“Corinthia,” Stevie said, solemnly.“You’re too stuffy for your own good.”
“Maybe I am.But I care for her whether she feels the same way about me or not.If she were never to look my way again I’d still think of her and wish her well.She’s… special.”Saying it out loud loosened something in Corinthia, something that made her fearful and brave all at the same time.“I want to protect her.”
“Then use your words and tell her how you feel.”
“I’m not good at that.”
Rosemary zoomed toward them, face aglow, wind-stung cheeks rounded with happiness, and Corinthia had to stop herself from diving into a hedge to hide.
Stevie applauded as Rosemary stopped on a dime and dismounted with a hop.“You’re a natural!”
Rosemary curtsied.“Thank you,” she said.“It’s just like flying!”
“Corinthia, why don’t you go for a ride with Rosemary?”
“Oh, no,” Corinthia said.“I’ll throw off her balance.”
“Nonsense!”Rosemary said.“I’m stronger than you think.Get on!”
“I don’t have a helmet—”
“I won’t crash.Here, get behind me and put your arms around me.”
“Yes, put your arms around her,” Stevie said, who was not above shamelessly egging all of this on.
Corinthia stood carefully on the back of the scooter and slipped her arms around Rosemary.Because the scooter deck was not very long, she had to hold on quite tightly to fit.She had rested in a bed with Rosemary and had not been this close, this snug, this all-encompassingly pressed against her, warm and soft and firm in all the right places, smelling of forest and fresh air and sun-warmed flowers.
“Ready?”Rosemary said.
Corinthia, who was having trouble forming words, managed to reply something affirmative, and off they went.
At first her stomach jolted from the fast start, but when the acceleration smoothed out she had to admit that it did feel like flying—and terror, too, if she was honest, because she wasn’t a thrill ride kind of person; didn’t care for motorcycles, or roller coasters, or carnival rides of any sort—but this thrill was something altogether unrelated to speed, though it shared with it a feeling of uncontrolled adrenaline.Her arms, around Rosemary; two heartbeats flying in unison.
23
Later,aftertheyhadzipped up and down the street to their hearts’ content, Rosemary decided to go home and have a rest.Corinthia would have liked to follow, to perhaps catch a glimpse—or not—of an avian transformation, but good manners prohibited sneaking around in such a way.Besides, she cared for Rosemary far too much to seriously think of making her uncomfortable.So Corinthia and Stevie stayed out front of the house long enough for Rosemary to make her way through the backyard and into the Refuge proper.
“How did it go with Drew?”Corinthia asked, out of true curiosity and to delay talking about her own evening just a little bit longer.
“As you know,” Stevie said, “ there is absolutely nothing open in Shadow Ridge after a certain hour, unless you count liquor stores and superstores.”
“True,” Corinthia said.
“And I don’t think Drew or I were quite ready for the your-place-or-mine conversation.”
“Of course,” Corinthia agreed, with more calm than she felt, because she was already beginning to wonder how she would explain Rosemary coming back to her place and renovating her yard, and also how that was most definitely not a euphemism.
“So we looked up movie showtimes and found out they were doing that classic cinema thing at the movie theater—”
“Oh, yeah?Which one?”Movies, like books, were stories, and Corinthia couldn’t get enough of stories.
“A comedy from the forties about a guy who hides a mermaid from his wife,” Stevie said.“Really funny.We shared a bucket of popcorn, and I think we were kind of snuggling the whole time, with our shoulders.”
“Did you brush hands in the popcorn?”Corinthia asked, secretly grateful that her life was at least slightly less complicated than the plot of a screwball comedy.
“You bet we did.”
“Who was trying harder to make that happen?You or her?”
