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I step around a log jutting halfway into the path. “What about your cousins, or Paul and Moira? Do they hike or anything?”
“I’m not sure. Paul and Moira are into golf. My cousins like water sports.”
“You should take them out here too, show them how to forage.”
He shrugs. “Maybe.”
We walk in silence for a few minutes before he speaks again. “I think it’s hard sometimes for my family to be around me.”
Surprise halts me in my tracks and then I have to speed walk to catch up to him. “Why would that be? Other than making me eat weeds, you’re not too bad.”
He chuckles, and then we walk in silence.
I think maybe we’ve left that question back in the dirt where it will linger forever, but then he speaks. “When I first came to Whitby, I was a mess.”
“Of course you were.” I know that better than most. “You lost your parents. You were only sixteen.”
“Yeah but... I don’t know, it’s been over ten years now and I still feel separate somehow. Like I’m part of the family, but not.”
Understanding whispers through me. The connection already taut between us hooks into my stomach and tugs. “I feel that way too, sometimes.”
“Seriously? But your family is so... ” He waves a hand in the air, searching for the words.
“Loud. Obnoxious. Major crap-talkers.”
A smile tugs at the corner of his mouth. “Yes, but you’re all so close with each other.”
“We are, but there is tension sometimes too.”
“You mean, like with Mindy.”
“Yeah. Like with Mindy.” Which I do not want to talk about. “But it’s more than that. Mindy and Finley are only a year apart, so they’ve always been tight. Piper and Mindy are close too, even though Piper is three years younger than her. They even lived together recently, before Piper moved in with Oliver. Then there’s me. Smack dab in the middle of all my siblings.” The odd one out. The one who hasn’t done anything with her life.
He stops and turns to face me, eyes locking with mine. “Like you’re a part of something, but not.”
“Yes. Exactly.”
We stare at each other, the seconds stretching between us until he spins around and continues walking. “We’re almost to the stopping point.”
I find my voice. “Okay.”
After a few more minutes, he glances over his shoulder. “Did you know Finley and Jake got me gifts for Christmas?”
“Really? Didn’t Finley invite you at the very last minute? They couldn’t have had time to buy anything. What did they get you?”
“Jake gave me a hammer. A used one. It has paint splatters on it. He carved my initials into it. Well, one of my initials. He couldn’t remember my last name so there’s just a poorly carved A on the handle.” He chuckles.
I shake my head. “That tracks. What did Finley get you? I’m sure it was better than a hammer.”
“She got me a succulent. She painted on the pot, ‘I wet my plants.’”
Laughter breaks out of me. “Oh, Finley. She’s such a mom. On my tenth birthday I got in a fight with my best friend, Lily, who was supposed to come over that night for a sleepover.”
“I don’t remember a Lily at Whitby High.”
I sidle around a scraggly bush growing into the path. “She moved away during middle school. Anyway, I was super upset and Finley threw together this whole thing with my sisters. She and Mindy made a big old fort with pillows and blankets in the living room, covered it in Christmas lights, and let me eat cake for dinner.”
“Your parents didn’t mind?”
