Excerpt from Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

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The next day Louis went to the barber on Main Street and had his hair cut short and neat, a kind of buzz cut, and asked the barber if he still shaved people and the barber said he did, so he got a shave too. Then he went home and called Addie and said, I'd like to come over tonight if that's still all right.

Yes, it is, she said. I'm glad.

He ate a light supper, just a sandwich and a glass of milk, he didn't want to feel heavy and laden in her bed, and then he took a long hot shower and scrubbed himself thoroughly. He trimmed his fingernails and toenails and at dark he went out the back door and walked up the back alley carrying a paper sack with his pajamas and toothbrush inside. It was dark in the alley and his feet made a rasping noise in the gravel. A light was showing in the house across the alley and he could see the woman in profile there at the sink in the kitchen. He went on into Addie Moore's backyard past the garage and the garden and knocked on the back door. He waited quite a while. A car drove by on the street out front, its headlights shining. He could hear the high school kids over on Main Street honking their horns at one another. Then the porch light came on above his head and the door opened.

What are you doing back here? Addie said.

I thought it would be less likely for people to see me.

I don't care about that. They'll know. Someone will see. Come by the front door out on the front sidewalk. I made up my mind I'm not going to pay attention to what people think. I've done that too long?—?-all my life. I'm not going to live that way anymore. The alley makes it seem we're doing something wrong or something disgraceful, to be ashamed of.

I've been a schoolteacher in a little town too long, he said. That's what it is. But all right. I'll come by the front door the next time. If there is a next time.

Don't you think there will be? she said. Is this just a one?—?night stand?

I don't know. Maybe. Minus the sex part of that, of course. I don't know how this will go.

Don't you have any faith? she said.

In you, I do. I can have faith in you. I see that already. But I'm not sure I can be equal to you.

What are you talking about? How do you mean that?

In courage, he said. Willingness to risk.

Yes, but you're here.

That's right. I am.

Then you better come in. We don't have to stand out here all night. Even if it isn't something to be ashamed of.

He followed her across the back porch into the kitchen.

Let's have a drink first, she said.

That sounds like a good idea.

Do you drink wine?

little.

But you prefer beer?

Yes.

I'll get beer for the next time. If there is a next time, she said.

He didn't know if she was kidding or not. If there is, he said.

Do you prefer white or red wine?

White, please.

She got a bottle out of the refrigerator and poured them each half a glass and they sat down at the kitchen table. What's in the paper sack? she said.

Pajamas.

That means you are ready to try this out for one time at least.

Yes. That's what it means.

They drank the wine. Do you want some more?

No, I don't think so. Could we look around the house?

You want me to show you the rooms and layout.

I'd just like to know more about where I am physically.

So you can sneak out if you need to, in the dark.

Well no, I wasn't thinking that.

She stood and he followed her into the dining room and the living room. Then she led him upstairs to the three bedrooms, the big room at the front of the house overlooking the street was hers. This is where we always slept, she said. Gene had the bedroom at the back and we used the other room as an office.

Excerpted from Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf. Copyright © 2015 by Kent Haruf. Excerpted by permission of Knopf. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.