“No.”
“Yes! AChristmasasylum,” Wyatt insists.
Lainey sighs. “My aunt and uncle have this idea that they’re going to open a bed-and-breakfast somewhere out of the way,” she says. “And one of the properties they found is an old sanatorium”—Wyatt makes a noise—“where rich people would come bathe in the hot springs and take the air and get massages, and in theory it would cure their vapors or balance their humors or whatever. And after it was a sanatorium, it was apparently some sort of Christmas-themed attraction, with reindeer and Santa and everything.”
“Haunted,” Wyatt says again, and Lainey elbows him in the ribs.
“Nobody’s making you go,” she says. “They’re not even buying it.”
“They could rent roomsandgive ghost tours,” I say. “Which, by the way, I’m available for.”
“There’re no ghosts!”
“Lainey. There arealwaysghosts,” I say, because I’m right. Everything’s haunted if you try hard enough.
“I’ll pass your offer on,” she says, and then an arm snakes around my waist and Madeline’s standing next to me.
“Hey,” she says. “What’s happening over here?”
“My aunt and uncle might buy a haunted asylum on a mountain,” Lainey explains. “Javi’s gonna give ghost tours.”
“Ooh, fun,” she says, and Wyatt makes a face.
“So,”I say a few hours later when I catch Silas alone in the kitchen. “Is it really Beast’s birthday?”
He doesn’t answer me, just laughs, so I lean against the counter and watch him.
“No one can prove it’s not,” he points out.
I glance over my shoulder, at where everyone is still hanging out in the living room, scattered on chairs and couches. Madeline and Kat sit on the stairs, deep in conversation. It twists something funny in my chest.
“Did you throw your cat a birthday party because Madeline’s in town and you wanted everyone to have a chance to come check out Javi’s new girlfriend?” I ask him.
Just then, Kat must say something funny because Madeline laughs. Kat looks pleased.
“Of course not,” Silas says a moment later, turning back to me. “I threw my cat a birthday party so all your friends would come have fun and make your new girlfriend think Sprucevale is cool.”
“Do you think it’s working?” I ask.
“She doesn’t seem to hate it.”
I watch her for a few more seconds, like a creep, until she suddenly looks up and sees me. Then she smiles, and it’s this perfect, beautiful, unguarded thing that makes me forget to breathe. Just for a few moments, and then it’s gone, she’s talking to Kat again, and I’m left feeling like I’ve walked out of a cave and into the sunlight.
“I can’t ask her to move here,” I say to Silas, lowering my voice. “I mean, I can’t ask her to move anywhere. It hasn’t been that long.Movingsomewhere is a whole…thing.”
“Yup.”
“And I don’t think I can leave.” The words rush out of me, too fast. “Here, I’ve got work, I’ve got school, I’ve got a place, I’ve got you guys. That’s not gonna happen again. But I can’t ask her to move here.”
Silas walks to the counter opposite me and hops onto it, leaning forward on his hands.
“Javi,” he says. “You could move anywhere and be okay. You know that, right?”
Two and a half years ago, Silas met me once, then invited me to move to a little mountain town in the middle of nowhere. I’ve asked him why about a hundred times, and he’s never really given me a good answer.It seemed like the thing to do, he always says. I’m pretty sure he’s telling the truth.
“Yeah,” I admit, because I do.
“Good,” he says. “Because whatever happens, I think you’ll work it out. I like her, by the way. You seem happy.”
