“Are they cuddly? I’m a cuddler.”
Grey coughs again, turning away like he can hide an amused smile.
“Your life if you want to risk it,” Theo says.
He’s suppressing a smile too.
But I don’t count it as a win yet.
We still have hours to go before nightfall, and I’ve been promised I’m not eating if I don’t catch my own fish.
Time to get busy fitting in with the rest of Emma’s family.
26
Emma
“Doyou think they’ll bring him back alive?” I whisper to Zen while we sit at one of the window tables inside Bee & Nugget.
They look up from thewhich hand is it in?game they’re playing with Bash. “Yes, Emma, they’ll bring him back alive. Scarred, but alive.”
“Too many people—namely,us—know he’s with them,” Laney says as she settles herself into the open seat with her back to the view of the lake. “Theo knows even an accident will get him in trouble. With me. In the bad way.”
“Grey too. He hates being in trouble with Laney in the bad way.” Sabrina deposits a massive plate of lemon scones and bacon in the center of the table, hands me five individual plates to pass around, then sits between Zen and Laney. She rubs Bash’s head as he squeals at finding the Goldfish in Zen’s left hand.
“Moe!” he cries.
“Turn around and don’t peek,” Zen replies. “You can have more if you guess which hand again.”
“This feels like they’re accepting him,” I tell my friends.
The café isn’t super busy, but it’s not empty either. And while I know most of the people here, and they like keeping secrets from outsiders, I don’t knoweveryone.
We’re too close to ski towns and good hiking to not have tourists and visitors in town daily.
So I’m whispering basically everything.
“Areyouaccepting him?” Laney asks.
“Should I?”
“Nuh-uh, my friend,” Zen says. “That’s onyou. We’re not influencing this decision. Haha! Not that hand, Bash. Try again.”
My son giggles and attacks Zen’s other hand.
“Agreed,” Sabrina says. “This is one you need to figure out on your own.”
Laney nods. “Sorry, Em. But if it helps, they took him just as much to give you some breathing room, knowing he’s not right around the corner for a bit, as they did to sniff out any previously unknown red flags.”
There was a time I would’ve asked if my brother knew what ared flagwas, but then he got stupid rich by offering sound, solid life advice to people who were going through things.
Naked.
While knitting.
On the internet.
Which is something he’ll have to explain to his own kids someday.
