Page 40 of A Cup of Autumn
“I hope you never experience that kind of loss.”
Keaton nodded. “Me too.”
She didn’t go around saying she was an orphan. The pity in her neighbors’ eyes was one reason she’d wanted to get out of Seattle. The cost of living had been the other. But she recognized the curiosity in Keaton’s eyes. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t do an internet search and find the obituaries and the news articles.
“I don’t mind talking about it.” Even if she didn’t tell many people. Something about Keaton was different. They might be opposites in every way, but he was…kind. Stuck up and stuffy, but kind. And he’d brought dessert tonight. That had earned him bonus points. Not that she was keeping track. “I mean, I’m in Silver Falls because of what happened to them.”
He angled his shoulders toward her. “What do you mean?”
“My parents never had much money. They both worked, sometimes more than one job if they had to. They believed in owning not renting and having life insurance. My dad always said if you have it you won’t need it.”
The sound of Dad’s voice, loud and full of amusement, played in her head like one of the voice messages she still had on her cell phone. A familiar heat behind her eyelids made her glance around the eating nook with its wood-framed windows and crown molding.
“That’s how I could afford to buy this house and open Tea Leaves and Coffee Beans. I always wanted my own coffee shop, but my mom never drank the stuff. She preferred tea so…”
A familiar emptiness in her chest expanded.
Oh, no.Raine didn’t need the rush of grief with Keaton there. She didn’t have much control, but it usually came in two different ways—rolling to shower her in a gentle wave or swamping her like a tsunami. This felt like the first, so she picked up a slice of pizza and ate, focusing all her attention on the tastes in her mouth and chewing.
After she swallowed, her eyelids no longer burned.
As soon as she set the pizza on her plate, Keaton covered her hand with his. “I thought the name of your shop was clever, but what a wonderful way to honor your parents. I had no idea the story behind it.”
“Few do.”
“How come?”
Another shrug. “It’s not like people want to hear that your parents died in a hot air balloon outing. They’d won a package through my dad’s work and invited me to go with them, but I thought…”
Her voice cracked. She wet her lips.
“It was their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, so I told them to go without me. A special date with just the two of them.”
Keaton sucked in a breath. “If you’d gone…”
“I wouldn’t be here.” She stared at his hand over hers. No one had touched her—not like this—in months, and she wanted to slide her fingers so his fell between hers. That would almost be like holding hands. “I…miss them.”
There was nothing else she could say about how many times she picked up the phone to call them only to remember she couldn’t. Or the holidays alone. That had stopped after she met Emmett, but she’d be back to celebrating those on her own in November and December.
Keaton rubbed his thumb against her hand. “I’m sure you do.”
Heat pooled on her cheeks. “I usually don’t tell people. Not sure what got into me.”
He kept his hand on hers. She was grateful for that.
“I asked,” he said in a soft tone. “You’re tired. You’re understaffed. There’s the Boo Bash too.”
She raised her gaze to meet his. “Though I have help for that last one.”
Their gazes held, lingering, until Keaton looked at his plate.
“You do.” He lifted his hand from hers and drank. “So, are you ready to discuss the Boo Bash?”
Yes, no, maybe.Give her a second and one of those three answers would be true.
“That’s the reason I’m here,” he added.
Right.But for some odd reason, that disappointed her.
