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“Get her somewhere safe. Far, far away.”
“You’re sure, though, about what you saw—Fia was there, and so was Mr. Keane?”
“I’m sure. When I watch my sister die I pay attention.”
“Forgive me. Of course. I’ll take care of it; no one will be able to reach Sadie. There’s another plane waiting for you two. We have a safe house in North Dakota. Adam and Eden are there now, and I know they’d love to see you.”
“Thanks. For everything. Sadie?” I reach out and she moves forward. I pull her into a careful hug. “It’ll be okay. You’re going to be fine.”
“Thank you for caring enough to try. Good-bye, Annie.”
I’ve never heard such a final sounding good-bye.
“So are you guys doing it yet?” Eden asks, handing me the popcorn bowl. In the last seven days since we got here, I have eaten more popcorn than I thought was humanly possible. But at least Eden understands how to make a good pot of tea.
“Shut up,” I hiss. “Where is he? He might hear you!”
“Relax. He’s upstairs. But, man alive, that guy wants you. And the tension between you two is, like, wow. I have to keep taking cold showers so I don’t jump Adam to try and work some of it out of my system. You are really bad to be around for a Feeler, you know that?”
I giggle. “Good thing Adam is at the lab so often. I don’t think he could handle you. But really, I don’t know what Cole and I are. We had a . . . moment. But things were so crazy and stressful, and then Sadie had to go, and we came here.” I’ve thought about our kiss. So many times. Constantly. But I don’t know how to bring it up.
“Rooming with me is cramping your style.”
I smack her shoulder. “No, rooming with you is awesome. But it’s like, how do you even start dating in a situation like this? Is it possible?”
Her phone chimes with a text. “Rafael. Sadie is in Europe, on her way to the Swiss Alps. Dang, girl, why couldn’t you have seen Fia murdering me? Sadie gets the Swiss Alps, we get North Dakota. This is really not fair.”
“It’s not funny.” The image of Fia doing that to Sadie, and then . . . I shudder.
“I’m sorry. You’re right. You know what you need? An actual date. You and Cole should go out to dinner.”
“I don’t want to leave you and Adam out.”
“Adam’s not back from the lab until late tonight, anyway, and I make a mean microwave meal.”
I bite the inside of my cheek. “But Cole and I have pretty much been living together for months now. What do I say? ‘Hey, remember that time a week ago we totally made out in a hotel? That was nice. I’d like to do it again. Let’s go to dinner.’”
Cole’s voice comes from right behind me. “Um, okay.”
My cheeks burst into flames. I pick up the popcorn bowl and dump it on Eden. She shrieks, laughing hysterically. “The look on your face . . . oh, that was worth it, I’m sorry, I’m the worst friend ever, but I will never regret this.”
I turn to Cole, who must be behind the couch. “I was—you weren’t—she was just—”
Laughter pulls the edge of his voice, stretching it into a shape that turns my embarrassment into something giddy. “Actually, I was coming in here to say the exact same thing to you. What a coincidence.”
“Oh, really.”
He walks around the couch. “Yes. Shall we?”
I hold out my hand and he takes it in his.
And—
Holy crap.
Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap.
“What’s wrong?” he asks.
