I lean back on my hands, grinning. Fiona stays where she is, purring against my legs. “Waffles,” I say again. I tip my head back and forth, as if rolling the word around in my brain. “It kind of grows on you.”
“Let’s see if she comes to it,” he suggests. He leans forward a little and holds his hand out, the two treats an offering in his palm. “Waffles, come get a treat.”
Zero movement in the box.
“That’s okay,” he tells her, readjusting himself against the wall. “I’m good at waiting. We’ll get there.”
It’s the same thing he said to me last night. Suddenly I’m thinking about the time we spent on the beach together and the way his body felt pressed up against mine. I didn’t hate the way he smelled, or how he took it in stride when I nerded out about sharks and the importance of the marine food chain. It was… nice.
As if reading my mind, he says, “I can’t believe I got to see a horseshoe crab in the wild.”
“Cool, huh?”
“Definitely. Especially after I learned that they’re living fossils that have been around for millions of years.”
I tuck my lips between my teeth for a second, holding back a smile, then say, “Gregory, did you look up horseshoe crabs last night?”
He shrugs like he’s not embarrassed, but his ears turn pink. “Maybe.”
“That’s totally something I would do,” I assure him.
“Well, I know literally nothing about sea life.” He has balanced the treats on his knee and tucked both hands behind his head. “Before we moved here two weeks ago, I’d never seen the ocean.”
My mouth drops open. “Never?”
He shakes his head, only it’s more like rolling it back and forth against his hands. “Nope.”
“How come?”
“My parents worked a lot. We didn’t travel much. My dad liked to ski, so the few vacations we did take were usually to the mountains.”
I open my mouth, then close it. I blink.
Amusement passes over Gregory’s face. His hands drop back into his lap. “You look like you have questions.”
“I do,” I admit. I start with the easy one: “What do you think of it?”
“The ocean?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s pretty cool.”
“ ‘Pretty cool’? That’s it?” It’s like I’m defending my own mother.
He lets out a beleaguered sigh. “Listen… don’t hate me for this, but… it kind of weirds me out, okay?”
“What does? The ocean?”
“Yes! It’s like a ginormous death trap. Sharks, hurricanes, giant squids. Deep-sea trenches we can’t even explore because if a humanwent that far, they would explode from the pressure. How is that not terrifying?”
He has a point. The ocean deserves respect. But also… “This from the guy who lived in the desert? Like, you coexisted just fine with heat stroke, snakes, dust storms? Canyons you can just trip and fall into, never to be seen again? What about scorpions? Have you ever seen one?”
He laughs. “All the time. Take it from me, if you leave your shoes outside overnight, make sure you shake them out before you put them on.”
My jaw drops. “There was a scorpionin your shoe, and you’re worried about deep-sea trenches you’d never come close to?”
He holds up his palms. “Okay, okay—your point’s taken. It’s just new, you know? I’m sure I’ll get used to it.”
