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At least Em cared. Just not in the way I wanted.
“You’re vicious.” I met her eyes and slid my keys across the table. Michael pulled them from my hand before Emerson could touch me, giving them to her.
“I’m also short. Which means it’s that much easier for me to take you out at the knees.” She tossed the keys up in the air with one hand and caught them with the other. Making light. “I’ll hide these puppies. Try not to kill each other while I’m gone, and if you’re going to argue, get under the table to do it.” I watched her walk away, her hoop skirt swinging from side to side, hitting ankles, knees, and chair legs. I didn’t look at Michael.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
I snapped my head toward him. Neither one of us had seen his apology coming. “What?”
“About this afternoon.” He frowned before he ran his hand through his hair and slouched back against the booth. “Em told me.”
“Oh. That.”
I didn’t want to think about the uniformed soldiers posing for a picture on my hundred-and-fifty-year-old porch. A porch that had suddenly appeared to be so new I could smell sawdust.
“If Thomas hadn’t caved and let Em come to the Hourglass school…,” I trailed off. “I don’t know how I’d have handled the ripple on my own. She only had to touch one soldier, and then everything dissolved.”
“I’m glad she was there for you,” Michael said. I could hear the underlying “don’t get used to it.”
Leaning back, I crossed my arms over my chest. “She said it was the same kind of rip she saw the night she went back to save you from the explosion in the lab. A whole scene.”
“Like you stepped into a painting.”
I nodded.
“I can’t explain it, Kaleb. I can’t explain the ones I’ve seen myself.”
“Why should you explain anything to me?” A quick glimpse of skintight gold fabric caught my attention from across the room. I didn’t have anything else to drink, but the next best distraction was making her way to the dance floor. “You aren’t responsible.”
“We don’t know who’s responsible.”
I gave him a scathing look. “Yes, we do.”
He disregarded the statement. “Did you tell your dad what you saw?”
“No.” Dad had enough to worry about. “Maybe you should tell him. He’d take it better from you, anyway.”
“That’s not—”
“You and Em have fun. I’ll find you later for a breath check so I can get my keys.”
“Kaleb, wait,” Michael said, but I was already up. Shaking off the conversation and any responsibility, I took a deep breath, adjusted my sword, and went with my gut.
And took a wide step around the jazz trio to get to the dance floor.
I banished any thoughts of Em and Michael, or Michael and my dad.
Tired of being on the outside looking in. In both cases.
I followed Tiger Girl onto the dance floor. I had way more than dancing on my mind, but I had to start somewhere. She’d almost reached a group of girls in a circle when I caught her by the hand. She turned to face me.
“Oh. You.”
“Try to contain your excitement.” I gestured to the crowd around us. “I wouldn’t want you to cause a scene. Riots can be very dangerous in this kind of situation.”
“Right,” she replied in a monotone, pulling her hand away. “I’ll bring it down a notch.”
“I thank you, and the Ivy Springs Public Safety Department thanks you.” I bowed slightly. When I stood, wearing my most winning smile, I saw only her retreating backside. “Wait!”
