Page 88 of Legacy Elite

"And the day after."

"I just did it—"

"Once. Once is an accident." I pick her coffee up off the equipment box and hand it to her. It's stone cold; I told her it would be. "You'll have it when you can do it four days running in weather you don't like."

"Four hundred times in a courtyard."

"If necessary."

She takes the coffee and pulls a face at it, and then she says, "You know, you could just say you're proud of me."

She says it lightly. She's not expecting an answer. She's already half turned away, gathering the notebook and the one glove.

I look at her.

"I am," I say.

She stops.

And whatever she was ready for, it wasn't that — I watch her jaw go slack, and for once in over a year Jessica Miller has nothing whatsoever to say.

"Right," she says eventually. "Okay."

"Four-thirty tomorrow."

"That's earlier."

"Yes."

Halfway across the field she turns round and walks backwards.

"Soren."

"Yes."

"Seriously. The licking thing dies here."

I look at her.

"What licking thing?"

She points at me with the hand holding the coffee.

"Good answer," she says, and goes.

I'm still watching the gate when Ander comes up the path from the residence.

He looks after her. Then at me.

He stops.

"What?" I say.

He doesn't answer. He's studying my face with the attention of a man who has known me since we were seven and has never once seen it doing this.

I realize I'm still smiling.

I stop.