuse me,” a short, older woman said, reaching in to grab some bananas. “Do you mind grabbing those five for me from the top row? Yep, the ones right there.”

Matt reached for them and caught a whiff of the woman’s floral perfume. His nose tingled with the beginnings of a sneeze.

“Oh, everything’s fine, is it?” Rachel marched over next to him. “Then how come just reaching for a few bananas is making you cry?”

“Oh my. I didn’t mean to cause you any pain,” the older lady murmured.

“It’s not you, ma’am,” Rachel said, taking the bananas from Matt. “It’s just him being stubborn.” She lowered her voice into what he could only assume was supposed to be an impression of him and not a very bad attempt at Clint Eastwood. “Look at me. I’m Mr. Tough Guy. I don’t need to wear a sling.”

Matt’s eyes watered and his nose continued to burn. Why wouldn’t this sneeze just come out already? “Hold on a second.” He was talking to Rachel, but Banana Lady must’ve thought he was talking to her. She scooted closer with her cart and said, “Yes?”

“I’m not the one who’s stubborn.”

“Okay,” Banana Lady said.

“Are you saying I’m stubborn?” said Rachel.

“I’m not saying anything,” Banana Lady said, looking back and forth between them. “I just want my bananas.”

“Why is it so hard for you to admit you love me?” Matt sneezed. Finally!

“Bless you,” Banana Lady said.

“I have admitted I love you. Twice!”

“Yeah,” Matt said wiping his nose with the tissue Banana Lady dug out of her purse for him. “Then run off immediately afterward, not wanting to talk about it. Twice!”

“Well, I’m sorry, but the first time I was a little freaked out and needed some time to process. And the second time, well... I guess I was still a little freaked out and needed time to process. But you’d just been in an accident and could barely stand on your own two feet. It wasn’t exactly the time for a heart-to-heart conversation, you know?”

“Well, I’m standing on my own two feet right now, aren’t I?”

“Without your sling, though,” Banana Lady said as if she even knew anything about his sling.

“Did you need anything else, ma’am?” Matt grabbed the bananas from Rachel’s hands and plopped them into Banana Lady’s cart. He’d really like to finish this conversation without a sneeze-inducing audience.

“I could use a few sweet potatoes.”

“Wonderful. They’re over there. Now what part is freaking you out?” Matt said to Rachel once Banana Lady had vacated the banana stand.

“Honestly?” Rachel reached for an orange and tossed it into her basket. “The same thing that’s been freaking me out for years. Ever since high school to be exact.” She added a lemon.

“Since high school? Wait, you’re not saying you’ve loved me since high school, are you?” That had to be what she was saying.

“Why do you think I was so excited about setting you up with Aimee?”

Okay, he had no idea what she was saying. “Rachel, would you stop throwing fruit in your basket and just talk to me? Do you love me? Do you not love me? Do you want to be more than friends?”

“Of course, I want to be more than friends, but...” She looked at the grapefruit in her hand, then at Matt. “What if we don’t make it?”

“Why wouldn’t we make it?”

“Because nobody makes it. Look at my sister. Your mom. Half of anyone who gets married if certain statistics are to be believed.”

“First off, don’t ever base our relationship off anything to do with your sister or my mom.”

“Fine. But what about Gracie and Noah? I used to think they had the type of marriage a person could only dream of. They were always so crazy about each other. Always cracking jokes, teasing and flirting, even when they argued. In some ways, they kind of reminded me of us. You know, if we ever decided to take things to the next level. So when things started falling apart for them our senior year, I don’t know. It kind of freaked me out. What if we risked our entire friendship only to turn out like them—loving each other, but for whatever reason, unhappy and apart? I’d rather see you happy with a girl like Aimee and know that we could still be friends at least.”

“But I wasn’t happy with a girl like Aimee.”

“You should have been. In theory at least. She’s kind and sweet and gorgeous.”

“Well, I don’t want kind and sweet and gorgeous in theory. I want you in heart, body, and soul.”

“Matt— shhh .” Her cheeks blushed a shade darker than the ripened peach she was currently squeezing into a pulp. They were seriously going to have a lot of ruined produce to pay for by the time they left the store. “You can’t say stuff like that. Not here . Not in a grocery store .”

“Why not?”

“Because... well, it makes me want to leap into your arms and kiss you. But people are looking at us, and I can’t leap into your arms and kiss you when people are looking at us.”

Matt glanced around. Sure enough, customers were shooting them the side-eye as they filled up their carts. Banana Lady was staring at them straight on from next to the sweet potatoes.

Matt settled his focus back on Rachel. “Did you forget that most of this town has already seen me without any pants on? You think they’ll care if they see me kiss the woman I’m madly in love with? Anybody here care?”

“Nah, I say lay one on her,” a guy gathering radishes and carrots yelled from across the produce section. Several murmurs of agreement followed. Even Banana Lady was offering a nod of encouragement.

“See? They’re all for it. They know we’re in love. I mean, we are in love, right? We’re both on the same page here? We’re both ready to take things to the next level? Even if we’re scared, even if it’s risky, even if people are watching? You know I’ll be patient as long as you need me to be, but please please tell me we can at least move to the level where I can start introducing you as my girlfriend.”

“No.”

“No?”

“No.” Rachel dropped her juicy peach into her overflowing basket of fruit, then dropped the entire basket into his cart. “I don’t want to be your girlfriend.”

Matt heard several gasps. One might have come from his own lips. “You don’t?”

“No.” She clutched the fabric of his shirt and tugged him closer. “You’re not the portly farmer, Matt.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“It means you’re my real hero.” She was definitely getting sticky peach juice all over his shirt, but when she smiled he didn’t care. And when she said, “I want to jump straight to the level where you introduce me as your fiancée,” someone could’ve dumped an entire container of peach juice over his head and he wouldn’t have cared. Or even noticed.

Because he was only thinking about one thing. And this time he was ready for it.

He didn’t wait for her to start kissing him. He swooped in and claimed her lips, lifting her off her feet and making sure she knew just how much he meant that body, heart, and soul comment.

By the time he set her down, they were both out of breath and every grocery shopper in the store was clapping and whistling. Even his mom was smiling from next to the deli counter as she shook her head and rolled her eyes, muttering something like, “I should’ve known.”

“You know what I think,” Rachel whispered, burying her face against his neck. “We should get to the level where you introduce me as your wife as soon as possible.”

“You know what I think,” Matt whispered back, planting a kiss on the top of her head. “I should’ve worn the sling. Making out with you really did a number to my shoulder.”

She playfully punched him in the stomach. “You just make sure it’s in good working order by the honeymoon, okay?”

Honeymoon.

Matt pulled her back into his arms. Oh yeah. They were definitely getting married as soon as possible.