Page 146 of Silent Shadows

“Love you too.”

And because he's Owen, because some things don't need saying, I flip him off. He salutes. Taylor walks back in, looking between us, and I leave before either of them can say anything else.

Daisy is sitting on the RV steps with her knees pulled up, earbuds in, staring out at the dark line of trees.

Everything smells clean and wet and alive.

She looks over as I approach and pulls one earbud free.

“Exterior batteries?” she asks.

I sigh. “Am I that predictable?”

“A little.”

I sit beside her, leaving a careful inch of space between us.

She holds out one earbud.

My chest goes tight.

“What is it?”

“My next episode.”

I look at her.

Her face is turned toward the forest, but I can see the nerves in the set of her mouth.

“I want to know if it’s good,” she says. “And you’re annoying, but I know you’ll tell me the truth.”

“I am extremely annoying.”

“And?”

I take the earbud. “And I’ll tell you the truth.”

We sit there in the damp dark, shoulders almost touching, listening to her voice fill the space between us.

At first, she cringes every ten seconds.

Then less.

Then not at all.

Because she’s good.

She’s so good it makes my chest hurt.

Her voice is warm and sharp and curious. Funny in exactly the right places. Honest without mocking. Open without being naive. She talks about belief like it’s not a punchline. Like it is a risk. Like it is something brave enough that it’s worth enduring mockery.

I look at her while she listens.

Big mistake.

Huge.

The blue-white glow from the RV window catches the side of her face. Her lashes. The curve of her mouth. The tiny scrape on her hand from where she fell.