Page 125 of Places We've Never Been

“Of what?”

“Of being alone, of not making any friends, of”—he ran his finger over the fadedBon my bracelet—“of never seeing you again.” He hastily wiped at his tears.

He was right, everything had felt out of our control back then. I was feeling it again, that sense that sometimes, no matter how well we planned or how hard we worked or our very best intentions, life wasn’t up to us.

The door opened and Mom’s voice said, “You up yet, Norah? Food is ready.”

“I’m up. I’ll be right there.”

When I walked outside after brushing my teeth and hair, everyone was already at the table eating. Ezra gave me a pleading look that made the fire flare up in my chest again. But then my eyes found Skyler. He smiled at me.

I rounded the table and stopped behind him. I put one arm around his neck, hugging him from behind, my cheek againsthis.

He laughed through a mouthful of pancakes and patted my arm. “Good morning.”

“Are you handing out hugs?” my mom said, probably because she thought I was going to give away their secret if I acted like this. But she didn’t need to worry. I had so many secrets at the moment that everyone would only be thinking about theirown.

“I’ll take one,” Austin said, and I obliged.

I straightened up and took my place by my mom, across from Skyler.

“So which tourist attraction gets our business first?” I asked, pretending like that was all completely normal. My mom hadn’t explained her odd behavior the whole trip; I didn’t feel the need to explain mine.