her in the Announcers. Or, as he put it, loved so many versions of her. Tonight all she wanted from him was to be left alone.
She ung open the wooden shutters, then pushed up the pane, knocking over yet another one of Shelby's thousand plants. She braced her hands on the sill, then plunged her head into the night, ready to rip into Daniel.
But it wasn't Daniel standing on the ledge in the moonlight.
It was Miles.
He'd changed out of his fancy clothes, but he'd left o the Dodgers cap. Most of his body was in shadow, but the outline of his broad shoulders was clear against the deep blue night. His shy smile brought an answering smile to her face. He was holding a gold cornucopia full of orange lilies plucked from one of the Harvest Fest centerpieces.
"Miles," Luce said. The word felt funny in her mouth. It was tinged with pleasant surprise, when a moment ago she'd been so prepared to be nasty. Her heartbeat picked up, and she couldn't stop grinning.
"How crazy is it that I can walk from the ledge outside my window to yours?"
Luce shook her head, stunned too. She'd never even been to Miles's room on the boys' side of the dorm. She didn't even know where it was.
"See?" His smile broadened. "If you hadn't been grounded, we never would have known. It's really pretty out here, Luce; you should come out. You're not scared of heights or anything?"
Luce wanted to go out on the ledge with Miles. She just didn't want to be reminded of the times she'd been out there with Daniel. The two of them were so di erent. Miles--dependable, sweet, concerned. Daniel--the love of her life. If only it were that simple. It seemed unfair, and impossible, to compare them.
"How come you're not at the beach with everyone?" she asked.
"Not everyone's down at the beach." Miles smiled. "You're here." He waved the cornucopia of owers in the air. "I brought these for you from the dinner. Shelby's got all those plants on her side of the room. I thought you could put these on your desk."
Miles shoved the wicker horn through the window at her. It was brimming with the glossy orange owers. Their black stamens shivered in the wind. They weren't perfect, a few were even wilting, but they were so much lovelier than the larger-than-life peonies Francesca had made bloom. Sometimes beautiful things come into our lives out of nowhere.
This was maybe the nicest thing anyone had done for her at Shoreline--up there with the time Miles had broken into Steven's o ce to steal the book so he could help Luce learn how to step through a shadow. Or the time Miles had invited her to have breakfast, the very rst day he met her. Or how quick Miles had been to include her in his Thanksgiving plans. Or the utter absence of resentment on Miles's face when he'd been assigned garbage duty after she'd gotten him in trouble for sneaking out. Or the way Miles ...
She could go on, she realized, all night. She carried the owers across the room and set them on her desk.
When she came back, Miles was holding out a hand for her to step through the window. She could make up an excuse, something lame about not breaking Francesca's rules. Or she could just take his hand, warm and strong and safe, and let herself glide through. She could forget Daniel for just a moment.
Outside, the sky was an explosion of stars. They glittered in the black night like Ms. Fisher's diamonds--but clearer, brighter, even more beautiful. From here, the redwood canopy east of the school looked dense and dark and foreboding; to the west were the ceaselessly churning water and the distant glow of the bon re blazing down on the blustery beach. Luce had noticed these things before from the ledge. Ocean. Forest. Sky. But all the other times she'd been out here, Daniel had consumed her focus. Almost blinded her, to the point where she'd never really taken in the scene.
It truly was breathtaking.
"You're probably wondering why I came over," Miles said, which made Luce realize they'd both been silent for a while. "I started to tell you this earlier, but--I didn't--I'm not sure--"
"I'm glad you came by. It was getting a little boring in there, staring at the re." She gave him half a smile.
Miles stu ed his hands in his pockets. "Look, I know you and Daniel--"