“Thanks,” she said as she turned and leaped off the back stoop.
“Stella!” Arnie called.
She stopped and looked up at him and Jack, who remained on the steps.
“What’s going on?” Arnie asked.
Stella knew she looked as reckless as the idea that had formed in her mind. “I have an idea I’d like to test.”
Arnie crossed his arms over his chest. “Why do I feel queasy? What are you up to?”
She glanced over her shoulder at the setting sun, and a tidal wave of panic hit her, pushing her back toward Arnie and Jack.
“Hear me out,” she said. She looked at Jack. “You don’t want to go away with me—”
Jack’s posture stiffened. “It’s not that I don’twantto—”
“So I have another idea,” she continued. “I’m going to drink a little bit of the magical liquid, and then I’m going to... Well, I don’t know because I haven’t figured it out yet, but I think I’m going to hold Jack’s hand, and when he starts to disappear into his light and warmth thing, I’m going to see if I can go with him.”
“What?” Arnie and Jack exclaimed at the same time.
“Absolutely not,” Arnie argued. “You have no idea what that would do to you, whatdrinkingthe liquid might do. What if it kills you?”
“What if it doesn’t?” Stella said.
Jack shook his head. “Stella, I’m not willing to take that chance. I can’t let you do that.”
Stella frowned. “What if it’s a chanceI’mwilling to take?” She stepped closer to them. “I don’t want my life to be like it used to be. I want something different. I want to take a new path.”
Jack’s features set with determination. “So much has changed for you in the last few days. You’re finding yourself and your purpose, Stella.”
“You’re right. I can see a way forward,” she agreed. “My words and my writing—all of that I can bring with me.”
“You don’t know that,” Arnie said.
“What about the library?” Jack asked. “You love it here. You said you feel like thisiswhere you’re supposed to be. Don’t throw all that aside for a whim.”
“A whim?” Stella asked. “Is that what we are? Some silly little fling?”
Jack’s expression changed to indignation. “Absolutely not,” he said. “I love you, Stella Parker, which is why I don’t want you to do this.”
His words pumped passion through her heart. “You love me?”
“How could I not?” he asked, his voice quiet and grave.
“What if this can beourstory?” she asked him. “What if we could, at some point, get married and have a family and all those things you’ve wanted?”
Jack stepped off the porch and walked to her. He touched her arm. “I don’t know if I can have those things in my story. You know how it ends. But what doyouwant, Stella?”
“I want all those things too,” she said honestly. “With you.”
Jack slid his hand down her arm. “You have no idea what might happen to you.”
“I’ve never met anyone like you before, and I won’t ever meet anyone like you again.”
“Stella,” Jack said, his voice gentle, “remember what I told you about how returning to my book feels? It’s not a life lived the way you live here.”
“I don’t care!” But Jack’s caution made sense. How could she stop the war, stop him from leaving for active duty, if his world was everything all at once? What did that even mean? How would she find her own way in a world unlike anything she’d ever experienced?
