“God, I was lookin’ at you and Max, I didn’t notice you were at the bluff.”
“We were. Max took me there yesterday,” I said and her eyes moved quickly to me.
Then she breathed, “Wow.”
“Sorry?”
“Wow,” she said louder.
“Wow, what?”
“Wow, Max took you to the bluff.” The strange wonder slid out of her face and it brightened then she smiled, blinding and huge. “He took you to the bluff.”
“Yes,” I said, drawing out the word because I was confused.
“What’s the big deal?” Becca asked, getting close.
“The bluff is Max’s favorite place in the world,” Mindy answered.
“He seemed rather fond of it,” I remarked and Mindy giggled.
“Yeah, you could say he’s ‘rather fond of it’,” Mindy replied through her continuing giggles. “Brody told me he’s seriously rather fond of it. It’s his special place and he doesn’t share it with just anybody. He didn’t take Brody there for years. He didn’t take me there until my sixteenth birthday and he’s known me since I was born.”
I had the strange sensation of not getting a good feeling about this information at the same time I was getting a good feeling about it.
“Really?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Mindy said through a smile.
“Wow,” Becca whispered.
Wow was right.
“I don’t know what to do with that information,” I told Mindy and Becca.
“I’ll ask Brody what you should do with that information,” Mindy offered helpfully and I felt my lungs seize.
“No, don’t do that.”
“Oh yeah, do that,” Becca encouraged. “I wanna know too.”
“No, don’t,” I repeated.
“You gotta,” Becca said. “This could be huge.”
“Yeah,” Mindy’s eyes were bright with excitement and happiness. “Lovin’ this, Brody’ll love it too.” Her bright, happy eyes came to me. “Maybe even enough to come home and check you out.”
This was a nightmare.
“Um… that kind of scares me,” I told her and she laughed, linked her arm with mine and put her forehead to my shoulder.
“My big bro is cool, you’ll adore him. He’s awesome,” she said when she lifted her head.
I looked into her carefree eyes and I didn’t have the heart to burst her bubble.
“Brilliant,” I muttered and she grinned.
“That’ll be a quarter,” the clerk said from behind us, waving the print.