Page 113 of His Secret Gift

She’s hugging her legs to her chest, with her face resting against her knees, but she still nods.

Perfect.“Here.” I unwrap the delicious treat, hand it over to her, and then get a plastic fork out of my drawer.

“Oh, no. I can’t—”

“You can,” I correct.

“Jack made this for you.”

I flick my wrist at her. “But I’ve had plenty. Plus, you need it more than I do right now.”

Hesitantly, she takes a bite. “Wow.”

I’m just standing and watching—my hands resting at the small of my back. “Right?”

“God is kind of unfair huh?” she comments after a few more bites.

“How do you mean?”

“Well.” She shields her mouth with a diagonal finger while she swallows. “He gives someone like Jack Shelley so much intelligence and talent. It’s like, what is there for the rest of us.”

I sit down again. “Plenty. It’s like my father used to say, no matter who you are, you’ll always find someone who is better and someone who is worse than you at whatever you think you excel in.”

She gives me a funny face. “And that’s supposed to make you feel better?”

“Well, yeah. I guess it’s also like the saying about nobody being perfect. The best each one of us can do is just be the best and kindest people we can be.”

“That’s pretty insightful.”

I pretend to bow. “Why, thank you. Just call me, ‘Kayla Allen, philosopher to the stars.’”

She takes a pillow from behind her and lightly smacks me with it. “Yeah, okay.”

When she’s finished, I set the tin and utensil aside. “Well, do you feel a little better?”

“I guess.” She lets out an exaggerate sigh. “It helps to think that if I was still with Dirk, I would probably be stuck in our old hodunk town.”

“That’s a very good way to think of it. As long as that isn’t somewhere you see yourself settling down.”

She grimaces. “Oh, god no.”

Oh.I personally like my little town. But that’s me. However, at that realization, a wave of fear washes over me, as I can’t imagine for a second Jack would be happy in a place like Aurora, Indiana.

You’re getting way too far ahead of yourself, I remember.

“Anyway,” I say after bringing myself back out of my head. “What were we saying?”

“Just how it’s good I’m not with Dirk because I’m not trapped anywhere.”

Ah, yes.“Exactly.”

“Do you want to see a picture of the baby? I saved a screenshot.”

“Oh, um. Sure.” Although, I’m not sure how I’m supposed to respond—telling her he’s cute might hurt her, but saying he’s ugly also feels icky.

But luckily for me, he looks like any other squishy newborn baby without particularly distinguishing features.

“Ah.” That’s all I mutter.

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