Page 105 of Just One Look

He couldn’t think of anything to say except, “Could be true of me as well. Doesn’t mean we can’t try.”

She moved around the bed, and he thought she was going to run off again, but she sank down in the chair Marko had vacated instead, took his hand, and said, “I was worried about you. That was strange. I can’t be logical about you, and it scares me.”

He turned his hand so he was holding hers better, and raised it to his lips again. She’d liked it before, and he liked doing it. He said, “Maybe we don’t have to be logical.”

“I don’t have any expectations,” she said. He laughed, and she looked startled. “No,” she said. “I mean it. I don’t …”

He said, “Assume I’ve sussed that out.”

“Oh. OK, then.” She looked like a bird lighting on the ground, ready to fly again at any moment.

He said, “Maybe we could try tomorrow. One day at a time, eh. Want to have dinner with me? Course, you could have to pick it up, but …”

She said, “I could be late.”

He kissed her hand again. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll be home. But this time, bring your toothbrush. Because I’d like you to stay. Also, I’d like to call you something else. Something softer.”

“You called me ‘baby’ last night,” she said, then looked like she wanted to take it back. “I mean,” she hurried on, “I noticed.”

“I did,” he said. “Could call you that again, too. It could happen. How about …” He searched his mind, discarded possibilities. “Elle? Does that work? Still strong. Elegant, too, maybe. A woman’s name.”

A long moment, when he wondered if it had been too much. When you offered seed to a wild bird, you threw it a good way out. You didn’t expect that bird to eat from your hand, not straight away.

Finally, though, she said, “Elle would be … it would be fine. I’ll bring my toothbrush. And we’ll see.”

He smiled, and he was still smiling when he pulled her down by the hand and kissed her, when she had her hand on his face and was kissing him back.

When she sat up again, her eyes were bright, like there might be some tears there. She didn’t say anything more, but when the curtain rattled closed again and her rubber-soled shoes were squeaking away, he was smiling still.