Page 129 of Promise Me Sunshine

I do a double take. “Reese!”

“I came home early,” she says dimly, one finger vaguely pointed in the direction of the stage. “Did you…”

“I did not.”

They’re really bringing it home now. Ainsley is half his size, her blond hair gelled into a Robyn coif, and her outfit really does suit her. Miles’s outfit makes him look like he’s doing a pretty badInterview with a Vampirecosplay.

My feelings for him double-triple-quadruple and it is honestly painful to confine it all to my chest. I would very much like to lay him out like a linebacker. To kiss him into oblivion. Propose marriage, et cetera.

I finally register the fact that the audience is really responding to this performance. People are hooting and shouting, clapping along. A small contingent near the front are standing and dancing.

“This is not a very appropriate song for an elementary school,” the lady next to me mutters to her companion.

Finally, the song ends, the stage lights go black, and Ainsley and Miles get a very pleased round of applause.

“How the hell did she get him to do that?” Reese asks, looking fully shell-shocked.

It must be willful that she doesn’t already know this about him. “Reese, he wanted to.”

She blinks at me, processing this.

“If you push him,” I explain patiently, holding my hands out as an example. “Then he pushes back. But if you take him by the hand, he follows you anywhere.” She’s still blinking at me. “He’d doanythingfor you and Ains.”

Reese sits back and chews on this. The talent show continues on and Miles doesn’t return. The second it’s over, Reese and I bolt to the lobby.

All the talent show participants stream out of a set ofdouble doors, the kids racing into the arms of their grown-ups and the few adult participants looking equal parts chagrined and proud. Regrettably, Miles and Ainsley have changed back into their street clothes. What a shame. I’d give a pinky toe for a photo of Miles in that shirt.

Ainsley, thinking her mom was coming home tomorrow, sees Reese and all-out sprints across the hall, launching into her arms. And yeah, that’s just what the doctor ordered.

I ready myself to jump into Miles’s arms. To tell him, in no uncertain terms, exactly how I feel about him. To ascend with him.

I am exploding with euphoria and…I watch as he registers Reese in surprise. He slides his hands into his pockets and eyes her for her reaction to the big show.

Oh. Right.

This moment is absolutely not about me and my feelings at all.

I step back into the crowd as Miles crosses the hall to Reese’s side. She says something to him and he laughs self-consciously, raising a hand to the back of his head and clearly groaning.

He straightens and cranes around, scanning the crowd. He catches my eye and I give him a strong-power thumbs-up. One step toward me but then Ainsley, from her perch in Reese’s arms, reaches out to Miles and he’s suddenly got a koala bear for a niece. I get a perfect frame of Miles smiling with his whole heart, his eyes closed as he hugs her, saying something to her and then setting her down on the ground.

Reese is grinning now too. The three of them. Happy and family and finally, at least for a moment, on the same page.

I sneak out onto the street and then Miles’s call starts buzzing in my pocket.

“Where’d you go?” he asks.

“Take them out to dinner!” I shout gleefully into the phone. “Seriously…Reese…stick a fork in her, she’s done.”

“Come with us!” he insists.

“Miles, you can do this. It’s what you do best. You think you need me there, but you really don’t. You made this moment with Ainsley all on your own. Feed them, listen to them, laugh when they make jokes, carry Ainsley home when she gets too tired to walk.”

He’s quiet for a moment. “Are you heading home?”

“Call me later,” I say by way of answer, because I’m not sure if I’m headed home or not. “When you’re done with your family.”

He’s quiet again but this time I think I sense a pulse of joy coming off him. Hisfamily.“Okay. I will.”

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