Just beside it, a stone fireplace was working hard to warm the room and hall. Mrs. White’s taste for shades of evergreen and ivory was on display, and it was clear that they’d inherited all the furniture, drapes, and rugs. While some of it had gone a bit threadbare, it gave the impression of a house that was well-loved. Liam couldn’t have looked prouder of it.
The other kids joined us for lunch, interrupting Liam’s stories with comments of their own. Ruby’s stew was surprisingly delicious for someone who, like the rest of us, had subsisted mostly on prepackaged junk food for close to a year. Clearly, she’d had time to practice.
“Zu, do you want to see the backyard?” Lisa asked. “We just started a garden.”
“Can we finish the movie first?” Jacob said. “We still have a whole hour left.”
“You can see the garden from the living room window. Two birds, one stone,” Miguel said.
“Yeah,” Liam said, rising to put the dishes in the sink. “Why don’t you go with them? Get to know each other a little better?”
I looked up from where I’d been rubbing the fabric of my place mat. Even though I knew it wasn’t true, looking at the other three kids—how they elbowed and poked and glared and laughed at each other—made me feel so much older. The fact that Liam was trying to send me off with them left me feeling like a child dismissed from the table so the adults could talk.
“Maybe later?” I said to them.
Ruby shared another private look with Liam as she rose to pour hot chocolate into a set of mismatched mugs. The teens took theirs as they sped off for the nearby living room.
“Don’t run with—” Ruby cut herself off, shaking her head. “I have never sounded more like my mother in my whole life.”
“How is your family doing? Your dad?” I asked.
Back and forth, we traded updates. I told them about Cate and Vida and Nico and school and all the things that had become routine. I heard about Liam’s family, Ruby’s, and the Children’s League kids who had scattered after the camps fell. The longer we spoke, the more obvious it became that Ruby and Liam had been in contact with seemingly everyone but us.
And the whole time, as promised, Chubs kept his comments to himself. A fact that did not go unnoticed by his best friend.
“All right, Chubs, come out with it,” Liam said. “The last time you were this quiet, it was because you’d burned your tongue so badly on soup that you physically couldn’t speak.”
“Come out with what?” Chubs asked, sipping his cocoa.
“Maybe we should—” Ruby began.
“Whatever superior thought is crossing your mind right now,” Liam said. “Whatever insult you’ve been holding back for the last two hours. You think I don’t know?”
“I think you don’t know me at all anymore,” Chubs said simply.
“There it is,” Liam said, splaying his hands out on the table. “Come on, get it out of your system.”
Even I prickled at his tone. Chubs’s jaw worked back and forth, as if he were grinding the words down.
“It’s been six months,” Liam said. “Look, I’m sorry about the way this all went down. There just wasn’t time to explain. We had to cut and run before it got any worse for us or Ruby’s family.”
“I understand,” Chubs said.
“Do you, though?” Liam said. “Because right now it’s not understanding that’s coming through, it’s your very special form of hostility.”
“It’s not—” I tried.
“Forgive my hostility,” Chubs began, his voice low. “I suppose I’m just wondering why, if the two of you are so happy and settled, you waited until now to finally get in touch to let us know you were still alive.”
Ruby and Liam shared another look.
Chubs’s hand slapped down on the table. “Stop that! Just say it.”
“We wanted to make sure that…” Ruby’s voice trailed off. “We needed time to set this place up, and to get a clear view of what was happening in Washington. Since they don’t seem to have pulled back on the search for us—”
“They haven’t pulled back at all,” Chubs said sharply. “You want to know why Vida couldn’t come? Because the only way she could avoid being detained for obstruction of justice was to agree to join the task force looking for you!”
I didn’t know that. I just assumed she and Cate were working on a number of national security matters, like zone-crossing control.
“I’m sorry,” Ruby said, rubbing at her forehead. “I should have realized