Page 35 of What Maple Heard

I took one step back instead.

With all the willpower a man madly in love could muster. Because I had more work to do, and she wasn’t ready, and I knew the difference between a moment and a conclusion. This was a moment. The conclusion was still ahead of us.

We stood in the hallway in the dark for another second.

Maple cleared her throat. “Your Aurelia Maplewood voice is spot on, by the way. It’s the twirl that needs work.”

“I know. I’m bending my wrist wrong.”

“It’s not the wrist. It’s the elbow. The elbow leads the twirl.”

I looked at her. “Are you going to show me?”

She looked at me. A very long pause. Then that smile.

“Maybe after I sweep the floors?” I asked.

Her smile was still on her face as she walked past me toward the studio.

I watched her go.

Then I went and got the broom, and I swept every floor in Happy Steps, and I was smiling the entire time, and I did not care even slightly.

***

Chapter 11

Maple

I had parked at the fall festival venue and was walking toward the community service wall in the early evening, when I heard a voice coming from the other side of the wall that stopped me cold.

Cade? What was he doing at River’s Community Service Project?

I walked faster and turned the corner.

There they were.

Cade was crouched down next to a paint tray, showing River how to mix the paint. River was leaning over, watching his hands carefully. Cade said something I couldn’t hear from where I was standing, and River laughed — a real laugh, head back, the one that used to come easily when he was younger — and then River raised both hands toward the wall and started gesturing, drawing something invisible in the air, explaining something with his whole body.

I stood there for a second and just watched.

River saw me first. He waved and grinned. Cade turned around.

And then he smiled.

Truth be told, his smile still had the power to short circuit my brain for just a second. It was the most genuinely beautiful smile I had seen on a man. Of course, I was not going to let that wash away the hurt he caused. Just pointing it out, because, well, I don’t know why. The smile was never the problem. The problem was everything that came out of his mouth when he wasn’t smiling.

As soon as I walked over to them, River came at me and hugged me.

Just walked right up and wrapped his arms around me like he used to do when he’d see me after school every day when he was younger. Over his shoulder, I could see Cade watching us with that smile still on his face.

River let go.

“So,” I said, looking at the wall behind them. “This is the wall.”

“Yeah,” River smiled.

I looked at it. It was bad. The graffiti was layered and colorful and hideous. I looked at the location — right next to the fall festival venue. Explains why the community service people needed this done right away. Cade walked over to us.