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Theo grunts. “It was food.”

“It was two-for-one mystery meat in a tortilla.”

“You ate four at a time.”

“I was growing.” Ezra smiles at the sky. “There was this drainage pond behind one of the places we stayed. Ugly little thing. Theo decided skipping rocks counted as training.”

I turn my head. “Training for what?”

“Life,” Ezra says. “Defense. Water survival. Annoying me. He was very serious.”

Theo’s voice is low. “You laughed.”

“I did.” Ezra’s smile softens. “He’d stand there with his pockets full of rocks like he was preparing me for war, then he’d get mad if I picked the pretty ones instead of the flat ones.”

“Flat ones skip.”

“Pretty ones have artistic value.”

Theo’s hand settles over Ezra’s chest. “You fell in.”

“You pushed me.”

“You slipped while trying to steal one of my rocks.”

I laugh, and Ezra looks so pleased with himself that I want to kiss him again.

“I had friends,” I say, surprising myself. “Good friends. Honey, Scarlet, my sister. We had adventures. Sleepovers and bikes and sneaking extra frosting from Sweet Tooth.”

Theo turns his head toward me.

I keep looking at the sky. “Then high school happened, and everyone started perfuming. Dating. Getting looked at like their bodies had joined the conversation.” My voice thins, but it doesn’t break. “I was still me. They still loved me. But sometimes it felt like I was standing at the edge of my own life, waiting for the part that made me make sense.”

Ezra’s hand moves gently over my stomach.

Theo says, “You make sense to me.”

My heart flutters.

Ezra nudges my shoulder. “And you arrived at exactly the right time.”

I laugh, wet-eyed and warm. “Don’t be so sweet or I’ll cry.”

The first thunder cracks so hard the dock seems to jump beneath us.

I sit up. “That came fast.”

The wind turns sharp. Across the water, the clouds pile black and low.

Theo is on his feet in one smooth motion. “Inside.”

Rain hits hard enough to send all three of us scrambling. I scoop up the towels we were lying on while Ezra grabs the takeout bags.

We make it halfway down the dock before my wet foot slips. Theo catches me, then lifts me clean off my feet. “Theo!”

“Fastest way.”

He carries me through the rain while Ezra runs ahead laughing with the takeout bag clutched to his chest like treasure. Water streams down Theo’s face. His purr vibrates against my side even as thunder rolls over the cemetery.