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“Whatever,” she muttered.
Then, slowly, Maddie’s face changed.
It was such a small shift at first that she almost missed it. But it was there.
The tiniest change from confusion, to curiosity, to something else that Saff couldn’t place.
Then, a moment later, it happened.
That small ghost of a smile. The same one she’d gotten off and on as they traveled together. The same one she’d gotten the night before. That smile that Saff still couldn’t figure out. Like Maddie was in on some joke that she wasn’t a part of, and it drove her crazy.
And then it was gone as fast as it had appeared.
Maddie cleared her throat. “You’re probably right, though. Carter isn’t really that experienced with guns or fighting, or anything like that.”
Saff swallowed down her discontent.
“And,” Maddie continued, “someone could probably sneak up on him easy enough before any of us would see it coming.”
She glanced away, trying not to imagine the worst-case scenarios.
“But I guess those are the chances we’ll have to take,” Maddie said quietly, letting her fingers continue across the beads of the bracelet. With every other stroke, they lightly brushed against her bare skin. She tried to ignore how good it felt.
Saff huffed a dissatisfied grunt.
“Hey,” Maddie continued, in a way that sounded almost too nonchalant. “You still haven’t been able to find the medication you needed, right?”
Saff had checked the small pharmacy at the back of the grocery store they were in, but still hadn’t had any luck. She was trying not to worry, but she’d never gotten this low on it before, and it was giving her cause for concern.
“No.”
Maddie nodded, with a thoughtful look on her face. She paused for a few moments, like she was thinking through a problem. “You know, the new settlement is probably pretty well stocked on that kind of stuff.”
Saff watched her carefully, absorbing the words.
“I did promise you medication in exchange for getting me out of the city,” she continued. “I’d feel bad if I never held up my part of the deal.”
It took Saff a second to realize what she was asking. Or what she was offering.
It wasn’t exactly a bad idea. Or a bad offer.
Her only alternative was to continue searching and scavenging in all the areas nearby.
“I mean,” Maddie continued, now sounding a little less confident than before. “I’m not trying to convince you of anything you don’t want to do. I just—it makes sense, you know?”
Saff watched her fidget with the bracelet in an almost hesitant way.
“There are other places I could look that make more sense,” she replied, not exactly believing what she was saying.
Maddie nodded slowly. “Are there?”
No.
“Yeah.”
Maddie continued nodding. “You sure?”
Nope.
