Page 51 of Born in the Spring

“Deal,” I say instead, and it’s still the best deal I’ve ever made.

Twenty

Elara

“What’re you running from?”

I startle just outside my door, my arm jerking it closed in a slam, catching my toast—non-sticky side, thankfully—as it falls from my mouth.

Vanessa stands at the bottom of the porch steps, the fuzzy collar of her coat blowing with the breeze beneath her smirk. I give her a flat look as I shove my toast back into my mouth to wrangle on my jacket, then tighten the tie holding back my hair as I meet her at the bottom.

“Time,” I say, through chewing a bite of my breakfast, hurrying past her to make the point. “I woke up later.”

“And yet, you’re stillon time, so you canslow down.” She drags out the stressed words as she meets my steps, tugging on my jacket sleeve before shoving her hands in her pockets. “You’ve been running yourself into the ground.”

I smile at her wording over theworkI’ve been doing. “It’s been a busy week.”

“Only becauseyou’vemade it that way.”

“Thecoldgoing around has made it that way,” I correct her superior tone, because she’s notmysuperior. I haven’t caught the bug, and neither has she, but some of the other nannies have, so we’ve needed more germ-free hands on deck. I’ve taken more responsibilities as she’s managed to skirt them, so you could say I’m covering for the only set hours she’ll do.

But Ilikeworking. I like helping. I like being useful.

“You could be helping too,” I add with a side stare and a point of my pinky around my toast.

“Well, thanks to you, I’m not needed. And you know I don’t like a load on my back unless it’s a man’s load”—I spray crumbs through my laugh—“and it’s not me who’s avoiding something.”

I take an even bigger bite, with a chunk of buttery strawberry that carries me up to heaven and away from her third degree.

“Do I need to take that from you?”

I swing my toast from her pinchers as she tries, the snow crunching louder as I—then she—move faster through it. “I don’t just work to avoid things. I need money too,” I add as a tease, and Vanessa’s grunt is doubtful.

“Yeah, but you have been for the past month.”

I finish my toast and dust crumbs from my hands before tucking them inside my pockets.

“So, I know how I’m getting it out of you.” Vanessa links her arm through mine, slowing our steps. “We’re going out this weekend. We’re gonna be ouryoungselves and hit up every bar in town. And maybe get hit on too,” she adds to my small groan now at her wording, still using mine against me.

“So your plan is to get drunk so we canreally feel our mid-thirties hangover.” I say her flawed quest to prove how young we still are with a tilted face.

Shehmphs. “Maybe you will.” She slips her hand into my pocket and squeezes mine. “Saturday night. It’s gonna be a late one.”

That specific day of the week slows our steps a little more, my mouth moving around the news before I spill it. “I can’t Saturday. . .”

Vanessa follows my trail already knowing where it ends. “You’re doing that again.” Her stare is lasering in my periphery. “Well, Jasper can come too. He’s been able to drink for two whole years. Two yearspastthe legal drinking age, getting further by the day. . .” She trails now and I pull away with a sigh to create my own trail in the snow, but she pulls me back into her.

“No,” I tell her, bumping against her harder with her pulling.

“Why not? You still wanna keep him to yourself?”

“On Saturdays.” I mean this as anotherno, that I’m not hitting up bars this weekend, but she rears her head back with a smirk, only hearing ayesto her question.

“This is our fork in the road,” she says with a sigh, pulling us both to a stop, our feet spraying snow with the halt. There’s a frown in her mouth, but mine’s now more upturned, ready to let her go put her focus on somebody else, the clench in my shoulders shrugging away as she releases me. “Loosen up,” she adds as they do, and I chuckle through my rejuvenated steps away before Iamlate.

“Do something that scares you today,” she calls out to me.

The thuds of my heart quicken as I call back, “Youalready did.”

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