Page 139 of While You Were Trending

The urge to hug her is so strong it physically hurts. “You’re honestly tight with your siblings?”

“The bonds of shared trauma.”

“Your mom hint at all that she’s coming back?”

“No. Caro’s back from her honeymoon and Mike’s off filming in Canada, so she has her favorite to latch on to again without having to suck up to her new son-in-law.”

I pinch my lips together.

“It’s not bad, not being her favorite,” Ginny says. “She punishes me for all of my various ways of disappointing her by visiting less often. So it’s actually a win.”

She scoots even closer to me.

I’m not imagining it.

She’s getting closer.

I swallow hard and tell myself she’s not doing it on purpose. “That could be the Mabel effect. She’s scary.”

“Mabel’s the best.” A small smile flickers over her face as she stops in the middle of leaning her shoulders even closer to me, then rubs Flow instead, sinking her fingers into my dog’s fluffy coat. “I—I’m a little on the struggle bus right now. I have this thing about latching on to people who show the smallest bit of kindness, and you—you’re the only person from my before times who’s been nice to me lately. So I—I appreciate that. A lot. But I don’t trust myself with anything more than appreciation. No matter what I might think I feel.”

I want to wrap her in a hug and hold her tight and shield her from anyone who would make her feel unworthy and tell her that I feel it too.

But I don’t because I don’t want to scare her away.

Again.

So instead, I nod at the ground. “That’s not something you would’ve said out loud the last time I knew you.”

“Rah-rah, hooray therapy.” She twirls a finger in the air.

I smile at her. “Sarcasm looks good on you.”

“I’m not rude or sarcastic to other people.”

“I know.”

“You brought it on yourself.”

I smile broader. “I did.”

She nudges my knee with hers. “Now even when I want to be a little nice, I feel like snapping at you.”

“Bring it. I can take it.”

“Why would you encourage me like this?”

“I like honesty.”

“Sarcasm isn’t honesty.”

“Isn’t it?”

Flow barks at me like she’s telling me to quit baiting Ginny.

“See? Flow’s on my side.” Ginny’s hand rests on my thigh, giving it a playful squeeze. “She’s such a smart girl.”

She’s flirting with me.