Her smile almost extended past her ears as she reached out to snag a chocolate chip cookie. “So who was the girl?”
“The one I was with the night before I met you. The night Michael came to rescue me. I didn’t even remember her name.”
“Not knowing her name does not make it better. Why didn’t you go talk to Lily right that second? It’s afternoon already. Why haven’t you tried to talk to her today?” she demanded. “Why are you ignoring her?”
“I’m not ignoring her. Ow!” She grabbed a few leg hairs and pulled, and I was quickly reminded that tiny and irritable didn’t make the best combination.
Especially when you poked it with a stick.
“I didn’t. I avoided her because I didn’t know what to say. Did she tell you anything?”
Leaning over conspiratorially, she whispered, “You want to know what she said about you?”
“Emerson.”
She sat up. “Fine. She said that the two of you had a weird conversation about feelings, and she told you she wanted to bite you?” At this, she raised her eyebrows. I nodded. “Oof. No wonder seeing you with that girl on the street hurt her.”
“It hurt her?”
“Why do you think she was so mad?” She asked the question like I was an idiot. Which, apparently, I was.
“I don’t really understand how this stuff works.”
“I love you both. You know that,” Em said.
I nodded, and a little bit of the fire in her voice died down.
“If I’ve learned something from all this crap with Jack,” she continued, “it’s that living anywhere other than in the moment is a mistake. Like Michael always says, the future is subjective. The past could be a lie-not just my past-but all of our pasts. Even Lily’s.”
“You still don’t think Lily’s being here is a coincidence.”
“No. Because every time I think I’ve dealt with Jack and all the ways he’s screwed with me, I prove myself wrong.” She shook her head. “Do you have any idea how much it kills me that so many of the good things in my life are there because of him?”
“I’m so sorry I didn’t stop him when I had the chance,” I said. “I’m sorry I didn’t take my dad’s files before he stole them, before he could find you.”
“Where would I be now if you had?”
I sat up and put the plate of cookies on the table, frowning at her.
“If you’d taken the files before he could get to them, Jack wouldn’t have known about me and my ability to travel to the past. I’d still be a crazy lump in a bed. Lily could be living somewhere else. Your dad would be dead.” She gave me a grim smile. “You could chase the circles of consequence for days. If this had happened, then this wouldn’t have. Vice versa. It’s mind-boggling.”
“There are a hundred different scenarios.”
“Exactly, and it proves my point. The present. Right now.” Her eyes were more serious than I’d ever seen them. “The exact spot where the hourglass filters the sand from the future to the past. That’s where we have to live, Kaleb. Before all the sand runs out, or before somebody shakes it all up again.”
“I am so glad I have you in my life, for whatever reason.” My vision was suddenly blurry, so I paused and blinked a few times. “So, Lily. I have your blessing?”
“Treat her right, or I’ll kill you.” She held up a tiny, yet mighty, fist. “I can see how you feel about her. I know how she feels about you. And I guess I wonder… how many times have we had this conversation? What if last time you didn’t listen to me and you regretted it, or I told you not to go after her at all? Wouldn’t you want to do things differently now?”
I ruffled her hair. “Is this what goes on up there in that head of yours?”
“All the time.” The answer was solemn. Melancholy.
“So I should go clear all of this up and tell her how I really feel.”
Her answering smile was genuine. “Absolutely. But maybe clean up first. You have cookie crumbs on your chin.”
Chapter 39
The wind slammed the door to Murphy’s Law open so hard the glass in the windows rattled.
The shop was almost empty except for two girls behind the counter. One almost dropped a tray of mugs when she saw me. The other, who I recognized as Sophie, spoke as if her lips were numb. “Can I help you?”
“I need Lily.” It had taken me well past dinner to get the nerve up to talk to her. Now that I was here, I didn’t want to waste time.
“She’s roasting beans. In the back. Do you want me to-”
Instead of answering, I blew past her and pushed my way through the swinging door. The air smelled like heaven. Em would get a contact high.
“Lily?”
She stuck her head out from behind the edge of a huge metal roaster. One hand was wrapped around a steaming mug of mint tea, and the other held an open book clutched to her chest. As she stepped around the side of the roaster, her index finger slipped into the book to mark her place.
I wanted to tackle her.
“Kaleb.” A buzzer went off. She put the tea and book down before flipping a switch on the machine. “Why are you here?”
“I need to talk to you. Please.”
She sighed.
“I’m not going to go away until you talk to me.” I put my hands flat on the counter and met her eyes. “And I’ll follow you if you leave.”
Walking to the swinging door and opening it, she leaned out into the coffee shop proper. “Hey, Katie-you and Sophie shut down and then head home early. No sane person is going to come out for coffee once this rain moves in, anyway. Just put the sign in the window. I’ll lock up.”
The girls on the other side of the door said something I couldn’t hear, and Lily laughed. “He’s fine. Thanks for the concern.”
She came back in the kitchen with a strange expression on her face.
“What?” I asked.
“They were worried. I guess you made quite an impression on the way in.”
“I was kind of in a hurry. I really wanted to talk to you.”
“You’re also as big as a house, tattooed, and pierced. And wearing a black leather jacket.”
“Oh yeah.” I’m a bad ass. A bad ass who bakes when he’s depressed.
“How can I help you, Kaleb?” she asked, the venom finally leaking through the smile.
Two pairs of eyes peered through the circular window that led into the kitchen. “Can we go somewhere more private?”
She hesitated, and then pulled off her glasses, rubbing her face in frustration. “Fine. But make it fast. I don’t want my tea to get cold.”
I followed her out of the impeccable kitchen through a heavy-duty steel door into an alley. Even the trash was organized, the recycling sorted and stored in neat bins.
“What?” She slumped back against the brick wall of the building, putting one foot against the wall and twisting her apron strings around her fingers.
“I think you misunderstood what you saw yesterday.” The wind picked up, and leaves from the red maples that lined Main skittered down the alley.
“What, you mean you and Ainsley Paran?”
“I didn’t even know her last name.”
“That does not make it better.” Em had said the same thing. Lily dropped the apron strings and gestured with her hands. “And, anyway, she acted like she knew yours. And possibly the length of your inseam.”
“We met one night, last summer. Downtown. We danced. I might have kissed her once or twice. That’s it. And that was not… a good time in my life. And as far as the other girl, her name is Ava, and we mostly really dislike each other, but for some reason she rescued me-”
“I know Ava.”
I saw a flash of lightning and heard thunder in the distance. “You do?”
“Yeah. I met her when I met Dune.”
I wanted to ask exactly when she’d met Dune, and why they were so flirty with each other, but all of that fell strictly into the category of None of Kaleb’s Business, especially under the current circumstances. So instead, I just said, “Oh.”