Page 58 of Hot Zone

“You asked Danni where to take me?”

“I did.”

“I love that you did that. You know Danni’s one of my favorite people. She was so nice to me when Steven and I were growing up, and she’s right. My fascination with astrology started with my interest in astronomy.”

Alex came back with his card. He thanked her and put his card away before smiling at me. “Let’s go look at this moon.”

Samuel

I made the short drive to the park. There were more people here than I expected. I guess there were more people into astrology than I would have thought, too.

I found a place to park and then reached into the back seat and pulled out the hoodie that he’d been wearing in place of a jacket.

“Here, put this on. It’s going to be chilly out there.”

He took my hoodie and pulled it on over his shirt. “Thank you.”

We got out, and I grabbed the backpack that I’d put in the back seat earlier.

“Oh wow.” I turned to look at him to see what he was talking about and found him standing by the truck, looking up at the sky.

“That really is amazing.”

I looked up at the massive moon that had crested the top of the trees that surrounded the park area. “That’s massive and bright.”

“Yeah, and this was the fourth supermoon this year, which is unusual.”

It was really something to see, but I couldn’t believe there’d been four of them this year, and I hadn’t even noticed. Obviously, I needed to get out more.

We walked hand in hand into the park, and when we reached the area where the people were gathered, I pulled a blanket out of the backpack and spread it out on the ground.

“I have some snacks in here if you want any.” I held up the backpack.

“Maybe later. I’m stuffed from dinner.” He lowered himself gracefully in a way that reminded me of his outdoor meditation each morning.

“It’s already pretty cold outside in the mornings. We need to set you up a place to meditate inside.”

“Maybe in front of the fireplace?”

I nodded. “That would work. I’ve been meaning to order some wood anyway.”

I lay back on the blanket and looked up at the sky. “I can’t believe there’s an astronomy club here in Vesper. I don’t know anything about the stars.”

He joined me on the blanket and pointed up. “See right there? That’s Orion. It’s also called the Hunter. See the three in a row? Those are called Orion’s belt.”

I followed where he was pointing and managed to make out the three stars he was referring to.

“And over there where it looks like a big W.” He waited until I found what he was pointing at. “That’s Cassiopeia or the Queen.”

“How did you learn so much about this? Did you take a class?”

He chuckled and shook his head. “No, I learned about constellations when I was a kid.”

“Out at the ranch?” I asked. He didn’t talk much about his time living out at the Wildflower Ranch. All I knew was that he lived there with his mother until he was ready to start high school, and then he moved to Vesper with his aunt.

“Yeah, we didn’t have television, so my only source of entertainment was the animals, books, and looking at the stars. Families would come and go, and sometimes, they would have kids I could play with. Those were the best times, and it was during one of those periods that I learned all about the constellations. Aria and her family came and stayed for a year when I was eight. She had a telescope and was obsessed with astronomy.”

“But she only stayed for a year?” I couldn’t imagine how lonely that must have been for him not having kids around to play with.

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