“I know how you feel,” I told Connor, but I couldn’t find the words to elaborate. The more time I spent with Connor, the more I wanted to tell him everything about Annie…but the momentnever seemed right. Now, for instance. I didn’t want to end the night in tears.
In fact, I really wanted toavoidtears on this vacation. I wanted to believe I’d left them all at home.
Connor didn’t ask any questions; instead, he subtly turned his palm face up on his thigh.Hand’s here if you need it, the gesture said.
Swallowing hard, I forced myself to return to the fireworks. Silver flying fish squirmed and swam through the air—my dad’s favorite—but once the last one burned out, I snuck another peek at Connor’s upturned palm.
I’m here if you need me, it reiterated.
Blood suddenly pulsed through my ears, and all I could hear was distant cheering while Paqua’s pyrotechnicians geared up for the finale (no show was complete without a medley).Look back at the fireworks, my conscience coaxed me, but instead I found myself glancing at Connor.
Something in my chest seized when we made eye contact, starlight reflecting off his blue irises. Holding my gaze, he tilted his head in either amusement or intrigue. I couldn’t tell.
Although I was surer than sure of what was next after he reached out and tucked a lock of my frizzy hair behind my ear (thank you, humidity).
What are you doing?I asked myself as Connor slowly leaned in.What are you doing, what are you doing, what are you doing?
I couldn’t kiss Connor McCallister; Iwouldn’tkiss Connor McCallister.
Because someone, not me, would get hurt.
However, my mind didn’t stop my eyelids from fluttering shut, and I felt a thrill spiral through my veins when I heard him take a deep breath.
But when my heart lurched, it wasn’t because Connor McCallister was kissing me; it was from a startling shot around us. My eyes snapped open just in time to see every color of the rainbow light up the world. They shined, shimmered, and glimmered. “Incredible,” I breathed.
“Yes,” Connor murmured, but I felt his still eyes on me, not the sky. “Incredible.”
Fourteen
“I don’t want to go to the Flying Horses,” Maisie said mid-munch of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. “My mom said she might take Bryce and me to the candy store later.”
I glanced over my shoulder, the kitchen thankfully not as crowded as usual. Topper and Peggy were sipping coffee and absorbed in a crossword puzzle, and across the room, Connor was busy helping Teddy man the waffle maker. Erica and my dad had gone on a walk. The others were sleeping in after a late night.
“You have all day to swing by the candy store,” I told her instead of pointing out that Erica’smightwas code formaybe, not an iron-claddefinitely. “Please, Maze?”
My sister slurped some more cereal.
“Annie went there once,” I tried. “Don’t you want to go somewhere she’s been?”
Maisie’s brow furrowed, a sign that she was now truly considering. Because before Annie’s decline, she used to find our grandmother’s adventures fascinating—fantastical, even. “No, no,I don’t believe you!” she said when Annie once told her about a long-ago tour of Russia. “You went to a circus and actuallypetthe tigers?”
“Of course I did, darling,” Annie told her with a smile and mischievous glimmer in her eye. Circus? Yes. A face-to-face with the felines? Hmm. “Their fur was like butter on warm toast…”
Butter on warm toast.
It was such anAnnieexpression, one that now made the corners of my eyes sting.
“Okay.” Maisie nodded as I blinked twice. “Bryce and I will come—”
“Yes!”
“—ifyou promise to drive us to the candy store afterward.”
I gave her a look. “What about your mom?”
Maisie shrugged. “I’m not sure she’ll really take us,” she said. “Aunt Beth keeps telling her she needs to work on the scrapbook.”
Ah,the scrapbook, I thought.Topper and Peggy’s anniversary album.
