"The light," Robin says, and his voice has changed. Softer. "Look at the light."
I look. Late afternoon sun is coming through two windows on the west wall, casting long warm rectangles across the dusty floor. It's golden. The kind of light that makes everything it touches look like it matters.
"Morning light would come from the east, through the reading room windows," Robin says. "It would hit the display case first. People would walk in and the first thing they'd see is pastries lit up like a—" He stops. Swallows. "Like a light."
Nobody says anything.
Robin turns to me. His eyes are bright and his face is completely open and he looks terrified and certain in equal measure.
"I'm doing this," he says. Not a question. Not asking permission.
"Yeah," I say. "You are."
"It needs everything."
"Good thing you've got everyone."
He looks around the room. Knox in the doorway. Toby vibrating beside him. Silas with his hands in his pockets, already measuring the walls with his eyes. Ezra running numbers in his head. Jason understanding the kitchen. Ash leaning against the half-wall with his arms crossed and the ghost of a smile that saysmy little brother is going to be okay.
And me. Standing in a dusty café space in a library, watching Robin Martinez see his future for the first time and knowing — the way I know engines, the way I know my pride, the way I know the sound of Robin's real laugh versus his performance laugh — that this is going to work.
"Two hundred a month," Robin says to no one. "I can do two hundred a month."
"You can do a lot more than that," Toby says.
Robin laughs. Wet. Real. The best sound in the world.
"Okay," he says. "Okay. Let's do this."
Chapter 23
Robin
I've been pushing eggs around my plate for ten minutes.
"You need to eat," Vaughn says.
"I'm eating."
"You're rearranging."
"What if it hurts?"
"The stitches?"
"Taking them out. What if it hurts more than putting them in?"
He slides out of his side of the booth and into mine, arm around me. I lean into him immediately. Can't help it. His warmth is gravitational.
"I've had stitches out before," he says. "Multiple times. It's fast. Barely hurts."
"Because you're a reckless lion who gets into fights."
"Because I know what I'm talking about. And I'll be right there."
"Promise?"
"Promise."