“Okay, weirdo, not boomer then. But yeah, the picture worked great at school. You caused quite the stir. Ex got a little jealous. Okay, a lot jealous.”
He must have seen something in my expression because his face washed with pure concern. “What did he do? I should have been there.”
I waved my hand. “It’s fine. I can handle Devin Kapadia. It’s funny—he was never the jealous type when we were actually together. But he did not like seeing those pictures of us. He literally just stared at me, then insisted you and I go to a party his girlfriend’s having. I think he wants to check you out in person.”
“He wasn’t jealous before because you were his. Now you’re not,” Daniel said.
I scrunched my nose. “Yuck. I’m nobody’s.”
He laughed, head falling back. “Yes, well, Count, you haven’t been single for long, but if you ever start dating again, you may find that possessiveness is unfortunately a common flaw in many young men.”
My eyes narrowed. I wanted to ask about his past relationships. He’d mentioned past girlfriends, and he’d said he’d never had a relationship as long as me and Devin’s, but were his past relationships serious? Had he been in love before? I knew Daniel was seventeen—he’d told me his age, and Andre confirmed it. But sometimes—I didn’t know why—he sounded a lot older. Wiser. He was both strangely open, and weirdly guarded, and that wasn’t like any other teenager I knew. And yet other times, he was goofy and talkative. Daniel was kind of hard to figure out.
But I shouldn’t be trying to figure him out at all. He had his boundaries, and I had mine. Our arrangement wasn’t about being friends but only about what we could do for each other. “Um, are you good with your quiz tomorrow then? I should go see if my mom needs help cleaning up after dinner.”
Daniel grinned. “Yeah ... I think I can do some more practice exercises on my own now that they sort of make sense to me. See you Thursday! We’re making scones!”
I smiled and said good night. I wasn’t really going to ask Mom if she needed help—she hated anyone in the kitchen with her and was probably long done cleaning anyway. But I had to get off the call before it got even more personal. Doing calculus with him seemed safe. Baking with him was fine. Heck, pretending he was my boyfriend wouldn’t be an issue at all.
But anything outside those parameters seemed risky. Because ... Daniel was already becoming such a breath of fresh air. When everyone else seemed out to get me, and each day was more stressful than the one before, Daniel made me smile. And laugh. And he respected my abilities. I was afraid of growing attached to the handsome hockey player who borderline smiled too much.
The only way this was going to work was to remember Parameter one: no feelings. I was not looking to develop a crush on Daniel Ramos.
12
Scone to Be All Right
When I got to the shelter on Thursday, a bunch of kids were playing in the playground. Some adults, including Yasmin’s mother, were on the picnic table near the swings watching them. Yasmin was on her tricycle, so I went over to say hello and ask her about her tricycle.
“It’s the shelter’s bike,” she said. “I can use it whenever I want because there are no other little kids. Just big kids and some little babies.”
I frowned. “That’s a tricycle, not a bike.Trimeans three, and it has three wheels. A bike is a bicycle.Bimeans two. Bicycles have two wheels.”
She looked at me blankly. “Daniel says you like counting.”
I laughed. “I do! What do you like at school?”
“I like reading. But I’m not good at it, so I look at the pictures. I got a book about fairies from the library. They also had a video game about fairies, but the big kids don’t let me use the PlayStation.”
“Oh, that’s too bad.”
Yasmin nodded. “It’s okay. I play games on Mama’s phone sometimes.”
“Those are called mobile games. I’m making a mobile game at a club at my school.”
That made her eyes brighten. “Is it about fairies?”
I frowned. “Well, no. We don’t know what it’s about yet.”
She nodded. “Then you can make it about fairies.”
I smiled. “Maybe I will. I need to go inside and bake now.”
“Okay. Goodbye. I’m glad you’re not really a vampire.”
She pedaled her little tricycle over to the playground, where the other kids played.
When I walked into the kitchen, Daniel was already there, using a small ice cream scoop to measure brown dough onto a baking sheet. The air smelled of brown sugar and cinnamon.
