Page 17 of Room to Breathe

“He didn’t seem to care,” he said.

“Yeah, not so much. You going to chase him out of here?”

“I was mainly just trying to chase him away from you. It worked.”

My heart thumped heavily for several beats, reminding me that my body was on a completely different page than my brain tonight. We werefriends. “Why?”

“You seemed uncomfortable. I figured he was annoying you.”

“He was fine. He thought I was a praying mantis, though.” I held my arms out, to lift the sides of the pod higher. “Do I look like a praying mantis?”

He took a step back and studied me. My skin prickled to life with his assessment.

“I don’t see it,” he said.

I folded myself up again. “Yeah, well, one pea does not a pod make.”

“Let me in, then,” he said, stepping forward.

I automatically took a step back. “What?”

He laughed. “I can’t be part of your costume?”

“It’s not my fault you’re regretting your life choice of unimpressiveFred,” I said.

“Let me in, Indy,” he said with a laugh.

“Come on, then,” I said, but my body once again took a step back. What was wrong with me?

His brows furrowed; then his eyes met mine in a question.

“It’s fine, just lost my balance.” This time I forced myself to stay still, but my body knew what it had been doing. It was trying to protect me, because once he slid his arms into the holes and was smashed up against my side, I melted against him.

“This is supposed to be a couples costume, isn’t it?” he said. “Two peas in a pod.”

“There are actually a lot more than two peas in a pea pod. Six, eight, ten,” I answered, probably too quickly.

“Right. That’s true. But I mean, the saying.”

“Yeah, the saying is wrong.”

He barked out a laugh. “Okay, no need to get defensive.”

“I wasn’t,” I said, but I was.

“I want to try walking. I think we can do it better than you three were doing it earlier.”

“It’s not as easy as it looks,” I said, but then we were walking and it was so easy. We were in sync without even having to count it off.

“It’seasierthan it looks?” he teased.

“It’s harder with three,” I said.

“We should get Harper in here,” he said.

“Yeah,” I responded, and that was the reminder my bodyneeded. It shouldn’t have needed one at all, but I was glad for it. I immediately felt better.

“Oh, first I have to show you her tree house.” He steered us toward the back of the yard.