“You think he saw?”
“I think so.”
“Okay well… I’m going to let you go and handle that,” Terra walks backwards towards her truck. Grinning, not even the slightest bit remorseful. “Just please remind him that you need to be in great physical shape in order to have an organ harvested so he shouldn’t try to kill you or anything.”
“Solid advice, Tink,” I reply and can’t help but laugh even though this is not a laughing matter. I wait until she drives away and then walk back into the station. Logan is leaning against the front desk, staring right at me as I walk in. I suck back a big mouthful of the chocolate peanut butter shake because if he does intend to kill me, I want that as my last meal.
I decide to play dumb. “Terra brought me the food I never got to eat. I’m starving so I’m just gonna go to the kitchen and—”
“Can we talk for a minute?”
“Sure,” I say hoping I sound casual and not as frantic as I feel. Logan walks over to the stairs that lead up to the bunk rooms. He sits on the third step and I sit beside him, sucking back even more of the shake as I wait for him to say something.
He looks solemn but that’s Logan’s face ninety percent of the time, so I don’t take it as a sign. He tells me about his last call, an overly drunk girl they had to bring to the hospital to get her stomach pumped. And then he says. “So Robbie was leaving the hospital when I dropped the girl off. He was out by the emergency bay waiting for Uber Jay to pick him up because his dad refused.”
I nod. “I really hope they convince him to try treatment. He’s gonna lose more than his eyebrow next time.”
“Yeah. I hope so too,” Logan agrees absently and turns to face me now, his pale eyes boring down on me. “He was chatting away with me as I loaded the stretcher back into my rig, and the thing is, he swears he saw you kissing someone in Gold Park. And I told him it was impossible because you weren’t with anyone but Terra. And you wouldn’t be making out with my sister … would you?”
“Robbie is also the guy who almost got arrested for drunkenly pretending to be a lifeguard at the beach last summer and yelling shark every ten minutes.”
“Yeah, he’s a bit nuts, but you kind of didn’t answer the question,” Logan replies pointedly and his laser focus on me is making me antsy. “Were you kissing my sister in the woods, or was your first kiss ten seconds ago in the parking lot?”
I swallow. The milkshake is curdling in my belly thanks to adrenaline and nerves. “Actually our first kiss was in the pouring rain outside the lobster shack. The night I told her I could be her donor.”
Judging by the way his jaw drops, he didn’t see that answer coming. “So what the fuck are you two doing?”
“I don’t know, if I’m being honest, but I know that I like her. And I’ve liked her for a long time,” I confess.
Logan takes a minute to process that information. I watch his jaw as it clenches and unclenches. “Any news on Aspen?”
Fuck.
“I’m meeting her as soon as I can. Going to make her understand why I need to find out the truth sooner rather than later,” I tell him.
“Okay…” Logan has so much more he wants to say so I wait, but he just stares. So I stare back and will my face to not give anything away. “So I guess maybe you should figure that out. I mean, I would figure that out before getting involved with someone new.”
He doesn’t say anything else, just stands up and walks away.
12
Terra
“Hey! Perfect timing!”Nova Hawkins calls out in a cheery voice from behind the counter. “The milkshake machine limped through the lunch rush but now it’s flatlining. Help?”
I smile and walk over, surveying the dining area to my right. It’s calm, which is to be expected at half an hour before close on a weekday with school back in session and vacationers gone back to their regularly scheduled lives. There are only two tables occupied and one booth. Mr. Hobbs, a regular who consumes more lobster chowder weekly than all our other customers combined, is sitting at the counter. I smile at him and he grins back in-between mouthfuls of chowder.
I slip in behind the counter and join Nova, who hands me the screwdriver in her hand. I am a wiz at mechanical issues around here. I’m not even sure why, but I am. Nova’s full mouth with its trademark glossy lips grins. “Gracias,hermana.”
Nova kisses my cheek and walks away to the other side of the counter. Nova is the same age as me, twenty-five, and started as a server here when she was seventeen. She was a shy, quiet person I barely knew anything about despite working more than a few shifts with her. She kept to herself and never hung out with the staff for the first four years she worked here, so it was a big surprise to everyone when my brother Declan showed up to Thanksgiving dinner four years ago holding her hand and announced that they had eloped. But seriously, as shocking as it was, it’s gotta be the best decision he’s ever made. Nova is a perfect addition to the family.
“How was the dinner rush?” I ask as I tinker with the machine, unscrewing the stainless steel side panel.
“Not bad,” Nova replies with a shrug. “Steady stream but we weren’t slammed. There was this one guy…”
She keeps talking about the customers and how the day has gone so far and I keep tinkering with the milkshake machine but, my brain is picturing that moment when Jake tugged me into the woods. It’s been twenty-five hours since Jake Maverickfreakingkissedme. This is how I measure time now, by how long it’s been since my lifelong fantasy became my reality.
“Earth to Terra?” Nova says and snaps her fingers in front of me.
