Page 79

I put my palm against the back of her neck for one breath. Her scent lifts around us. Peppermint, vanilla, rosemary. Ezra’s fingers sharpen in hers. Then I push us away from the dock.

The familiar section of channel slips past in green and silver layers. Pepper keeps one hand linked with Ezra and uses the other to point at everything.

“That’s swamp hibiscus.”

A bend later, “Oh, look at that alligator snapping turtle.”

Thirty seconds after that, “Spider lilies!”

When an alligator’s snout surfaces near a tangle of roots, she claps once before catching herself.

I stop paddling. “Don’t applaud the alligator.”

“I was appreciating him respectfully.” Pepper smiles back at me beneath the crooked brim of her hat.

“He doesn’t need encouragement.”

Ezra leans over the side. “He looks shy.”

“He looks prehistoric,” I say.

Ezra dips two fingers in the water and flicks a small spray toward Pepper’s knee.

She gasps. “Betrayal.”

She splashes him back, barely enough to wet his wrist. The water passes through the faint edge of his hand, then beads where his fingers turn solid. Ezra stares at it.

Pepper’s playfulness gentles without disappearing. “Again?”

He nods.

She trails her fingertips through the channel and flicks another tiny spray across his knuckles. This time, the droplets cling.

Ezra laughs, surprised and bright. The sound opens something in my chest.

“See?” Pepper looks at me. “This is a very scientific field study.”

“You’re playing.”

“Play is a valid observation tool.”

Ezra flicks water toward me.

It hits my forearm.

I stare at him.

He puts on his most innocent face. “You’re the control sample.”

Pepper dissolves into laughter, and I let the canoe drift for a moment.

Eventually, the channel narrows. Cypress knees rise from the water in crooked rows. Vines pull between trunks. Sunlight catches the current beneath us, revealing pale sand where spring water pushes through the darker swamp flow.

Pepper stops talking long enough for the quiet to feel strange.

“What?” I ask.

She points toward the bank. “The plants changed.”