Page 103 of Moonlight Hearts

He huffed.“Yes.”

“I suppose Thanksgiving with family might be stressful.”

“I wouldn’t know.”

I looked at him, not sure what to make of his words.He didn’t meet my eyes, didn’t give me a clue.

“I…I didn’t really like it.I mean, that’s not quite right.For a while, my mom’s mom would fly out to visit us.She was really nice, but then, I only met her a few times before she died.”

I almost mentioned my father’s dad.His opinions, which he’d never seen any need to keep quiet, were like my father’s, maybe even harsher.He’d never directly complained about Mom’s cooking, but that didn’t mean what he had said hadn’t been offensive.

Soyer looked my way.“We didn’t have any arguments at all yesterday.”

I bit the inside of my cheek.“You called Vico and Chef uncles.”

“Just for the way they wouldn’t leave.You’d think they’d stick to their own kitchen, but no.Why’d they have to mess with mine?Ah, finally.”

Going by their colorful uniform-style clothes, it was a park attendee who came jogging our way.She opened the gate with a key from a massive keychain and came to Soyer’s window.He let it down.

“Thank you for visiting us today, sir.We have your VIP passes here.Please be sure to always skip the line and show these.It’s mostly for the benefit of the other visitors.”She handed two passes on lanyards through the window.This was very reminiscent of the IBT event.“Just follow the road and park on the right.I’ll take you inside from there.”

Soyer nodded, and as he started closing the window, I said, “Thanks!”He frowned at me as he accelerated but didn’t say anything.“You got us special passes?”

“Of course I got us special passes.”

“You just want to make me enjoy skipping all those lines.”

“There goes my evil plan.I thought I could at least leave you in the dark until we got to the waffles.”

“We’re not starting this illicit line-skipping at the food stalls, Soyer.”

He looked surprised.I was surprised myself, but I was looking forward to this, and maybe skipping a few lines here and there wasn’t too bad.

Being able to go where we pleased and get on whichever ride we wanted without waiting was a lot of fun.Too much fun.I knew that maybe I should be feeling bad for letting Soyer enable me, but I just couldn’t make myself.

This time around, we’d decided we’d go on the water slide, and on the way there, I spotted the clown who’d made my balloon Oboe.Whether it was the same person, I didn’t know, But I took Soyer’s hand as we were walking along the paths in the somewhat snowy landscape.

“Look, there’s a clown!”

“I can see that.”

“Let’s go and get balloon animals.This time you have to get one too.”

He pointed down another path.“The arcade is that way.How about we skip all that and I get you a stuffy right away?”

“Uh, but…”

He frowned.“If they explode during the ride, the balloon pieces might end up in the environment and not get cleaned up before spring.”

That made a lot of sense, and I should’ve thought about that.“You’re right.”I put on a smile, looking at the clown one last time.“Okay, to the claw machines!What animal do you want?”

“I don’t know.Hey, Amory, what animal would you be if you were an animal?”

“Oh.Hmm.I never thought about that.How do you even decide?”

He gave me a pull to make me follow him toward the arcade.“You look at the evidence.First of all, you’re very beautiful.”

“Stop.”But it was too late, and I was already laughing.“How about if I can get a stuffy, we agree that’s my spirit animal?”