month?” To Garsea: “That’s right, it’s not an ambulance. Why is that so hard to understand?”
“But you’re a paramedic!” Mama exclaimed.
“Yeah, now. I got sick of people flagging me down and demanding I tend to their wounds and drive them to a hospital. So I got certified. There. Simple.”
“Oh, no,” Garsea replied. “Not at all.”
Oz chuckled. “So instead of trading it in for anything else, you went out and trained as a paramedic.” To Mama: “That’s the level of stubborn we’re dealing with. The Olympic standard of stubborn.” He raised his hand to cut Annette off. “No one is saying you’re not a talented amateur, Annette, but like I said—this is gold medal level stubborn.”
“You can all stop talking about me like I’m not hearing every snarky word.”
Lila finished with his other hand, and he flexed his fingers experimentally. “So you got EMT certified—sorry, paramedic—for spite.”
She shrugged. “Yeah.”
“Marry me.”
“There’s something wrong with you,” she replied, but couldn’t keep the smile off her face.
* * *
“Oh my God!”
Lila stared at the shed, which had been transformed. The kids had hauled out the old stuff, and swept and scrubbed everywhere, exposing the blonde wood that made up the walls and making the shed look bigger and brighter, even in the twilight gloom. They’d brought in old carpet remnants for the floor, and they’d found a rocking chair from somewhere for the corner (Lila suspected Macropi’s place). There was a long shelf in the back under the sign (HOT CHOCOLATE HIDEOUT), which had been stacked with mugs, spoons, snacks, and napkins. The lawn lounge chairs had been folded flat and made into a bed with several inches of thick blankets, and the kids had stuffed a bucket with cut evergreen, making the shed smell like Christmas. There was a cordless space heater in the corner, putting the finishing touch on the cozy hideaway.
“She likes it!” Sally squealed.
“You did this?” she asked, stunned. “All this?”
“It was either that or homework,” Devoss said.
“It was Caro’s idea,” Macropi added.
The teenager smiled, then looked down and shrugged. She scribbled and handed over a note. Figured you should have a special place to make Flanders’s cocoa. And yeah…it was either that or homework.
“I love it,” Lila said, and her voice didn’t tremble at all. “I can’t believe you did this instead of homework. Well, I can, but it’s still a lot.”
“Speaking of,” Macropi said tartly, and began shooing the kids back to the house.
“But it’s still the weekend!” Devoss cried as Macropi practically hauled him out by his ear. “And there’s more to the story! Net and Oz and Lila got up to all kinds of cool crap today, and you know they’ve probably only told us half of it. Her nonbulance is gone, disparou, andato! Oz’s hands are all taped up! Nadia left cryptic messages, and I’ll just bet Gomph is involved, too!” Fainter and fainter. “Back me up, Caro. ‘Stop screaming, Mama’s making us leave so Lila and Oz can be alone.’ Oh. Gross. This isn’t over!”
“Well.” Oz coughed and pulled the shed door closed. “That was horribly indiscreet.”
“And audacious.”
“Right. Right!” He stood there, running his hands through his hair like he didn’t know what to do with them. “Yes. I’d never—I mean, we didn’t bring you down here to—there wasn’t a sinister seductive plan being put in motion. That I knew of, anyway. The kids just happened to finish it today. It’s part of the reason Caro and Mama went to town when Harriss tried to burn you out. They needed the finishing touches, and Target’s great for that. Am I doing that thing where I talk too much? Also, if you hadn’t shot him, I was going to use his rib cage for a xylophone, so it all worked oummmmmmm.”
This because she’d had enough already and kissed him. He groaned and kissed her back and then she was groping behind her because she didn’t want to break contact but she did want to get horizontal, and somehow they lowered themselves to the surprisingly comfortable blanket pile. Then she was grabbing at his belt buckle and he was tugging at her sweater and at first she hesitated, but his pants were around his ankles by now and if he didn’t mind looking silly, she didn’t, though she’d never thought of her scars as silly.
“Wait.”
She made her hands go still.
“This morning the plan was to leave you be and wish you a long and happy life because we’ve caused you enough trouble—”
“Presumptuous.”
“Yeah, that’s what Annette said.