“Good.”
“Sometimes it makes me feel a little less crazy.”
“You’re not crazy.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know enough.”
I smiled into my coffee.
For a few minutes, neither of us talked.The city slowly woke around us.
A truck rumbled by at the end of the alley.Somewhere nearby, a delivery door rolled up with a metallic groan.Birds chirped from a power line like they had no idea secret societies and hidden tunnels existed beneath their feet.
Lucky birds.
Wheels stretched one leg out in front of him, boot scraping lightly against the pavement.“You got quiet.”
“I was just thinking.”
“About?”
I watched steam curl from my coffee.“My sister.”
Wheels didn’t say anything right away.He just waited.That was something I liked about him.He didn’t rush in and fill every silence.He let people get there when they got there.
“Her name is Novalea,” I said.
“Pretty name.”
“She says it sounds like she should be a princess in a fantasy book.”
His mouth twitched.“Is she?”
“Absolutely not.She spilled grape juice on herself last Thanksgiving and blamed the couch.”
“Sounds fun.”
“She is very fun.Possibly slightly crazy, though.”
He chuckled.“She would fit in perfectly here.”
I smiled at the memory.“She’s four years younger than me,” I said.“Which means she thinks I’m bossy, overprotective, and dramatic.”
“Are you?”
“Yes.”
Wheels laughed quietly.
“But only with her,” I added.“Mostly.”
“Uh-huh.”
I pointed at him with my mug.“Don’t start.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
