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“You’re a good person, Jason.”
“So are you.”
Something about that makes me shy. I shrug my chin into my chest. “I wouldn’t be so sure.”
“No, I guess not. You’re a bad girl. A naughty girl.”
I scoff on a laugh. “You have me pegged.”
Our eyes meet. “What are you doing for the holidays?” he asks.
“Um…”
I know what I want to be doing. But I also know what I should be doing—avoiding Jason at all costs.
“Retract that question,” he says stubbornly. “I know what you’re doing. There’s a Christmas Eve ferry ride they do every year. They put on a band. Serve hot chocolate. The whole thing. Departs at seven thirty. Otto will love it.”
“I’ll think about it.”
He squints at me. “You do this a lot, don’t you?”
“Do what?”
“Pretend like you’re going to commit to something and then bail at the last second.”
“I do not!”
But even as I protest, I feel my face flush. I am notorious for backing out of any and all plans.
He holds out his hand and extends his pinky. “Promise you’ll come.”
I snort a laugh. “What are we, twelve?”
“Muskrat swear that you and Otto will be on the ferry Christmas Eve.”
I hook my pinky in his. “We’ll be there.”
“Wasn’t so hard, was it?”
I crinkle my nose at him.
46
Jason
I let Kenzi leave with her vending machine loot and her promise that I’ll see her later.
I’ll hold her to it. She’s ignited something in me and, now that she’s back in my life, I have no intention of letting her wiggle out of it again.
I find Donovan in the lab. He’s sitting back in one of the chairs, staring at a wall of MRI scans tacked up side by side.
He doesn’t seem to notice when I walk in. Donovan is picking at his bottom lip, something he does when he’s thinking really hard. I don’t think he has any idea how distracting it is.
“Is that Otto?” I ask, closing the door behind me.
“Mmhm.”
I pull up the chair beside him. I dig the toes of my shoes into the floor and roll the chair back and forth aimlessly as I take a look at the brain scans. Blue-and-black images of a little boy’s brain tacked up to the wall.
