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“What are you doing up there, Little girl?” he asked.

Her reaction to him calling her a Little girl might show him what sort of headspace she was in.

“This is my thinking spot,” she replied, not even seeming to notice what he called her, which was telling.

“Your thinking spot is on the roof of your house?” he asked, putting his hands on his hips as he glared up at her. That wasn’t acceptable, not even in the slightest. “How often do you come up here to your thinking spot?”

“Whenever I need to think, Silly Billy. This is the best thinking spot, just the stars above, twinkling away.” She glanced up at the night sky. “Although you can’t really see them too much with all the lights from the town, can you? Anyway, they’re there. I know they’re there. Except for the dead ones. They still look alive. That’s weird, right? That a star that looks alive could actually be dead. How does that work? I’ll tell you how it works . . .” She paused dramatically. “It’s magic.”

“It’s due to how long it takes for the light of the star to reach us,” he explained.

“Pfft, don’t give me your mumbo jumbo,” she told him. “It’s magic.”

“Astronomy is mumbo jumbo?” he asked.

“Of course it’s not mumbo jumbo. What star sign are you? Hmm. I’m thinking Taurus or Leo.”

“I said astronomy, not astrology.” And how had he completely lost control of this conversation?

Did he even have control in the first place? He wasn’t really sure.

She waved her hand through the air. “Potato, potato.”

“Potato, potato?” he asked.

“Yeah, you say one thing and I say the other, but we mean the same thing.”

“But you did say the same thing twice. You pronounced ‘potato’ the same way.”

“Gosh, you’re just full of mumbo jumbo tonight, aren’t you, Silly Billy?

“Stop calling me Silly Billy.” He made his voice stern, so she’d know that he was serious.

“What’s your real name anyway?” she asked.

Yeah, she sounded really intimidated. He was starting to lose his touch, it seemed.

“That’s not what we’re talking about right now.”

“We were talking about your star sign. So, was I right? A Leo or a Taurus? Because a Taurus is stubborn. They like to dig their heels in, and a Leo likes to always be right.”

“I’m glad you’ve got such a good opinion of me,” he said dryly, wondering how on earth he was going to get her down off that roof.

“Oh, those really aren’t good characteristics to have. I’m a Pisces.”

“You say that like it’s meant to mean something to me.”

“Well, a Pisces is just far more in tune with what’s going on, we have empathy.”

“Are you implying that I don’t have empathy?”

“Gosh, no, of course not. Not everything’s about you, you know, Silly Billy.”

“No, I don’t know what I was thinking to say that it was,” he said dryly. “How foolish of me.”

“Well, you are a Silly Billy. So I guess it’s in the name.”

“My name is not Silly Billy.”