Page 116 of Places We've Never Been

“That’s not what I heard.”

“I’ll fix it,” he said.

I had no idea what they were talking about. I lifted the eggs out of the ice chest and moved the other items back into place so it would close.

“Good morning, Norah,” Skyler said in an overly friendly voice. He came to my side and opened the ice chest I had just closed, retrieving a couple of peppers.

I nearly laughed. I hoped this wasn’t the way we were going to play this off the remainder of the trip when other people were around. “Hi,” I said.

His mom scoffed. “Skyler, I said nice.”

He looked at his mom. “That wasn’t nice enough?” Back to me he said, “My mom thinks I’m mad at you and she wants me to be nice.”

His mom thought he was mad at…Oh! I had told her the night before that he was. I had forgotten about that.

“Skyler,” she scolded.

He took the carton of eggs from me and put them on the table, then set the peppers he held on top. Then he scooped me up in a hug. “Good morning, Norah, you look amazing. Did you sleep well?”

I hadn’t been expecting the hug, so my arms were trapped between our bodies, but I immediately breathed him in. “Think you can somehow play off kissing me as well?” I said under my breath.

He set me down, his eyes sparkling with humor.

“I’m sorry, Norah,” Olivia said. “I hope you can forgive his sarcastic attitude.”

“We’re not fighting, Olivia,” I said. “We made up last night.”

“Yes, we really made up,” Skyler said. “In a big making up kind of way.”

“You’re on one this morning,” Olivia said to him.

“Yes, I am,” he said with a quick wink at me.

She rolled her eyes. “Cut up some peppers, son.”

I pulled a bowl from the box of kitchen supplies and made sure to set up my egg-cracking station right next to hispepper-cutting one at the end of the picnic table. Our elbows brushed as we each did our tasks.

“Here, I’ll throw those away,” he said, reaching past me to pick up the shells I’d been setting on the table. The back of his hand brushed across my stomach as he returned to his side. I held in a gasp and shot him a look. He gave me an innocent smile.

“Is the salt over there?” I asked, leaning in front of him to look on the opposite side of his cutting mat. “No? I thought I saw it.” I trailed my fingers along his arm as I stood up straight.

“I have the salt,” Olivia said. “Do you need it?”

“Oh, um…yes.”

Skyler covered a laugh with a cough.

“Mom!” Paisley’s voice came from inside the RV.

Olivia went to investigate, and Skyler, as he continued to cut up a pepper, said, “This is fun, but talk quick, why are we not telling our moms?”

“You just went along without knowing why?”

He held up his bracelet. “Backup powers.”

“You are the cutest.”

“That didn’t answer my question.”