Chapter 7 · Continued
Chris
The laughter thinned. It didn’t disappear, but it changed.
“He’s just a machine,” the man said with a shrug, as though he hadn’t said anything wrong.
Jane tilted her head. “Yeah. And you’re just a guy in a garden store.”
Several people snorted.
This time, they were laughing at him.
Jane returned her attention to the plants.
She was finished with the conversation.
The line had been drawn.
Cam hadn’t moved, looked at the man, or visibly reacted to the insult. But something about his grip on the buggy had changed.
Not tighter.
Not looser.
Simply different.
Jane selected another flowering plant and held it between them.
“Okay,” she said as though nothing had happened. “Try again.”
Cam examined the plant and then looked at her. His hesitation hadn’t disappeared, but it was shorter.
“I would select this one.”
The answer remained formal and controlled, but it arrived more quickly.
Jane nodded. “Why?”
Cam returned his attention to the plant. “…It will tolerate inconsistent watering.”
Then he added, a fraction too quickly, “…Which is likely.”
A few people laughed quietly.
Not cruelly this time.
It was simply true.
The corner of Jane’s mouth twitched.
There it is.
Not perfect.
Not free.
But him.
She placed the plant in the buggy. “Good,” she said, her voice soft and satisfied.
Around them, people’s attention began to drift.
The show was over.
At least for now.
Cam rested his hands on the buggy again. For the first time since they had arrived, he didn’t appear to be merely responding.
He appeared to be choosing.
Jane said nothing.
But she saw it.
Then she noticed that several people were still gathered around them.
Too many.
Too close.
Their amused curiosity was beginning to feel crowded.
Maybe bringing Cam into public had been a mistake.
Jane rested one hand lightly on his shoulder. “Come on. We have enough. Let’s get the fertilizer and leave.”
The crowd followed.
Not aggressively.
They merely drifted in the same direction, continuing to watch and wait.
Cam carefully lifted a bag of fertilizer, adjusted his grip, and placed it in the buggy beside the plants as though its position mattered.
As though all of it mattered.
“Hey,” someone called, laughing, “can he lift my car while I change a tire?”
Several people chuckled.
Jane didn’t look back. She leaned closer to Cam.
“Just ignore that,” she whispered.
“Okay,” he replied just as quietly.
They moved through the checkout quickly. Cam placed each item on the counter with precise, deliberate movements and gave the clerk a small, polite nod.