Page 21 of The Mechanics of Broomstick Racing

“Wow, did you miss me already?” Levina crooned.

Zephyr furrowed her brow. Levina had quickly dropped her adoring fan obsession after only a few lessons with her idol. Now she teased Zephyr whenever the opportunity presented itself. Zephyr huffed. “I can’t miss what won’t leave me alone.”

“Don’t pretend you’re not learning as much from me as I’m learning from you,” Levina teased.

“I have a picture of your shrine to me. I am not above blackmailing a child.”

“Ouch. Well, can I start an order for you? What do you need repaired?” Levina reached out to take Zephyr’s box. Zephyr stepped back. Levina reached forward further. Zephyr stepped back further. “Okay, why are you being so weird?”

“Is Neil working today? I really need him to handle this.”

“Last week, I thought you were the coolest woman alive. Today, you’re pretending to need a repair just to talk to my uncle. Who is not at all cool.”

“No one thinks their family is cool,” Zephyr quipped. “That doesn’t mean—”

“He made me go fishing with him, told me one fun fact about trout, and fell asleep in ten minutes. He’s a hundred years old.”

Well, that was hard to defend. Levina suddenly lunged forward, stealing Zephyr’s box with a gleeful shout. Zephyr tried to steal it back but slammed into the counter in her panic.

Levina peered inside the box, and her smile quickly vanished. “Oh, shit. I didn’t realize—”

“Give it back,” Zephyr ordered, stalking around the counter and snatching the box out of Levina’s now loose grip. “I know you’re still a kid, but that was shitty.” When Levina’s eyes watered, just a little, all the anger fled Zephyr’s heart. She was left tired. That was it. Tired.

“I’m really sorry,” Levina muttered.

Zephyr couldn’t muster a response. She shrugged as she turned away, kicking open the door on her way out.

SHE WAS HALFWAY HOME, contemplating throwing her stupid box into a ditch, when she heard Neil calling after her.

Zephyr spun on her heel. “I knew I shouldn’t have shown you where I live.” She sighed. “Is there any way I can make you go away? I don’t feel like a heart to heart right now.” Where was Dale when she needed his tiny fury?

Neil took his time catching up with her, his work boots only half-laced. His disheveled appearance was annoyingly endearing. He avoided looking at the box she still held as he asked, “Can we sit somewhere? And talk?”

He’d been right before. She wanted to run away. From anything real. She wanted to run from him now. He looked at her too gently, and while she’d found it intriguing before, now it seemed frightening.

Like he was too much for her, and she was too little for him.

But even as her doubts protested, Zephyr stepped off the path to her home and walked through the trees until she found a grassy spot where the sky opened up. She sat down, setting her box aside, and fell onto her back. The bright sky blinded her—her eyes spared by an occasional falling leaf blocking out the sun.

Neil lay next to her, silent but unavoidable. She could feel the heat of his body, and it confused her further.

“I’m not mad at her,” Zephyr said. She inhaled, staring at the clouds rolling in. “I just didn’t want her to see. I didn’t really want you to see either.”

“Levina didn’t tell me what it was,” Neil admitted. “And I don’t have to see whatever it is. Not if you don’t want me to.”

“I don’t think you can fix this,” she whispered.

He didn’t push. He simply waited. But Zephyr knew he was nervous. His body buzzed with a faint sheen of electricity, and it was Neil’s anxiety that made her let him in. This mattered to him—it really mattered. Even though he had no idea what she was about to share with him. He wanted in, but was so afraid of pressuring her that he was inadvertently turning himself into a live wire.

What an adorable idiot.

Zephyr sat up, dragging her box between them and being very careful not to bump into him. She opened the flaps and sat back, letting him discover her secret for himself.

“Oh, hells,” he muttered, and she could see he was already in “troubleshooting” mode. She saw him mouth, how can I fix this as he pawed through the contents.

“Yeah, she’s in pretty bad shape.”

“She’s fucked,” Neil said flatly. He cringed. “I shouldn’t have said it that way. I meant—”