Page 48 of The Fate Factor

Another pedestrian decides to pass directly in between us instead of going around, and I feel myself start to approach the edge of my patience.

“Hey, hold up.” I catch her elbow and gesture with my head for her to pull over. “This idea kind of sucks,” I admit. “I’m sorry.”

She blows out a breath in polite agreement. “It’s okay.”

“Do you want to do something else?”

She glances out at the water. “I am getting kind of cold.”

“And kinda annoyed?”

She smiles, maybe the first one I’ve gotten out of her tonight. “A little. But not at you.”

Well, that’s good news, but her confirmation that she’s unhappy lands in the center of my chest.

“Me too,” I tell her. “Here.” I shrug off my hoodie and slide it over her shoulders. She clutches it closed.

“Thank you.” This time when she smiles, her face melts into it’s normal soft, sweet expression, and it renews my determination to fix this. Downtown was a bad idea, but it’s not like I don’t know this city like the back of my hand. I should be able to come up with an alternate plan.

“Maybe we should—”

I’m cut off from thinking out loud when, out over the water, the ship horn sounds, warning the passengers not to miss their call time. Noel and I both turn toward it, and just like that, my original idea gets a new setting—sunset, somewhere quieter. Just me and her.

“Can you see these ships from your house, Noel?”

“I think we could see these ships from space.”

I remember watching them pull out of the harbor from the beach across from Bob’s place, and I run it through my mental GPS, reverse it. “You know, you could probably see your house from here,” I tell her. “If we were high enough.”

She scrunches her nose. “There’s no way.”

My grin splits. “Only one way to find out. Come on. I know how we can get high enough.”

“Absolutely not.”

I laugh. “Come on, Noel. I promise it’s safe.”

When she aimed that skeptical look at me, I was hit with the compulsion to prove this to her. Not because I want to be right, I know I am, but because I think she’ll get a kick out of it.

“Safe or not, it’s illegal to climb a fire escape and—” She gestures wildly to the windows. “People will see us!”

“It’s a commercial building. Everyone is gone for the night.” One arm protecting my ribs, I kick over a couple of pallets that are leaning against the wall. “And it’s only, like, misdemeanor illegal.”

She gapes at me. “Only misdemeanor?Only?”

Biting my lip to keep from laughing again, I push the pallets into place with my foot, then climb up carefully. From here it’s an easy reach to the extension ladder on the fire escape, and I pull it down with my left arm, then step back to the ground in front of her. “Ready?”

“This is why Fran doesn’t like you, isn’t it? This kind of stuff?”

“That’s offensive. I’ve never even looked at Fran’s fire escape,” I say, but she’s turning on her heel. “Wait.” I catch her around her waist, laughing. “Come on. Don’t you trust me?”

“Not particularly,” she says, but she’s already given herself away, relaxing against my chest, her arm covering mine where it wraps around her.

“Please?” I whisper it with my lips pressed to her hair, which is a sensation I’m not sure I’ll ever get over. The softness of it. The floral scent pressed right into my olfactory system. “I promise it’s safe.”

Noel bites the tip of her thumb, looking back and forth between me and the iron steps. “Can we really see it?”

“Promise.”

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