I’m still hiding my face behind my knees, feet propped up on the seat. “No. Do you think he can see me?”
“You have white hair. It’s kinda the only thing noticeable in a dark car. And the light from your phone is probably illuminating your face.”
I drop my phone with a quickness. Luna laughs.
“Y’all are chickens.” Zelda rolls her door open, vaulting out. “I want to see this thing over here. This a wishing well? Romina, your man bought lawn ornaments and everything!”
I join her. “Look! There’s a tire swing in the back!”
Aisling and Luna come running, shoving each other aside in their bid to reach the tire swing first. Ash wins. “Push me!” she demands.
Luna notices that Ash isn’t wearing shoes and lectures her on the dangers of running through strange yards barefoot. Then she pushes the tire swing with so much gusto that Ash almost swings upside down.
“Zelda, look.” I’m crouched in a strip of mulch that runs along the side of the house. It would be the perfect area for agarden, but nothing lives here. I show her a squat, bearded figurine in a red dunce cap. “It’s a GNOME.”
It’s afamilyof gnomes. With mushroom houses, a miniature bridge, and pebbles surrounding a shallow lake crafted from a yogurt lid. Two fairies and a few LEGO people sit at a small table, enjoying a feast of shriveled blackberries on acorn cap plates. “It’s a fairy garden.”
I clap my hands over my heart and fall back into the grass. “He made a fairy garden for Miles. That’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard in all my life.”
“My teeth are rotting out of my mouth,” she remarks, handling a tiny birdbath with a Fisher-Price chicken roosting in it. “I can’t believe he just up and friggin’ moved here. That’s bonkers. You realize that, right? I can’t imaginemovingfor anyone—well, anyone except for you, Ash, and Lune.”
“And here I thought Alex was normal!” Luna chimes.
“Oh, he’s disturbed. A truly dark individual.” Zelda flicks me. “All that trouble forthislittle elf?”
“Him moving has very little to do with me, probably,” I say archly. “The real estate market is... doing things. Prime opportunity to move, perhaps. And he grew up here, after all. Whowouldn’twant to live in Moonville?”
The window above us opens. I cross my arms over my head as if that will disguise me.
“Nosy Nancies,” Alex scolds. “Don’t eat any of those blackberries. Those are for the fairies.” His gaze snaps up, past me, through the yard. “You don’t have to drink from the hose, you know. You can ring the doorbell like a civilized human and ask for a drink.”
Aisling grabs the hose that Luna’s drinking from and spraysit up in the air. Freezing cold droplets rain down on Zelda and me. “Aghh! Turn it off!”
Zelda, alight with malicious joy, pushes Luna into the stream of water. Luna wails.
Alex shakes his head.
I flash him a smile that I hope is charming. “I like your gnomes.”
“She likes more than just your gnomes,” Aisling hoots. “Your face is the background of her phone.”
“It isnot.” I dive for her, but she skips away. I turn back to Alex. “It’s not.”
“Is it the same picture I uploaded to Instagram two years ago that you liked at four in the morning last week, then quickly unliked?” He’s gloating.
“I was hoping you didn’t notice that.”
“I notice everything.”
I glare. “Damn you, Alex King.”
He smiles at me, eyes molten.
“Do you have ice cream?” Zelda asks, as I wrap my arms around her middle, lumbering her backward toward the minivan. I’m not strong enough to toss her inside, so I poke her ticklish parts until she surrenders and clambers in.
“Bye!” I call. “We were never here!”
“You saw nothing!” Luna picks up Aisling and piggybacks her to the car. My niece’s feet are filthy, brown ponytail bobbing.
