“I’m the lucky one, Emery,” I said before I could take it back.
Her head whipped to me. “Why?”
“Because…” A hundred options came to mind, but I told the truth. “Because today is one of the worst days of my life and you’re making it better. More than better. It’s not even the worst day anymore because now it’s the day that I met you.”
Emery’s eyes widened in surprise, and I cursed myself for saying too much. She was going to think I was a creep, but a pink blush came to her cheeks and her smile was prettier than ever.
“Me too,” she said. “I mean, I’m still worried about Grant, but I’m also…happy. Is it bad to feel both at the same time?”
“No,” I said. “I’m still sad about my mom, but I’m happy too.”
Another small silence fell, but this one felt nice. Warm. Like I could stay in it forever… And then a stinging explosion of water hit me square in the back.
“Get lost, Bender!”
We got to our feet and turned just in time for a second water balloon to hit me in the chest. Water droplets splashed my glasses. I wiped them on my shirt, humiliation burning my skin so hot I thought my clothes would dry in an instant. Two boys—one blond and big, one dark-haired and skinny—were standing twenty feet away, laughing.
Emery stomped her foot. “Stop it, you guys!”
“Stop it, you guys,” the blond mimicked in a high-pitched voice. He hurled another balloon. I pushed Emery behind me, and the balloon hit my thigh, soaking my jeans.
“Looks like he peed himself,” the dark-haired boy sneered. “Did you pee yourself, Bender?”
“You shut up, Rhett!” Emery cried. “Stop it, both of you!”
“Or what?” the blond taunted.
“Or I’ll tell my dad,” Emery said.
Both boys instantly stopped smiling. They glanced at one another, then hurried away as if Emery had cast a spell.
“Scaredy-cats,” she muttered. “One good thing about my dad is everyone’s afraid of him, not just me.” She glanced at my damp clothes. “Are you okay?”
“Fine,” I said quickly. “Just water. No big deal.”
“I’m sorry about them. Tucker and Rhett are jerks.”
“It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine. Xander—”
“Just forget it, okay?” I bent to pick up the pieces of balloon so I wouldn’t have to look her in the eye. “Don’t want the turtles to eat the latex…”
Emery knelt down beside me as we hunted for stray strips of balloon. After we’d gathered them all, we took the scraps to the trash can by the rock. Our rock. We sat down on it again and instantly felt better. Because it was our safe place.
“That was sort of cool, what you did,” Emery said after a minute.
“What was?” I asked, because as far as I could tell, there was nothing cool about me. Not one thing.
“That one balloon would have hit me, but you stood in front of me, and it hit you instead,” she said. “You protected me.”
I frowned. I didn’t remember doing that. It was just instinct, maybe, to put myself between Emery and something that could hurt her.
“Thank you, Xander,” she said, and then I felt the soft touch of her lips on my cheek.
Instantly, a tingle of electricity shot through me, raising the hair on the back of my neck, but in a nice way. The best way. I fought the urge to touch my face so I wouldn’t wash away the feel of her little kiss with my grimy hands. I wiped them on my jeans instead and struggled for something to say. But Emery’s kiss was a spell too, erasing allthe thoughts in my head.
She’s like magic.
