Page 41 of Friends to WHAT?!

“Hi!” she whisper-yells, gapped-tooth smile in full effect. She glances around furtively, then leans in. “I’m not supposed to be here,” she tells me. “But I saw your hair! And I wanted to come and say hi!”

I am going to be arrested.

I am going to be arrested, thenstabbed.

“Is your dad here?” I ask. “At Rory’s?”

She nods and looks around again. “Yeah, he’s here. That’s why we gotta be real quiet. This is a secret mission!”

“No,” I say, firmly. “No, no, no, no, no. No. Nooope. No. N-O. No.” I shake my head, just to make sure the message is clear. I put the melon in my cart, plant my hands on a wide-eyed Amia’s shoulders, and spin her around, facing away from me. “We are going to find your dadright now,” I tell her. “This is not safe at all. This is danger zone to the extreme. Please never, ever, ever walk away from your designated grown up in public without them knowing again. Even if you’re going to someone you think is safe. I could be a lunatic, Amia!”

This is bad. This is so,sobad. This isnotthe hot kind of boundary crossing.

Wolfe is going to kill me. He’s going to see me with his daughter, think I’ve done a revenge kidnapping, and murder me on the spot.

Or, more likely, he’s going to call the cops, and they’re going to arrest me, and then I’m going to get shivved in prison for a crime against a child.

“No, no, no, no, no,” I mutter to the stars, scanning aisles as we pass them, looking for Wolfe’s stark white hair.

“I don’t think Daddy’s going to be too mad,” Amia tries to console me. “He lets me go an aisle over to pick out chips sometimes.”

“Does he let you go several store sections over to meet complete strangers sometimes?” I ask, anxiety heightening my pitch.

Amia hums happily. “No, not usually.”

I do not know what there is to be happy about, and I tell her so.

She sighs dreamily. “There’severythingto be happy about, Miss Leora. You’re worried about me just like Daddy gets! That’s good news, because Daddy says that he worries so much because he loves me so much. Plus, you lectured me like he does, too. And you know what he says about why he lectures me so much?”

I’m sure I could guess, but I don’t as Ifinallysee a wisp of Wolfe’s hair. He’s in the cereal aisle, walking swiftly away from us as his head swivels around the edge of an endcap.

“Wolfe!” I call.

He turns, frantic, and his entire body deflates as he catches sight of Amia in my hands.

I let go of her immediately and try to prod her toward her father without actually touching her again.

“Hi, Dad!” she cries with pep.

“I didn’t snatch her, I swear,” I say as he gets close enough to scoop his wandering daughter into his arms. “I didn’t even know you guys were here,” I continue, feeling a full-blown ramble coming on. “I–”

Wolfe interrupts before I can gain any steam. “It’s okay, Leora. I know you wouldn’t do anything like that.”

Oh, thank thestars.

He turns his ire on the wiggling ball of happy he holds. “You, on the other hand, are inhuge, giant, massivetrouble.”

Amia beams. “Okay!”

Wolfe’s eye twitches. “You can’t go off like that on your own,” he says. “You especially can’t go off on your own like that, breaking one safety rule, to meet someone it’s not been decided you can meet yet, breaking a second safety rule. Tonight, we’ll be going over the safety rules and the consequences of breaking them, and you’ll be receiving three consequences. One for each rule you broke, and one for compound interest.”

I take a small step away from the father-daughter duo, then a larger one. As fascinating—and straight up attractive—as it is watching Wolfe parent, I am not supposed to be here. If Wolfe wanted us to meet, Wolfe would have orchestrated that meeting himself. Until he does, I will keep myselfliterally anywhere elsethan Amia’s vicinity, including but not limited to: the fiery pits, North Korea, and the other side of Rory’s Grocery.

“Leora.” Wolfe stops me in my tracks, sharp sapphire eyes catching mine. “One second?”

I hold my breath and don’t move.

He sets Amia down. “Apologize to Miss Leora for putting her in this situation, then go pick out some granola,” he says. “Right there, at the end of this aisle, where I can still see you.”