Her heart slammed to a stop at the thought. He would never. Would he? The door rattled, and he walked in.
She forced a steady voice. “That sure took some time.”
“Huh?” He set the mail on the table. “Oh, yeah. Riki texted me and asked me to help her change some bulbs on a ceiling light. She couldn’t reach them.”
“Oh!” Of course it was that simple! But she itched to sneak his phone and read the text. She squeezed her eyes shut, hating that she couldn’t just trust what he said. “How is she?”
“Who? Riki?”
“That’s who we’re talking about, right?”
“She’s fine, I guess. You talk to her way more than I do. She seemed okay, though. Why, is something going on with her?”
“No, I just was asking after her in general.” And trying not to lose my mind, she thought.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Friday, March 17
Friday was finally here. Riki had jumped out of bed early, eager to get her day started. With all the drama surrounding the trap projects, she wanted to prove to the parents that it would be a wonderful day. She gently turned three of the traps on the Penguin Table upside down, as though the leprechaun had outsmarted them, but she was careful not to damage the traps. Unlike Mrs. Trainor. Her classroom phone rang, and she rushed to answer it. “This is Riki.”
“Hey, it’s Amelia. Do you have some green glitter I can use? I can’t find any in the supply room. The kindergarten team must be hoarding it again.”
“Yep. I couldn’t find any either, so I picked some up the other day.”
“Awesome. I’ll be right over.”
She turned a few chairs to their sides as she walked across her room. Amelia breezed in, clad in a bright-green dress and a shamrock headband. “Whoa. You went all out,” she said, eyeing the butcher-paper pathway dotted with tiny green footprints that led into the room and up the wall.
Riki grinned. “Cute, right? I saw it on Pinterest. I stayed late yesterday to do it.”
“I should’ve done that, too, but I was so annoyed after school, I just blew out of here. Dylan’s mom is making me crazy.”
“It just takes one to ruin your entire day.”
“No kidding.” The shamrocks bobbled above her head as she spoke. “It’s frustrating.”
“If they’d just let us do our jobs and not get all bent, life would be so much easier,” Riki said, straightening her own headband.
Amelia eyed the paper. “How’d you make the little footprints?”
“I dipped my fingers in green paint and kind of hopped them across the paper.” She tilted her head, looking at them. “They look a little bit like alien feet, but I tried.”
“They’re awesome. You’re so creative.”
“Ha. Have you seen my papier-mâché panda? Chris thought it was a ball.” Riki turned to her. “We’re official now, by the way. As of last week.”
“I thought you had been for a while.”
“I mean, I guess we both weren’t dating anyone else, but he wanted to make it officially official.” She carefully tipped another chair to its side. “We’re leaving for Mammoth with some of his friends this afternoon. It’ll be our first trip together.”
Amelia turned to her. “Why do you sound nervous about it?”
Because I almost tried to seduce my neighbor yesterday, and I’ve never traveled with a boyfriend? Instead, she said, “I don’t know.”
“Of course you know. What’s up?”
“It’s just—” She straightened a stack of papers on her desk. The traveling would be fine. It wasn’t like they were going to Europe. They weren’t even going on a plane. They were driving to the mountains. But if something went wrong, there was no escape. Nothing will go wrong! she chided herself. It was all going to be just fine. And she hadn’t done anything to clue Brandon in on her feelings. She’d backed away from it. But it still bothered her that she felt so strongly for Brandon when Chris was the guy she was with. “Um, how do you know when it’s right? Like, does everything line up, or are there still things you wonder about?”
“Depends on what you’re looking for, I guess. For me, I’m having a great time with Wes. He’s fun to hang out with, and I think he’s hot. But will I marry the guy? Probably not. But I’m not looking for that at the moment, you know? It boils down to what you want.”
She made it sound so easy. And really, it was. So why did Riki have to make it so complicated? If only she