After the Fall

on the edge of the plate. “Yeah, it did. Probably the only way I ever would have worked up the nerve to say anything to you.”
    “And to think”—I held up my casted hand—“I almost blew it.”
    “Nah.” Shaking his head, Ryan laughed with a bit more confidence this time. “I’m pretty sure I deserved that.”
    Our eyes met. I couldn’t decide if the awkwardness stemmed from the discussion of how we met, or the fact that we were gazing at each other like two guys who weren’t just here because of a postaccident arrangement. Wherever it came from, it needed to go. Stat.
    I cleared my throat. “So, is it just you? Or do you have brothers and sisters?”
    “I have an older sister.” He smiled fondly. “She’s the exact opposite of me, though.” He took a bite of the roll, and after he’d washed it down with another swig of beer, continued. “As soon as she moved out of Mom’s house, she was ready to put down roots. She bought a house when she was twenty-one, and I doubt she’ll ever move out of it without one hell of a good reason.” He played with the coaster under his beer glass. “Me? I get restless. I’m so used to picking up and moving every eighteen months or so, I start feeling fenced in if I stick around for more than a couple of years.”
    “And it really doesn’t get . . .”
    “Lonely?”
    I nodded.
    Ryan shrugged. “I do okay on my own. I’ve always been like that. As long as I’ve got a working engine and a road in front of me, I’m happy.”
    “Do you ever go back to places you’ve been?”
    Another shrug. “Sometimes. I stop in and see family in a few places. Couple of friends here and there. Other places, I’ll pass through again on my way somewhere else. Visit people if there’s anyone there who I’ve kept in touch with, keep going if there isn’t.”
    “How did you end up in Tucker Springs?”
    “Uh, well . . .” Laughing quietly, he blushed.
    “What?”
    “Um.” Ryan looked at me through his lashes. “I decided I wanted to live here after I visited with some buddies last summer.” He smiled sheepishly. “To do some dirt-biking.”
    I laughed. “Guess that makes sense, doesn’t it?”
    “Yeah.” He took a drink, and for a moment, we both nibbled our rolls and drank our beer. “So what about you? What brought you to this place?”
    “I was born and raised here.”
    “Really? You’ve been here . . . your whole life?”
    I nodded. “I mean, I’ve traveled, but I’ve never lived anywhere else.”
    “Wow. I guess that’s not that unusual, but for me, it’s about as hard to imagine as my life probably is for you.”
    “You’re probably right.”
    “So does your family still live around here?”
    “My sister lives in Denver and my brother’s in Fort Collins, but our parents moved to Florida a few years ago. Dad decided he’d been through enough blizzards for a lifetime.” I rolled my eyes. “And now he complains about the mosquitoes.”
    Ryan laughed. “There’s always something.”
    “What about your parents? Do they still move around?”
    “Not really. My mom and stepdad moved back to my mom’s hometown to be close to my grandparents. My dad got remarried right after he retired, and I don’t think my stepmom wants to move.”
    “Can you blame them?”
    He shrugged. “No. I’ll probably get tired of it eventually, too.”
    “So what about the places you’ve lived? Ever live out of the country?”
    Ryan nodded. “My dad spent two years in Germany when I was in elementary school, and my mom spent two in Guam right before I graduated high school.”
    “Guam?” I leaned a little closer. “What was that like?”

    “How long do you think it’ll be before every server in town groans when they see us coming?”
    Ryan laughed as we started up the next flight of stairs to my apartment. “Hey, we tip well. I’m sure that makes up for occupying a table for three and a half hours.”
    “I hope so.” I grimaced on the way up another step.
    “And if that doesn’t help, we probably entertain them when they catch snippets of our conversations.”
    I laughed. “Yeah, true. Though I still think you’re full of shit with that story about the birds on Guam.”
    “I swear to God, it’s true.” He paused to adjust his arm around my waist. “No bullshit.”
    “Uh-huh.” I eyed him as we cleared another step. “All the guys on base wear fake snakes around their necks when they jog.”
    “Yep.”
    “And if they don’t, the