Page 133 of Devil in Disguise

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Now,she reined Pete in, then patted his neck and dismounted. Joan took the reins from her and said, “I’ll take them back. Dane, you get on out of here, too.”

“You’re assuming,” Dyma said, “that Owen will give me a ride back. What if he abandons me out here, and all you ever find is a bunch of vultures circling over my bleached bones?”

Why was she joking? Because she was nervous, of course.Reallynervous.

“Nope,” Owen said. “I’ll give you a ride back.”

Dane said, “By the way, Mom, I’m staying.”

“Good,” she said. “I thought you would. Your dad and I didn’t raise any fools.” And turned around and trotted away again.

Owen waited until Dane drove off, so Dyma had to wait as well. He said, “You came back to tell me you’ve changed your mind. I’m not sure what I’m going to say to that. I have to tell you the truth.”

“You do,” she said. “And so do I.” She took her backpack off and unzipped the top, then pulled out a folded, taped-together mess. Four sheets of printer paper, to be exact. She opened it up and showed him.

“Uh …” He scratched his jaw, then looked at her. “Is this supposed to mean something?”

“It’s avisionboard.”

“Oh.” He cocked his head this time and studied it some more.

“All right,” she said. “I know it’s supposed to look beautiful and it doesn’t. I’m terrible at crafts, so it’s a bunch of pictures Scotch-taped onto printer paper. What’sonit, though?”

“Uh … a building? A horse? A baby? Wait, that’s Nick. What, Nick’s riding a horse into a building?”

She sighed. “Look in themiddle.You put the most important things in the center.”

“OK. You and me on the field after the Super Bowl. Also a rocket.”

“So? What does that tell you?”

“Well, not that we’re taking a rocket trip, I’m guessing.”

She sighed again. “You’re worse thanme.It’s symbolism, Owen! It’s that the two most important things in my life are you and astronautics! I thoughtIwas bad.”

“OK,” he said. “So the other things are …”

“My family. Which is why you’ve got Harlan and Mom and Nick and Annabelle, that picture from the wedding. And the ranch, and the Aerospace and Engineering Research Building, although those are on the outside, because they’re not as central. The idea is to figure out what matters most and sort of put things on there in priority order, and then to use lateral thinking, which, according to Harlan, women are better at than men, except that if they are, I’m missing a chromosome, because it washard.But after I hit my head, I realized …”

“Wait,” he said. “You hit yourhead?”

“Yes. Against the holds on the climbing wall. But I was wearing a helmet, thanks to my awesome boyfriend, so I was all good. Except that it made me hit bottom, I guess—don’t ever do that, because it sucks—and realize I had to figure out my life.”

“So,” he said, but he’d started to smile. “Lateral thinking.”

“Yeah. So I talked the vision board over with Pavani, because she was there when I hit my head—although she thought I was on drugs, which the doctor thought, too—thatwas awkward—and she said, “Maybe you have to go back some steps on this. Maybe you don’t say, ‘How do I be with Owen when I’m in Seattle,’ and instead, say, ‘How could I structure my life so I’m able to be with Owen and still reach my goals?’ Which was really wise. Turns out I can’t really do lateral thinking, but Pavani can, so—outsourcing!”

“Which is …”

“OK,” she said. “The reason I’m nervous to tell you is that I’m not sure you’ll say yes, but, Owen—” She took a step closer. Her nervousness went up a notch, and she told herself,Now or never.“I missed you so much. It hurt somuch.It hurt like I could never have imagined. So could you at least promise to listen?”

He looked away, and for once, his face wasn’t expressionless. In fact, he looked like he was having trouble controlling what he was showing. When he looked back at her, he said, his voice not quite steady, “I’m not kissing you, because it’ll hurt too much to do that if this doesn’t work. Tell me. Right now. I need to know. However much you’ve hurt—that’s how much I have, too. Believe it.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m so sorry. That’s the last thing I ever wanted to do.”

“Then,” he said, “explanation? Come on, Dyma. Tell me.”