David watched her for a second, really looking at Arla while her attention was focused down on her hands. So prickly and frightened, he really just wanted to give her a hug, as though that could make everything go away instantly.
Except that that wasn't how life worked, and it wasn't how David worked, inasmuch as he now considered this 'working'. It wasn't, and it was, life in a nutshell.
"Hey." A smile spread across his face as Arla looked up, amused and teasing, and an accent dropped over his next words. "Don'chu 'wull, yeah' me." His grandmother's tone, the woman who had helped him get over his fears as a child by simply scaring them straight out of his head. "Fred makes good food, but dey's a world a difference between food and blueberry pie."
He dropped the posture, relaxing back to his normal attitudes. "You should come out with me," David continued more seriously. "Not for long, not for anything important. Just come out and let me show you what real pie's supposed to taste like." And make a positive memory while she was at it.