She gave her head a shake. “Sorry, I wandered into the stars there for a moment. What were we talking about before? Oh, right. Why I left the farm.”
“You’re going to save the world.” I tossed a dart. Nineteen.
“Right,” she said. “I wanted to get out of Nebraska and take whatever aptitude I had and apply it toward something big.”
“So many causes need attention, and you only know you want to help.”
Her delicate brows came together. “How did you…?”
“You told me in the library.”
She laughed and raised her glass. “Booze. Eraser of filters and memory.”
I let my eyes rake her up and down while she was occupied with her pint. She was so slender; small, delicate. Her body was lithe as a dancer’s and I knew it would take nothing to lift her, pin her against the wall while I kissed the pear-flavored tinge on her lips and tongue…
Then write you a poem about how you felt against me, and how sweet you tasted…
“…Boston?”
I jerked my mind out of the fantasy. “What?”
“I asked if you were a Massachusetts native. Your accent sounds like Boston.”
“Yeah.” I flung a dart, hard. Ten. “I was raised in Woburn, just outside Boston. My mom moved us to Southie when I was seven.”
“Just your mom?”
I glanced behind us, to where Connor, Ruby, and some people were talking and laughing.
“I’m sorry,” Autumn said. “That’s a little personal—”
“Yeah, just my mom.”
The question of my dad dangled in the air. The answer hesitated on the tip of my tongue. I wanted to tell her. But Saturday night at Yancy’s didn’t feel like the time or place to tell the sad, pitiful tale of Sock Boy.
“Is my accent that obvious?” I said.
“Ummmm…” She looked away, chewing on a corner of a sheepish grin. “Scale of one to Matt Damon-in-Good Will Hunting?”
I laughed. “Sure.”
“I’d say eight. Not quite Matt Damon. But keep working on it.”
“Hell no, I’d rather ditch it.”
“Don’t you dare,” she said. “It’s cute.”
My accent is cute and she likes my eyes.
I wished we were alone. And sober. Not that half-in-the-bag Autumn wasn’t enjoyable, but I wanted to talk to the girl I’d met in the library, the one who was having a hard time choosing which broken piece of the world to fix first.
Autumn drained her glass and swayed a little on her stool. “Jeez, I’m a cheap date.”
“You want something to eat?” I asked. “I’ll get us—get you something. If you want.”
“Not that I’m on a date,” she said, as if she hadn’t heard me. “I’m just having some fun. Ruby’s always telling me I need to get out more.” She bit her lip. “That makes me sound like a recluse or like all I do is study, doesn’t it? I don’t just study. I mean, I do study a lot but also I just got out of a relationship, so I am most definitely not interested in starting up something else.”
With Connor? Or…anyone?