His big, broad palm presses into the small of my back. Strong. Steady.
And Ijumpaway from him.
It’s an instinct, fast, maybetoofast, because when I do, Fox just…stares at me this little fraction of a second. Brown eyes wide and wondering.
But then he blinks, and it’s gone.
“I’m fine,” I say, even though he didn’t ask.
Fox nods.
“Yeah. Um. Anyway. The…the bad news.” He exhales long and hard, and I realize I’d forgotten entirely that therewasbad news. “It’s your rear bearing.”
And now that Idoremember, Ireallydon’t have time for this. “Okay?”
Fox draws his eyebrows together a bit, like it’s not the reaction he expected. I relent, a little.
“Dude, you know I don’t know shit about mechanics.” That much is true. “You’re the brains of the operation. Just spit it out.”
At that, his face brightens.
“Yeah,” he says. “Right. Okay.” He crouches, indicates something inside the rear wheel. “See this bearing here?”
He motions for me, so I crouch, too. Trying not to gettooclose, though. “Mhm.” I don’t really know what I’m looking at, but fine.
“So this is why it was handling the way it was,” Fox explains. “It was seizing up sort of randomly. You weren’t feeling bumps and stuff back there?”
“I guess?” I shrug. “I thought that was just…how it handled.” I frown. “But you just put in the new shocks.”
“Right, right,” Fox nods, “and thatwillmake it handle better, in theory, because the old shocks were too stiff for your weight.But when I opened it up to swap them, I saw how corroded this thing was, and?—”
“—and that’s bad,” I finish for him.
“Well…yeah.”
I rub a hand over my face. I don’t havetimefor this. “Okay, likebike doesn’t gobad? You’re telling me I can’t ride it anymore?”
Fox rubs the back of his neck, wincing. “I mean, youcouldride it, but…”
“What”—the door bangs open—“thehellis up with you two?”
It’s Pan. Of course. Beaming. Not angry. Just wired. Seeing us, and the bike, he pulls a frown.
“Uh oh.” He folds his arms. “Little Green’s in the bike hospital?”
Fox straightens up, wiping his hands on his jeans. “Yeah. Seized linkage. I can fix it, but I need some time. It’s not gonna be rideable for a minute.”
“For real?” Pan looks from Fox to me. “But I need you to come with,” he says, almost sulky. “Today. For the…thing.”
Fox shrugs and grabs me by the shoulder so hard my teeth almost click. “So take him on yours. A Tink backpack.” He laughs.
“He’sgota backpack already,” I say, pushing his hand away. “The kid. Wendy. Whole reason we’re going.” I glare at Pan. Then look at Fox. “What about yours?” I ask him.
Fox blinks. “Uh, I mean, you can try, but…” He looks me up and down, and it almost makes me shiver until I realize what he’s doing. “You’re not gonna reach the footpegs,” he declares. “Sorry, man. I’m just a giant. I built it out custom for a reason, you know?” He looks at Pan. “Just go by yourself, dude.”
“No,” Pan and I say at the same time.
“Bad idea,” I add in a mutter.
