By Your Side(19)

I thought he wasn’t going to answer, which wouldn’t have surprised me, but he did. “Hiking. Nature.”

“And reading?”

“Yes.”

“So, exploring new places?” I said.

“Yeah . . . I guess so.”

“That can be rule two. You must read in the library. I mean, that rule doesn’t make sense at all, but we’ll keep it.” He probably couldn’t see my smile, but even I could hear it in my voice.

“There should be no rules in our world,” he said.

“You’re right. That will be rule number three.”

This time he did laugh. A warm, deep laugh that made my smile double. It was the first time I’d heard it, and I hoped it wouldn’t be the last. I lay back down. “Good night, Dax.”

“Night.”

When I woke up, Dax was already gone from his spot. I stretched. Considering I’d slept on the floor, I had slept really well. I’d been warm and comfortable. Now that I was awake, I had a slight pain in my stomach from hunger, and I had to pee, but I did not want to get out of the sleeping bag. I stayed where I was as long as I possibly could, until I couldn’t hold it anymore.

After a trip to the bathroom I downed a full cup of water, hoping it would trick my stomach into thinking it wasn’t hungry. It worked a little. Then I went back to the checkout desk, where I remembered seeing something the day before in my search for an alarm.

“What are you doing?” Dax asked when he came into the room and found me behind the desk digging through a wicker basket.

“This is Mother Goose’s basket.”

“Okay.”

“She brings this to reading time every week. It has those cheapie little toys she hands out to the kids.” I sifted through a few more of those toys. “Why do they call her Mother Goose anyway?”

“Mother Goose is the fake author of nursery rhymes.”

“Fake author?”

“You know, like Lemony Snicket.”

“Who’s Lemony Snicket? And what’s a fake author?”

“It’s an imaginary person they attribute the writing of a book to. It makes the story seem more magical.”

“Oh.”

“So why are you interested in Mother Goose’s toys?”

My hand closed around what I’d been looking for. “Aha!” I held it up in the air, then threw it in the pile of the other things I’d already found.

“What is it?”

“A sticky hand.”

“Okay, then.” He tossed me a protein bar. “I’m going to read now.”

“No. You’re not. I’m bored out of my mind.”

“Maybe you should sing.”

My eyes shot to his. Had he heard me that first day belting out songs at the top of my lungs? Of course he had. “You know very well I can’t sing.”

He laughed, and my cheeks went red.

“I’m implementing rule number one,” I said, changing the subject. I ripped open the wrapper of the protein bar and took a bite. “Did you already eat one of these?”

“I told you they’re yours.”

I broke off another piece and handed him the rest. “I can’t eat all the food. I’d get a guilt headache.”

“A guilt headache?”

“It’s a thing.”

“It must be a nice person thing.” He popped the protein bar in his mouth.

“Funny.”

“Rule number one?” he asked, turning his attention back to my pile of toys.

“Games. Eat, and then we compete.” I gave a single laugh. “That totally rhymed.”

He rolled his eyes, but there was an amused look in them. Yes, me not pulling the fire alarm was the best thing I could have done. We were definitely on the same team now.





CHAPTER 13


We stood at the top of opposite wood staircases. He held a wrapped green Slinky and I held a red one. “Whichever one makes it to the bottom first wins. You can only touch it if it gets stuck,” I called across to him, my voice echoing in the large space.

“I could be reading right now.”

“I could be eating a home-cooked meal right now, but we’re both making sacrifices for the greater good.”

He smiled, then tore open the plastic wrapping with his teeth. “Are you going to be as good at this as you were at poker?”

“Hey! Better to talk smack after you win.”

We both placed our Slinkys at the top. I counted to three and we let go. His went three steps before falling between the slats of the handrail to the tile floor below. I laughed as mine kept going. “You’re still in the game,” I said. “You just have to get it and put it back on the same step.”

He ran down the stairs faster than I would’ve expected and hopped the banister at the bottom. He collected his Slinky and ran back up. I’d never seen him so animated as he put his Slinky back on the step and gave it a nudge to get it going again. It was too late, though; I had directed mine to a win before his had made it another five steps. I raised both hands in the air. “Winner! Who can talk smack now?”

He folded his arms and leaned against the railing as if waiting for me to give it my best shot.