Page 70 of Hidden

“And there’s our baby sister making friends wherever she goes,” Miles jokes.

“Shut up, any guy who talks to me, you three scare him away, and now I can’t have girlfriends?” she snaps at them and the three of them laugh.

"Maya." Maya grins.

"Juno," Juno says, with the energy of someone who already knows Lileah is going to be a great addition to our group.

"Bree."

"Cara."

Lileah points at each of them in turn, committing it. Then she points at me.

"Sadie," I say.

"Do you all do gymnastics?" Lileah asks, looking between us. I mean, we are all wearing our Gymnastics tracksuits.

"All five of us," Maya says. "Regionals in…" she counts briefly "... nine days."

"Are you ready?" This girl is going to give Juno a run for her money on who talks the most.

"Ask us in ten days," Juno says.

Lileah laughs. "I did dance until I was seventeen," she says. "I completely understand the pre-competition spiral."

"What stopped you?" Bree asks.

"Life," she says, "and the fact that I was good but not that good, and I think I knew it before my teacher did." She picks up her coffee.

The table goes briefly quiet as it does when someone says something true and nobody wants to rush past it.

Declan moves his chair. Mason, grinning, shifts the whole table slightly so the two tables merge into one.

Miles stays exactly where he is. He’s now directly beside me and God damn he smells sexy. I wonder how good ‌a kisser he is? I wonder if he could make me come so hard I forget my name?

He says something quietly to Declan and goes back to his coffee. He doesn't look at me, and I decide I’m not to look at him either, even though it’s really hard. I last approximately forty seconds.

"Okay, so tell me everything," Lileah says to Maya.

Mason leans across the table toward me. "She does this everywhere," he says, nodding at Lileah. "New city, new country, it doesn't matter. Ten minutes and she knows everyone and everything about them.”

“I’ll stick her with Juno, it’ll be a waiting game to see who stops talking first.” I joke.

"It's exhausting," he says, with complete affection.

Lileah says, "I can hear you," without turning around.

"I know," Mason says.

Trixie is showing Cara something on her phone. They seem very similar. Declan is watching Trixie, even though she’s not talking to anyone, she’s still in the conversation, which is an impressive skill to have.

I look at Miles. He's looking at me. Talk to me. All I want him to do is to talk to me. I mean, I guess I can talk to him first, but what would I say?

"We're here every morning," Maya says to Lileah, pulling my thoughts away from Miles. "Basically, every morning. You should just join us."

"Every morning?" Lileah looks delighted. "What time?"

"Depends on practice. Usually between eight and nine."