Opal pushed open the front door of the houseboat, strode through the foyer, and parted the velvet curtain. She found the others crouched over an old wooden trunk.
“Hi, everyone.”
It was almost worth being left behind.
Tyler’s eyes popped.
Emma’s mouth dropped open in amazement.
Nico straightened like a switchblade. “What are you doing here?”
“I have as much right to be here as you do.” Opal spoke calmly, though her heart thudded inside her chest. “You should’ve invited me to come with you.”
“How’d yougethere?” Emma seemed more astonished than upset.
“I have my ways,” Opal replied, trying to be cryptic and casual all at once.Make them wonder.
Tyler raised his eyebrows like he was impressed, but Nico replied bitterly. “We didn’t invite you on purpose. You can’t barge in and tell us what to do.”
“Youcan’t keep me out,” Opal shot back.
Tyler began edging down the aisle. “So I’m just gonna … head on over … away from here. Maybe I’ll look for a bathroom.” He shot a glance at Emma. “You want to help?”
Emma shook her head. “No thanks. I went before we came.”
Tyler covered his face with his hand. “Emma …”
Odd she didn’t take the hint, Opal thought. Tylerand Emma had been joined at the hip since second grade, when Emma’s family moved to Timbers and opened a tiny sporting goods store.Why is she sticking around now? Hoping to see some fireworks?Opal could not figure her out.
“You’re not a part of our group.” Nico crossed his arms, refusing to look directly at Opal. “This place doesn’t change that.”
Ouch. Opal thought about all the times she and Nico had played as kids, building pillow forts in Nico’s den, or camping out in Opal’s backyard. Sometimes they’d race their bikes around the fountain in town square until they got dizzy, screaming that a black hole had gotten them. They’d collapse on the grass and take turns imagining new worlds on the other side of the galaxy.
This houseboat was as close to a new world as Opal might ever find.
Nico Holland was not going to ruin it for her.
Her nostrils flared. “Listen. I don’t want to argue with you, but—”
“Holy crap!” Tyler yelled, but he wasn’t anywhere in sight. His voice sounded muffled, as if it were coming from behind another room. “Yo, check this out!”
“Knock it off, Ty,” Nico shouted. “Nobody wants to hear about your … business.”
“Not a bathroom.” Tyler’s head popped from behind a wall panel. “Something even weirder.”
Emma startled. “Where’d you come from?”
Tyler waggled his eyebrows. “I found a trick panel. I think there’s a basement.”
“Boats don’t have basements,” Nico shot back.
“Thisone does. Get over here!” Tyler ducked back out of sight.
“Secret door!” Emma squealed, clapping her hands as she raced across the room.
Opal brushed past Nico, ignoring his intake of breath as she stepped around the weird jar pedestal. She belonged there, whatever Nico thought. He couldn’t close her out of this.I won’t allow it.
The wall’s wooden panels fit snugly together, but when Opal pressed on the section where Tyler had been, it popped open to reveal a wrought-iron spiral staircase.
