Page 33 of The Tree of Spirits
I poked an escapee cucumber back into my sandwich. “What happened when?”
“When the White Knight, whenKato—” She said his name like it made her tongue tingle. “—walked you home?”
I shrugged. “We just talked.”
“About what?” She was leaning so far forward, I was surprised her chair hadn’t tipped over.
“Uh, I’m not sure I’m allowed to talk to you about this.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know.” I searched for a reason that would satisfy her. “Because it could be classified?”
But I’d used the wrong word. Kylie latched on to it like a baby koala to its momma.
“Classified! Oh, that sounds good. What did he say? Did he recite love poetry? I’ve heard Knights sometimes recite love poetry to the object of their affection.” She watched my reactions closely. “Hedidrecite love poetry, didn’t he?”
“No.” I tucked my feet uncomfortably behind the back legs of my chair. “There was definitely no love poetry. And stop calling me the object of his affection. I don’t think he’d appreciate that.”
“Why? Does he prefer ‘apple of my eye’? Or maybe ‘sweetheart’?”
I had the sudden urge to duck under the table. Instead, I said, as calmly as I could, “Kato has never called me any of those things.”
“Well, here’s to hoping.”
I did not clink my smoothie cup with hers. But Asher did. And Dutch and Bronte had stopped arguing and were now hanging on our every word. Yes, my team was definitely relishing in my total mortification.
Kylie set down her cup, then peered at me over braided fingers. “Ok, so no love poetry. But then what ever did you two talk about on the long walk home?”
“Absolutely nothing!” I chirped.
“Absolutely nothing?” She shook her head. “How could you talk about absolutely nothing?”
“It’s easy. You should try it some time,” I hinted.
But she only snorted. “I see. You talked about nothing.”
I bobbed my head up and down. “Yep.”
“Because you were too busysmoochingto talk at all! Am I right?” She wiggled her eyebrows.
My cheeks burned so hot, I felt like they’d caught on fire.
Kylie’s eyes bulged. “Oh my, oh my, oh my,” she kept saying, fanning her face. “He really kissed you!”
“Only on the hand!” I squeaked.
Kylie’s smile went supernova, and so did my cheeks. “I can’t believe he kissed you!”
“On. The. Hand,” I repeated, biting out each word through clenched teeth. “Knights do that to say goodbye.”
“Yeah, to their girlfriends,” she purred. “I can’t believe Kato kissed you!”
She said it so loudly that all the mentors and all the Apprentices at the neighboring tables turned to stare.
I covered her mouth, hissing, “Shush! Everyone is looking at us!”
She shrugged. “They’re just jealous. And so am I! I wish a Knight would fall head over heels for me.”
