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He closes his eyes as he swallows the treat, petting Paulette on the head. “I knew I liked you. We’re going to get along just fine.”
She pretends to bite at his fingers, and he pulls them away.
“Okay, well,” Mara says, drawing our attention back to her with a clipped tone that only I seem to notice, “I passed a little grocery store, market-type place on my way in. We could easily walk to it and get a few things for the night if you want.”
“Oh, right. My driver mentioned that,” I pipe up. “I wanted to get some pictures down by the river anyway. Anyone else up for a walk?”
“I’ll go.” Paulette lifts her hand in the air, standing from the chair. She tugs at her shirt, tucking the bag of gummies back into her oversized purse, which is shaped like a chicken, and slipping it over her shoulder.
“Why don’t we all go?” Austin asks, looking over at Memphis, who grumbles but doesn’t answer.
“I’m in,” Logan agrees.
“It’s settled, then,” I say. “Anyone who wants to go, let’s go before it starts getting dark.” I check the clock. It’s just after three, which means the sun will begin setting within a few hours. “We’ll get what we can, and if it’s not enough, then tomorrow, we can call an Uber or cab to get us to the grocery store.”
“Or we could have groceries delivered, maybe,” Paulette says, tucking a piece of her light brown hair behind her ears, which I notice are sporting Cheez-It-shaped earrings, complete with realistic-looking granules of salt.
“Okay, cool.” Austin sighs and shoves his hands into his pockets. “Let me grab some books from my room to take pictures of down by the water. Good idea, Lena.”
Everyone heads upstairs at once to do the same, and when we return and meet downstairs, we’re all carrying canvas bags with varying amounts of books inside them.
With our jackets on, we head out the door, and Austin presses the button to lock it behind us while Mara points in the direction she remembers seeing the store.
“It was just up over that hill in the distance. There’s a small, little downtown area.”
“Oh! Maybe they have a bookstore,” Paulette cries, though she’s already struggling with the weight of the bag in her arms.
“I don’t think so,” Mara says. “At least not on the main strip. I only saw the market and maybe a restaurant in what looked like an old tire shop. The rest of the buildings were boarded up.”
“Remind me. Why did we pick this bustling oasis again?” Memphis asks, shocking me with the first full sentence I’ve heard from him in a while.
“Ethan picked it,” Logan says. Beside me, Mara is humming a tune softly, though she seems almost unaware she’s doing it.
“It was in the center of all of us,” Austin adds. “Florida for me, Illinois for Lena—oh, and you, I guess—Colorado for Logan, Virginia for Mara, Michigan for him, and…” He pauses, looking at Paulette. “I wanna say South Car—”
“Georgia,” she corrects. “I’m from Georgia.”
“Right.” He snaps his fingers and jumps up. “Uh, so close! Anyway, so, this little town in the middle of nowhere in Kentucky was sort of our meeting point…” His sentence trails off, getting lower and slower as he becomes distracted by something off in the distance. “Hey, do you guys dare me to climb that tree?” Before we can answer, he’s off in a flash into the field and dangling from the lowest branch of the giant shade tree.
“Oh my god,” Mara cries, covering her mouth. “Get down before you get hurt. I doubt they have any hospitals here for miles.”
He swings back and forth faster. “Oh, come on, you big babies. Haven’t you ever climbed a tree before?” He sticks out his tongue. We cross the field on our way to him, and he seems to be having so much fun it’s nearly impossible to be frustrated.
“You’re staining your pants,” Logan points out, nodding toward the brown stains on the inner thighs of Austin’s blue jeans.
“Come on, Paulette. What do you say? Show these old farts how it’s done.” His brows dance, egging her on.
She releases a loud, dramatic laugh, but it slowly dies off as if she’d been considering it. “I don’t want to get hurt. I’m telling you I’m the most accident-prone person ever.”
“I’ll protect you, I swear.” As he says the words, he loses his grip on the branch and drops to the ground in a second with a loud thud.
“Oh!” Mara calls out. “Are you okay?”
I bend down to help him to his feet, but he waves me away, sitting up and gazing at the sky as he dusts off his pants. “You gotta learn to live a little, you guys. I’m fine, see?”
“We should really get going,” I remind him. “Before it starts getting dark.”
“Okay, fine.” His voice is breathy as he stands up, dusting off the seat of his pants. He pretends to be a grumpy old man as he walks through the field. “Here we go. Gotta get back before the streetlights come on.”
