Page 77 of For the Birds

“Maybe I should give up on love for now,” Isaid.

“Nope. That’s your fear talkin’. If Skeeter Malcolm wasn’t in the picture, would you still be this unsure aboutLevi?”

“Good question.” I tried to picture James out of my life. It filled me with profound sadness, but he was already out of my life, so wasn’t that a moot point? “No,” I said. “I think I’d worry that I wasn’t fallin’ for Levi yet, but I’d probably keep goin’ out withhim.”

“Well, there you go. Case closed.”

Cased closed. Only, it wasn’t closed the way she thought. I was going to end things withLevi.

“Movin’ on to important things . . .” I said. “If we’re gonna try to look neutral, we have to distance ourselves from James as much as possible.” I gave her a direct look. “Which means no more calling James when I get into trouble like I did last night. No more Jed following us around.”

The look on her face was equally relieved and terrified. “We’re gonna do this on ourown?”

“No, I have someone else in mind. The person who trainedyou.”

“Kermit?” she snorted. “You think we can count onhim?”

At least she was being realistic about our mentor. “No. Not present tense. Past. I’m talkin’ about your cousin. Witt.”

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