Timepiece

Chapter 35

We strolled.

I’d never really taken a leisurely trip around downtown Ivy Springs, and definitely not with a girl. Lily’s spikes of emotion told me that she was processing all the things her grandmother had told her. I knew that when she was ready to talk, I’d be the one to listen. She trusted me.

That pleased me in ways I couldn’t explain.

A pumpkin carving contest took up most of the town square. People were everywhere, spilling out from cafés and sitting on benches. I didn’t want to be in a crowd and neither did Lily, so we ended up at Sugar High, a candy shop decorated like a high school hallway. Pep rally and prom ticket posters decorated the wall, there was even the occasional announcement over the loudspeaker. The locker doors were clear and showcased row after row of any candy imaginable. I was currently making my way through a half pound of Atomic Fireballs. Lily watched, drinking mint hot chocolate.

“She loves you,” I finally said.

“Of course she does. She sacrificed her life, her family, her homeland, just to bring me here. To keep me safe.”

I gathered up the empty wrappers on the table and leaned my chair back to drop them into the closest trash can. “There’s not an ounce of regret in her, Tiger. She’d do it a hundred times over.”

“I know that, too.” She stared off into space, twisting the Styrofoam cup of hot chocolate around in her hands. I jumped when she slammed it down so hard on the table the contents sloshed over the sides. “But she’s still forbidding me to use my ability. This whole thing blows.”

A mom shot Lily a mean look and covered her son’s ears before scuttling him to the other side of the store.

“Abi’s not being reasonable,” she said a few seconds later, wiping the spilled hot chocolate up and shoving the dirty napkin in her cup. “She knows how important it is to me, or I wouldn’t have asked. She knows how much I care about Em, and I told her how I feel about you-”

“Me?”

“I… I mean, about how I felt… like finding Jack was the right thing to-”

“No.” I grinned. I couldn’t help it. “You told your grandmother how you feel about me. How do you feel about me?”

“We’ve already established that I don’t like you.” Her voice was haughty, but her heart wasn’t in it. She sighed. “You’re exactly the kind of boy my grandmother has always warned me to avoid.”

“‘Boy?’” I sat up straighter, sticking out my chest. “What kind of man would I be, exactly?”

“A temptation.” She threw her cup at the trash can, sinking an impressive three pointer.

“Like the snake in the Garden of Eden?”

“No. More like the apple.”

“The apple?” I asked.

“Yeah. I’m pretty sure Eve never considered taking a bite out of the snake.”

When I realized my mouth was hanging wide open, I shut it. “Okay.”

“Back on task.” She banged her fist on the table, like a judge calling a courtroom to attention. “Why haven’t you asked me to break Abi’s rule?”

I tried to refocus. “Your level of respect for her, and how much she adores you. I think because of the life she gave up, you feel you owe her. You only owe her your well-being.”

Lily stood up, dissecting the statement as we walked outside to continue our stroll. “How do I owe her for my well-being?”

“Parents, grandparents, whoever-they do what they can to keep us safe. Sometimes that involves secrets.” My dad kept the Infinityglass from me because my mom had forbidden it. He’d left Memphis to protect us, as well as his interests. He served as a guardian to every person he’d researched. By letting Jack Landers get away with Dad’s personal files, I’d failed to protect the very same people. “Abi thought she was doing the right thing by keeping the truth from you, she honestly did, and you know I know.”

“You sound very mature.”

I shrugged. “What she said about your dad and the people he works for made me realize how bad things could be if you went back to Cuba. She’s not just scared that could happen, she’s bone-deep terrified.”

So was I.

“And you don’t feel the same way about what could happen to you? To your dad?”

“We still have some time. We’ll find another way.” I didn’t even want to think about putting Lily in danger. It twisted my stomach into knots. “So. I’m an apple, huh? The apple of your eye?”

“Kaleb.” She stopped walking and her cheeks turned bright pink. “I’m uncomfortably aware that you know how I feel right now.”

“I do?”

Hope. Anticipation. Uncertainty.

“Yeah, I do,” I admitted. My heart sped up in my chest. “But I try not to rely on my… ability in situations where a misread could be fatal.”

“Fatal?”

I was losing cool points so fast I was running into negative numbers. “What if I read you wrong?”

“Pretty sure that won’t happen.” Her expression was as direct as her words. “I was thinking about something last night right before I fell asleep. When people feel emotions, you feel them, too. So it’s a… mutual experience kind of thing?”

Her perceptiveness was unnerving. Almost as unnerving as the fact that she thought about me while falling asleep. In her bed.

“Mutual. Yes. I mean… it… it’s complicated.”

Intrigue. “So how would you feel right now… if… we touched?”

“I guess it would depend on how you felt about me. There are a lot of triggers with touching. Intensity, circumstances.” I lost track of what I was saying when she smoothed her hand across my chest and halfway down my stomach. Her touch made my toes want to curl all the way through the soles of my shoes, and not for purely physical reasons. “I don’t… I’m not sure.”

Smiling, she pulled her hand away and started walking again. No one had ever caught on to this part of my ability before. Except my mom. And that was a whole different thing. We shared happiness when we made cookies together.

Lily was not referencing cookies.

I realized she was ten feet away and I caught up.

“It would depend on how I felt,” she said. “If I felt good, you would, too?”

“Yup.”

“If I felt good physically, or emotionally?”

“Yup. Either. Both.”

“Am I making you uncomfortable?”

“Yup.” I didn’t know why, exactly. It’s not like I was shy. Or innocent.

“Knowing that things rebound back to you has to be addictive.” When we reached Murphy’s Law, she stopped at the stairs leading up to her apartment. “I’d be spending a lot of time making people feel good.”

“The appeal of making a lot of people feel good isn’t what it used to be. I think maybe I’d just like to focus on one.”

“You sure about that?”

“Yup.”

And it shocked the hell out of me.

A faint hint of a smile touched her lips.

“Are you going to be all right?” I asked. “Do you need me to go in with you?”

“No. Abi and I have a lot to talk about.”

She stood up on her tiptoes to kiss my cheek.

I watched her until she stepped inside, and I knew she was safe.