Page 13 of The Sun and Her Star

“What’s that?” He takes the piece of cake I’m holding out and turns it over in his hands.

“It’s cake—pineapple upside down.” I blush, feeling silly.

He frowns like what I’m saying doesn’t make sense.

“You miss him?” he asks, surprising me. He lifts the cake to his nose and takes a long, deep smell.

“Miss who?”

“Your daddy.”

“Who wouldn’t miss their daddy if he died?” I ask him.

“I don’t miss mine. I never even knew him. Maybe that’s why,” he says absently. He’s pulling the wrapping off the cake.

I don’t want him to stop liking me already, so I change the subject.

“You gonna try it?” I ask. “It’s really yummy.”

“You brought it forme?” His eyes are wide with surprise.

“Of course,” I say, but he’s staring at the cake, eyes wide, licking his lips.

“It smells so good,” he says and presses his nose to it again

“Take a bite. I brought one for—” My jaw drops open as he eats the entire piece in three huge bites.

“It tastes so good. Can I have that one?” he asks with his mouth full of cake and pineapple, his eyes trained on the piece I planned on eating.

I hand it to him and can’t help feeling a little disappointed as I watch him unwrap it. I was looking forward to it.

He smiles and closes his eyes while he chews. “Oh, yes, this is heaven for sure,” he says to no one in particular. It’s the first time I’ve seen him lookreallyhappy His entire face lights up. His dimples are long and deep. I think I could stick my entire pinky into one of them.

“Did you make it?” he asks and then sticks the last bite into his mouth.

“That’s my great-grandma’s recipe. It’s more than a hundred years old.”

“Well, they sure knew how to make mouths happy a hundred years ago,” he says in between licks as he sucks the sticky, sugary syrup clinging to his fingers.

I feel a flush unexpected happiness and realize that watching him eat it is so much better than eating it myself.

I wish I had more.

“What’s that?” I point to the dark green cloth folded on the ground next to him.

He glances down at it like he’d forgotten it was there.

“It’s a hammock. I found it at the top of my closet today. Thought it would be better than rowing out to the middle of the lake.” He points at the little copse of trees that are growing away from the rest of the forest. “I’m gonna tie it up between those trees, and we can lay in it under the shade while we read.”

“We’re going to lie in that?” I ask skeptically as he unfolds a thick piece of canvas.

“It’s really comfortable. We can try different spots until we find one that we like the best.” He starts walking over to the trees, and I have to run to keep up.

“Have you ever done this before?” I ask him, not convinced that we’ll be safe in a piece of cloth hanging between two trees.

“It’s been a while. I used to do it with my sister.”

I gasp in surprise. “You have a sister?”

---