I just nod. I’ve never really had a bad breakup. Honestly, I’ve never dated anyone I really liked that much. I just tend to get bored after six months or so, then break things off amicably.
Levi clears his throat lightly, like he’s about to say something, but instead the back door opens, and Clara walks over to the three of us.
“Try these,” she says, and holds out a plate with three cookies on it.
“Thank you!” we chorus, instantly reaching for them.
When Clara Loveless offers you a baked good, you accept. It’s a smallish shortbread cookie, crumbly and buttery when I bite into it.
Crumbly, buttery, and tasting a little like… pine trees?
“Ah, you made them,” Levi says, nodding.
“I had to freeze the needles for a while because I got swamped with work,” Clara says. “I think with fresh they might be a bit brighter.”
Levi takes another bite. Silas is already brushing crumbs from his hands, having wolfed it down.
“That was excellent, ma’am,” Silas says, and Clara smiles, looking amused.
“Thank you,” she says.
I nod enthusiastically.
“Kind of strange, but good strange,” I say.
“Yes, I think they’re a bit piney,” she says. “But I found this recipe for shortbread cookies made with evergreen needles, and Levi offered to collect some for me, so…” she shrugs.
“Delicious,” says Silas, who thinks that everything is delicious, and Clara laughs.
“Thank you,” she says. “I’ll put some aside for you to take home.”
As she leaves, I lean in toward Levi and point after his mom.
“Hot tip,” I whisper. “That’s when you call someone ma’am. Your friend’s mom, not your friend’s little sister.”
Levi just sighs.
“Don’t worry, I’ve gotten quite the earful on correct forms of address since yesterday,” he says, taking another sip of his beer. “I think I’ve settled on never using one again. From now on everyone will just be hey, you.”
“That’s probably for the…”
The back door is open again, and I suddenly realize that Eli is standing in it, staring at me and pointing.
“…best,” I trail off, frowning at Eli.
He points more emphatically. I point at myself, eyebrows raised, and he nods. Then he crooks his finger.
“I’ll be right back?” I tell Silas and Levi, and head into the house, leaving my half-finished beer on a side table.
“My mom found her wedding dress and wanted to know if you were interested,” Eli says as I walk up.
No, because there’s never going to be a wedding, I think.
“What’s it look like?” I ask, wondering how to be diplomatic about this.
Eli shrugs.
“Like a white dress,” he says. “Come look at it, it’s up in my old room.”
He points at the stairs. I ascend. He follows me.
I wonder, briefly, why I need to look at this dress right now, why Eli is the messenger about it, and why this all seems so hush-hush, but I don’t wonder that hard.
He follows me up two flights of stairs, to the attic room where he was living before he moved in with Violet last year. As soon as we’re outside I hear Daniel’s voice.
“—did you need me to come all the way up here to ask me that—Charlie?”
I step into the room. There’s no wedding dress. There’s one Daniel.
I’ve been tricked.
The door shuts definitively behind me, and Eli stands in front of it, arms crossed, looking for all the world like a bouncer.
“This is an intervention,” he says.
“For what?” I ask.
“For kissing,” Seth says, taking his place next to Eli, mimicking his stance. “Y’all are terrible kissers.”
Several thoughts all trip through my brain at once. Heat flushes my face. I take a step back.
“Neither of us is kissing you, Seth,” Daniel says, also crossing his arms over his chest.
“Don’t speak for the lady,” Seth says, suddenly grinning.
Next to me, I can feel Daniel’s whole body go rigid.
“The lady’s not kissing you either,” I say before Daniel can say anything.
“No one is here to kiss Seth,” Eli says, shooting him a look. “We’re here to help you kiss each other, because I’ve seen puppets kiss more convincingly than you two.”
A quick flutter of anxiety moves through my chest, waving through me like wind through a wheat field.
“What puppets have you been watching?” I ask, after a second.
“You can find some real weird stuff on the internet,” Daniel offers.
“Spoken like an expert,” says Eli.
“He’s not the one who brought up puppet porn,” I say. “Apparently, you’ve been watching—”
“Everyone quit talking about your perversions and focus,” Seth says, raising his voice. “No one is kissing anyone, except that you—” he points at Daniel, “are kissing her—” he points at me, “because you need people to think you’re actually engaged.”
The flutters are only getting faster, stronger, a gale force wind through the wheat fields because I really do want to kiss Daniel and I really don’t want to do it in front of his brothers, presumably while they shout helpful make out tips at us.