Page 64 of All the way home

“I don’t want to be gone long,” she tells him as he pulls back, resisting the urge to grab a napkin to wipe her skin. “We could be boarding any second.”

Lucas just grins. “Do you seriously believe that?”

“I’d like to.” Rena sighs.

“I wouldn’t be too—hey!” Lucas yelps, throwing his arms up in the air, chair scraping and nearly tipping over backward as he shoots to his feet.

It takes until he peels his shirt forward off his skin for Rena to piece together what’s happened: an old woman clinging to a middle-aged man for balance is swinging her glass around while walking past them.

“Mom!” The man whirls around, red-faced and wide-eyed with apologetic helplessness.

“Calm down, David.” The old woman sways, more liquid sloshing over the edge of her glass. “It’s just a little spill.”

“It’s not—”

“It’s all right.” Lucas snatches a few paper napkins and dabs at his shoulder. With a sniff at the wet spot on his shoulder, he shakes his head. “It’s not so bad. It’s just water.”

The old woman squints up at him, expression tight and pinched. “You are too tall.”

The man runs a weary hand along the side of his face. To Lucas, he says, “I’m so sorry. Can I go get you some towels?”

“No, no.” Lucas waves him off, sinking back down into his seat. “You’ve got your hands full.”

Watching them go, mouth hanging open, Rena manages not to laugh until she catches Lucas’s eye and he grins.

“Bit like your Gran, hey?” Lucas asks dryly, still dabbing at his shirt. “She thought I was too tall too.”

“She liked you,” Rena says, halfhearted.

He snorts. “Yeah, like a kick in the head.”

“Don’t be awful,” she says, putting a hand on his knee and squeezing.

“She never approved of me and you know it.” Lucas puts his hand over hers. “She said I’d grow up to be as bland as my father.”

“God forbid.” Rena smiles.

To be fair, Mr. Hill is a bit bland.

Lucas pauses. Then, tilting his head, he asks, “What do you think would happen if we met now, instead of in high school?”

“Now as in at this age? Or now as in this immediate moment?”

“Immediate moment.”

Rena gestures around them. “Here?”

“Anything is possible.”

“Not anything.”

“Neither of us are like Kieran, you’re right,” Lucas admits. “I don’t think I’d have the guts to talk to you.”

“Why not?”

“I barely had the guts to talk to you when we were fourteen. I’m only a tiny bit braver than I was then, and you’re a lot more intimidating than you used to be.”

“I’m not intimidating,” she objects.