“What?”
“You went quiet.”
“I’m conserving energy.”
Chloe’s face changes. “She’s terrifying, isn’t she?”
“Yes.”
Ava smiles. “Is she actually terrifying or is she competent and you have a guilty conscience?”
“Both can be true.”
“Fair,” Chloe says.
I point at the screen. “Don’t say fair. I’m banning that word from my life.”
“Why?”
“No reason.”
Ava laughs. “What did they make you do?”
“Run. Carry things. Drag things. Wear things. Breathe incorrectly. Experience the full collapse of masculine certainty.”
“That sounds… healthy,” Chloe laughs.
“I think Pippa is trying to kill me.”
Ava says, “I’m sure she isn’t.”
“You weren’t there.”
“I don’t need to be. Women like Pippa don’t try to kill men during training.”
Chloe nods. “Too much paperwork.”
“Exactly,” Ava says.
I let my head fall back against the wall. “She enjoyed it.”
“She probably enjoyed you being dramatic,” Chloe says.
“I am not being dramatic. I have met death in a helmet.”
“That is dramatic.”
“It was a very heavy helmet.”
A shadow shifts near me.
I turn my head.
Pippa is standing just inside the garage doorway, one shoulder resting against the frame, arms folded. Not hiding. Not exactly watching secretly. Just close enough that Iknow she has heard the last part and probably more before it.
My soul, which has only recently returned to my body, considers leaving again.
On the phone, Chloe says, “AJ?”
