Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Eric felt utterly ridiculous as they stumbled along Ravenna’s wet sidewalks toward Valerie’s apartment.

“All I did was trip.”

“You were so involved with what you were talking about that you walked square on into a perfectly innocent maple tree and fell over backwards into a mud puddle.” Another laugh rippled out of Valerie’s mouth. “How did you even find a mud puddle? We live in the middle of a city.”

“It’s a construction site. There’s mud. There’s crap on the sidewalk. I fell.” He spit again to get the grit out of his mouth. The problem was that the rain, which had returned in force after the brief sunbreak while they’d been in the deli, kept washing more of the mud out of his hair and down his face. Every time he opened his mouth, more mud dribbled in.

She held the st……