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He gave a rather unmanly squawk, his fingers slipping off the bar. He landed with a jolt on his back on his bed, and he scrambled to sit upright. His sweaty skin prickled, and he was all too aware that he wore nothing but a pair of fatigue shorts. A part of him wanted to reach for the blanket, but he’d just draw more attention to himself if he clutched a blanket to his chin. “Adry! What are you doing breaking into my room at the crack of dawn? I could have been dressing!”

She rolled her eyes and huffed, taking a single step into the room. Despite her nonchalance, her ears were red. “The balcony doors were open. You would’ve closed them if you were changing.”

“Still. You should have warned me you were there. At least knock or something.” To hide his discomfort, Merrik grabbed a pillow and chucked it at her. “Not just barge in.”

She caught the pillow, her ears going more red as her gaze dropped. “I was going to. But then I, uh, got a little distracted.”

Now his ears were burning even hotter than before. Though, he was torn between discomfort at the impropriety and gratification that she found his shirtlessness distracting.

“Well, knock next time.” Merrik huffed and swiveled his legs so he was sitting on the edge of the bed. “We are courting, not siblings who barge into each other’s rooms.”

Adry rolled her eyes again and flapped her arms at her sides. “I knew you were going to go all weird about things once we were courting. We’ve never been exactly proper. I’ve seen you shirtless before.”

“Not since I was an adolescent.” He’d started getting self-conscious around her right around the time he’d noticed how pretty she was and how much she was not his sister. “And if you want to talk about weird, how about you being weird and just walking into my room first thing in the morning.”

She gave a wry smile and a shrug. “Fine, fine. We’re both being weird.” The smile dropped, her tone going far more serious. “I liked us how we were. I like you because we’re so comfortable with each other. And I don’t want that to change now that we’re courting. Can we agree to not be weird?”

“It is a little too late for that. But, yes, I will try to act normal.” Merrik reached for the fatigue shirt draped over the back of his wheelchair.

“Just with more, you know, courting stuff.” Adry’s ears went red again, but she was smirking.

Merrik coughed on his laugh, his mind going straight to their kiss the day before. Normal, just with more handholding and kissing? That sounded good to him, even if he couldn’t bring himself to say that out loud. “Right. Yes.”

They fell into an awkward silence for a long moment, as if neither of them knew what to say or how to go about actually courting. They’d been like family for so long that the transition to being more didn’t come as easily as one might think.

Merrik worked his arms into the shirt. “Now I am actually going to get dressed. Go back down the lift and enter the front door like a normal person.”

Her ears still red, Adry grinned, spun on her heel, and marched out the balcony doors, closing them after her.

After making sure the doors were, indeed, closed—and locked for good measure—Merrik took a quick shower, sitting on the wooden bench he’d grown into the side, and dressed.

He settled into the wheelchair to go downstairs, though he stowed the resting peg leg in the bag attached to the back.

Wheeling the chair out of his door onto the small porch, he backed onto the track at the top of the stairs. He pulled a lever and a small click accompanied the wooden brackets falling into place to grip the chair’s wheels. Then he pulled a second lever, and the track began moving downward, tipping over the edge to angle him downward.

He braced himself. This part was always nerve-wracking. Even though he knew the chair was secure to the track, it wasn’t a comfortable feeling going backward down such a steep slope.

The track slowed, then halted at the bottom, where he disconnected the chair and turned it around to push it into the main room of his family’s home.

The sounds of his family’s voices wrapped around him as he rolled into the kitchen. His mama bustled between the stove and the worktable that doubled as their dining table. Adry already leaned against one end of the table while Kari perched on a chair, already downing her eggs and sausages.

“Good morning, Mama.” Merrik halted his wheelchair at the other end of the table from Adry. He shared a look and a smile with her, but he forced himself to face his mama.

“Good morning.” Mama smiled as she placed a plate in front of him. “You seem…happy this morning.”

Merrik had to resist looking at Adry. “Woke up on the right side of the tree, I guess.”

He gulped down his eggs and sausages just as quickly as Kari had.

Kari finished first and dumped her dirty plate in the sink. She grinned as she hurried away. “It’s your turn for the dishes. I have been doing them lots.”

Merrik returned her grin with a lopsided smile. “Yes, I suppose I had better take a turn again.”

“I’ll help.” Adry jumped to her feet so fast that she bumped the table, rattling the dishes.

“Linshi.” Merrik lost himself in her gaze for a moment before he looked away.

Mama’s gaze flicked between the two of them, something in her eyes far too assessing and knowing. At this rate, their plan to keep their courtship a secret would be blown by nightfall.