Page 48 of Every Broken Thing

We made eye contact for the first time in half an hour, and his face brightened with a tentative grin. “That’s what I said.”

Scowling at us both, Ronnie kicked my foot under the table. “Well, now you’re coming too.”

“What?” Ben and I exclaimed at the same time.

“You’re coming with us too,” he repeated. “We’ll pick you up.”

“No thanks. Crowds, shopping, annoying people.” I listed on my fingers as I shook my head. “Not my idea of a good time.”

Ben spoke up before Ronnie could. “You should come. Then I won’t be the third wheel.”

“I hate shopping.”

“It’ll be fun,” Esther said quietly, sending me a hesitant smile. “You should come.”

Between Esther’s timid smile and Ben’s pleading eyes, I caved embarrassingly fast. “Fine.”

Ben beamed in triumph, giving Esther a high five.

“Don’t worry, Si.” He nudged my foot with his under the table. “You’re going to love it.”

I didn’t believe him, but I was too distracted by his tennis shoe pressed against mine to say it out loud. His ankle grazed mine, our chilled skin warming from the contact. Like he didn’t even notice, he sipped at his shake and laughed at something Esther said.

But me? It was all Icouldnotice, his skin a brand in the November night.

He didn’t move his foot. Then again, neither did I.

15

Illinois License Plate

When I got homeWednesday evening, I took pause at the shiny Honda parked in the driveway, studying the Illinois license plate suspiciously. We didn’t know anyone from Illinois, and other than going to Uncle Rick’s for Thanksgiving tomorrow, we weren’t expecting family.

As I climbed out of my truck, the front door opened, and my brother stepped out onto the porch.

“Will?” I sprinted up the porch steps and, much to my surprise and his, threw my arms around his neck. “Oh my God! What the fuck are you doing here?”

“Well, hello to you too.” He chuckled, wrapping his arms around me as I rested my chin on his shoulder. “We wanted to surprise you guys for Thanksgiving.”

“Bastard.” I laughed, pulling away to peek up at him, except I didn’t need to look up as much as I remembered doing over the summer. Either he’d shrunk or I’d grown.

Will smiled, his brown eyes crinkling at the edges. “Damn, you’ve gotten tall.”

He clapped my shoulder, and I grinned. “About time, right?”

Will led me into the house with his arm around my shoulders, and I liked how we were almost the same height now. Dad was still taller than both of us, but my vanity crowed in happiness.

“Hi, Silas,” Cora greeted with a dreamy smile as she rose from the couch.

Shrugging off my coat, I waved. “Oh, hey, Cora.”

She tucked a flaxen chunk of hair behind her ear as she glided over to me and pulled me into a hug. I wasn’t a hugger, but Cora was, so here we were.

“Good to see you,” I said, and it wasn’t exactly a lie.

“You too.” She patted my cheek as she studied me intently. “You seem better than the last time I saw you. Your aura’s brighter. I’m glad.”

“Well, that’s swell,” I said, shooting Will an impatient stare over her shoulder.

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