Laughter. Actual laughter.
My head snaps toward the sound.
Pops watches my reaction like he’s amused.
“What did you do?” I ask suspiciously.
Pops lifts a brow. “What makes you think I did anything?”
“Because you’re smiling like you just rigged something.”
He coughs out a laugh. “Maybe I did.”
Before I can press him, Jade appears in the hallway like a tornado in leggings. She’s holding a grocery bag in one hand and a plastic container in the other, and she freezes when she sees me like she just got caught sneaking in contraband.
“Oh,” she says too brightly. “Heyyyyy!”
Blakely pops up behind her, hair in a high ponytail, cheeks flushed like she’s been moving fast. She gives me a smile that’s sweet but…guilty.
Both of them look like they’re trying very hard not to look at me.
My eyes narrow. “Why are you here?”
Jade blinks rapidly. “To…exist.”
“To exist?” I repeat flatly.
Blakely nods too quickly. “Yes. To exist. Also to bring Pops joy. After all, I am the light of his life and all that.”
“I’m right here, Blakely,” Pops says, dryly. “And lying is a sin last I checked.”
I turn back to them, suspicion sharpening. “Okay. Why are youreallyhere?”
Jade lets out a dramatic sigh. “Sloane, don’t do that thing where you interrogate us like you’re a detective in a crime show.”
“That’s because you look guilty as shit,” I say.
Blakely’s smile wobbles. “We’re not criminals.”
Pops makes a little amused sound. “Debatable.”
Jade shoots him a grin. “Coach, you’re supposed to be on our side.”
Pops shrugs like he has no allegiance.
My stomach flips in that annoying way it does lately, like I can feel the world shifting around me, and I don’t know which direction is safe.
I look back at Pops. “I’m going to?—”
“You’re going,” Jade interrupts too quickly, waving a hand at me like she’s shooing a fly. “Yes. You’re going. Go put on shoes.”
I blink. “What?”
Blakely steps forward, tone gentle but firm. “Sloane. Go outside. It would be so good for you.”
“Why?”
Jade smiles like she’s trying to be normal and absolutely failing. “Because…fresh air. Vitamin D. Sunlight. You’re pale.”
