The light of the building streaks down onto her face, emphasizing the moles on her cheek.
“What is it?” she asks, wiping her face with her mittened hands. “Red bean?”
“No, sorry,” I say, breaking my attention from her face. “You have… the Big Dipper on your cheek. I didn’t mean to stare.”
“I do?” she asks.
“May I?”
She nods. I slowly attempt to trace one point to another with the fingertip of my glove. Time stretches with each zig and zag. I can feel Rooney’s eyes on me. I focus my gaze from her cheek to her eyes, the connection a shot of adrenaline.
Rooney scrunches her nose. “Jack, when’s the last time you washed that glove?”
I cringe. “I found it in a storage box, so I couldn’t say for sure.”
She analyzes my face. “You have the Milky Way on yours. Wouldyou like me to show you?” She proceeds to drag her mittens across my face as she vibrates with laughter. I laugh, too.
“Yeah, that was weirder than I thought it would be,” I say, catching my breath.
Something above my head draws her attention. “Look! One of the lanterns.”
I follow the direction of her hand up over the nearest building and search for a bag of fire shooting across the sky like a comet. But there’s no fire. Just a paper lantern bobbing up and down against the darkened ocean of a sky. Making its way… somewhere.
Everything about that rooftop launch went against how missions should be. It was the sloppiest takeoff of my life. But perhaps the most beautiful.
Rooney pivots in my direction, reaching out to grab my upper arm. “Maybe it’s ours,” she says excitedly. “I thought I saw a dent in it.”
Where I’d typically tense at the touch, my body doesn’t react. Like this is a normal occurrence. As though she’s touched me there a thousand times before.
Rooney lifts her hand off my coat and takes a step back. I glance down at her, keeping my head angled up. The sidewalks are illuminated enough for me to see her blush.
“It can’t be ours. We released it almost an hour ago,” I say confidently.
“Let’s follow it.”
I shouldnotgo on a wild lantern chase with this woman. Especially not one without any sort of plan in place. Ishouldgo back to the hotel. I still need to pack for my early flight tomorrow morning.
But for some mysterious reason, I don’t want to. I don’t want this night to end right now.
“Unless you’re too tired?” Rooney asks.
“I’m not tired at all,” I lie. But it’s not completely untrue. A third wave has hit me. I’m more energetic than I’ve been all day. I check my watch—7:35 p.m. What am I doing? “This will be like trying to find the end of a rainbow. Though now that I have an idea of who you are, I’m pretty sure you’ve tried to find the end of a rainbow before.”
Rooney grins. “Every time I see one.”
“Any luck?”
She tilts her head, indicating for me to follow. “Come with me, and we’ll find out together.”
Chapter 6
ROONEY
The lantern floats faster than expected. Jack and I are speed-walking down the sidewalk toward downtown, carefully dodging icy patches and people. We move as quickly as our frozen joints will allow. I keep one eye on our Paper Star guiding us where we’re meant to be and one eye on Jack, who’s doing a decent job at keeping up.
When the lantern disappears behind a building, I immediately turn left at the crosswalk, pulling Jack with me by his arm. It’s the fourth time we’ve touched tonight. There are layers upon layers of fabric to prevent our skin from actually touching, but there’s still something about the making contact part.
Fifteen minutes in, we’ve lost track of our lantern, and our fast-paced walking has made me sweaty. As soon as we stop moving, the cold sets in.
