“Loves them,” I said. “Super-salty ones. The kind that make it so you can’t even talk.”
“Okay,” Mom said, obviously not thinking anything about my weird antics; she was used to them. “Everyone meet back here in an hour?”
Skyler didn’t wait for more permission than that. “We’re checking out downstairs!” he said, then grabbed my hand and weaved us through the crowd and down a ramp. He didn’t stop when we got to the bottom but led me down two flights of stairs. It seemed like we were in the basement of a flea market now. There were stacked old chairs along the walls and tables of knickknacks and racks of clothes. There were also rooms with paintings and some with books and comics. There was a dark room with scarves draping the walls and a glowing red light with a sign that boasted of a psychic within.
“Should we get a reading?” I asked as we passed.
He didn’t stop. Back in the farthest corner, not a soul in sight, he finally turned me to face him. “Do you want to tell everyone?” he said.
“What?”
“Is that what this morning was about? And the salty peanuts talk? Because I’m not trying to keep you a secret. I would’ve stood on the table right there next to the pancakes at breakfast and said, ‘I love this girl!’ ”
My heart fluttered. “You would’ve?”
“Yes, I was waiting for the cue.”
“What cue was that?”
“One more second of that hug would’ve done it.”
His arms were folded across his chest and I grabbed hold of them. “No, that’s not what this morning was about. Or the peanuts.”
“Then what?”
I wanted so bad to tell him about his mom but at the sametime I didn’t. Aside from the fact that it wasn’t my secret to tell, he only had so many more days left of not knowing this big scary thing. I could see why Olivia wanted to gift her kids a worry-free vacation. “Ezra is kissing Willow.”
“He’s what now?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you okay?”
“No.”
“I’m so sorry. Should I go beat him up? Is that my role now?”
Just like that, all the heaviness on my shoulders lightened. I laughed. “No, if anyone is going to beat him up, it’s going to beme.”
“There it is.” He slid his hands along either side of my neck until his fingers were buried in my hair; then he slowly lowered his face to mine. The kiss was soft, his lips barely brushing against mine, but it completely stole my breath away.
“I’m glad you’ve had lots of practice at kissing,” I said with my eyes still closed. “You’re very good at it.”
“Not lots,” he responded, a smile in his voice. “I said some.”
“Some. Lots. Whatever. Do it again.”
He repeated his kiss. “Should we go check out some art here?”
“Yes,” I said, finally opening my eyes. But instead of walking, I tugged on his arms again and pulled him into a hug. I held on to him tight, realizing I wouldn’t be able to do this when he found out the news about his mom.
***
“Why are we doing this?” Skyler asked the next day. He was sitting on the concrete floor at the top of the Space Needle, his back pushed against the gold metal wall on the opposite side of the wall of slanted glass. “It’s like nobody cares about my mental health atall.”
Ezra and Austin were standing on one of the clear tilted benches right next to the thick glass, pretending to fall while taking videos with their phones. I had successfully avoided saying a single word to Ezra since the peanut talk the day before. I could tell it was making him angrier by the second.
“Nobody cares about your mental health,” Paisley said.