I was laughing while he waited for me.
I was standing in an alley close enough to another man to feel his breath while August wondered if I would come back.
I press a kiss to his hair. “I missed you.”
He pulls back and looks up at me. “I wasn’t scared.”
The lie is brave.
I smile through the ache. “Good.”
“I was a little scared when Lottie said chicken strips were long nuggets because that is lying.”
A laugh breaks out of me before I can stop it.
From the porch, Sophie stands with one hand on the doorframe, watching us. Her face is soft, but her eyes are sharp. She sees everything. My flushed face. Derby’s too-careful silence. The way I can’t quite look at him now. The way he is pretending to be busy with the helmets like they require deep mechanical concentration.
Her mouth curves slightly.
Oh no.
She knows something happened.
Not all of it maybe.
But enough.
“Good ride?” she asks.
I have never hated an innocent question more.
“Yes,” I say.
Derby answers at the same time. “Fine.”
Sophie looks between us.
“Fine,” she repeats.
Derby points at her. “Don’t.”
“I haven’t said anything.”
“You’re thinking.”
“I often do.”
“It’s rude.”
She smiles wider.
August tugs my hand. “Come see the fort.”
I let him pull me up the porch steps because it saves me from Sophie and the heat crawling up my neck. Inside, Derby’s house has changed so much in two hours that I stop just past the doorway.
There are curtains now.
Actual curtains.