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Merry shakes her head and turns the phone face down again. “No.”

I finish the drink and press the lid into place, trying not to wonder who them is, even though the question has become considerably harder to ignore now that I know Rose is apparently familiar with the situation, too.

“Are you waiting for something?” I ask.

“Someone,” Merry says, then seems to realize how that sounds when my hand pauses against the cup. “Well, not someone someone. I’m waiting for someone to answer me.”

I slide the latte across the counter and smile at her. She takes it, but her hand slips at the last moment and a dash of the drink falls from the opening on the lid.

“I’m doing very well today.”

Rose comes back to stand beside her, and there’s something about the way she looks at her sister that tells me she understands exactly what Merry is talking about. Whatever this is, then, isn’t some random text she happens to be expecting.

“It’s important,” Merry adds, curling her fingers around the cup where the latte is still dripping.

“How important?”

She considers that for longer than the question probably requires. “Potentially life-altering.”

Rose makes a strangled sound into her tea.

Merry angles her body in the direction of her sister. “It is.”

“Jesus, Merryweather, I didn’t even say anything this time.”

I smile despite myself, but the answer has left me wondering what the hell could be so potentially life-altering that the girl is literally on pins and needles.

I want to know, desperately. But asking would make my curiosity visible, and I’m not ready to hand that over to her when I haven’t figured out what I intend to do with it myself.

So I nod toward her drink instead. “Try it before the ice melts while you’re waiting for your life to change.”

Merry laughs and takes a sip. For a second, she closes her eyes as she swallows, and when she opens them again, the phone has disappeared from her attention.

“Still good.”

“I’ve been practicing all week.”

“I knew it.”

“Just for you, obviously.”

That slips out more easily than it should, and I feel a slight blush creep up my neck and settle on my cheeks.

Merry lowers the cup, but her smile is wide and bright when she says, “Good. I was hoping you’d say that.”

CHAPTER 15

MERRYWEATHER

“This is a terrible assignment.”

Rose doesn’t look up from the basket of tomatoes she’s examining. “You said the same about the last one.”

“And look how that worked out for me, Rose,” I reply, glaring at my sister as she continues to peruse the fresh produce at the local street market. “A man offered me his member.”

I think about the assignment again while Rose picks up a bright orange squash, turns it over in her hand, and apparently finds whatever she’s looking for because she adds it to the canvas bag hanging from her shoulder.

“She’s basically asking me to fundamentally reconsider the way I make decisions.”