Page 54 of Hell In A Handbasket
“Exactly. Those are not tears, Minnnka. They’re lava. No one ever calls a volcano weak for bursting.”
She burrows deeper against my chest and sniffles. “This is a good analogy. I like it.”
“Thought you might.” I kiss her neck and draw a breath of my own. I’m pretty fucking sure I forgot to in all the time we’ve been on this side of the tree. “This isn’t about Soph, babe. It’s not about Aubree. Or betrayal. Or camping at hell’s doorstep. It’s about being overloaded with so much shit all at the same time that you just can’t hold on to it. For the first time in a really long time, you need help to carry the load.”
“I lost it over a chair.” Exhaling, she uses my shirt and wipes her face. “God. They probably think I’m crazy. They think I’m a giant wuss.”
“Lava burns. It destroys. It’s not the product of a wuss. And…” Inspired, I remember the sucker in my pocket, so I pull it free and tear the plastic wrapper off. “I read somewhere that when we get stuck in our heads like this and can’t find our way out,” I tap her bottom lip and grin, settling the sucker on her tongue as she opens her mouth, “we need to shock our system into focusing on something else.”
She scowls, two deep lines forming between her brows. Whipping her hand up, she tugs the sucker out again and looks at what I know is not just a regular sucker. But a ball of sugar dipped in something else. “It’s sour.”
“They say we should drink icy cold water. Or eat something spicy. Or…” I nudge the candy back to her lips. “Eat something sour. It tricks our brains into focusing on something new.”
“It’s working.” Pouting, she licks the cherry red ball until the coloring transfers to her tongue. “I guess.”
“You can breathe again.” I pocket the plastic wrap and kiss the corner of her lips, so I get to taste her and the candy at the same time. “Can you stretch your lungs? Get all that oxygen again?”
“You’re getting awfully confident with this stuff.” Finally, she falls backwards, hitting the tree with a thump. She tilts her head to the sky and closes her eyes. And because she can, she draws a long, deep breath that expands her chest and brings a little color back to her cheeks. “Where’d you learn about the candy thing?”
In a book that I sneak-read. A book that focuses on neurodivergence and how to help someone exactly like you.
But I don’t say so out loud. “Must’ve caught it in a movie or something.” I drag every last strand of hair off her cheek and tuck it behind her ear. “Do you feel better?”
She sucks on the lollipop, pinching the stick between two fingers much the same way I remember Felix sucking on a cigarette.
It would be comical if it wasn’t so fucking scary.
“Mayet?”
“Yeah. I feel better.” She inhales, lifting her chest and swiping her cheek with her free hand. “Embarrassed. But better.”
“I don’t think anyone out here is brave enough to tease you for this. You have no reason to be embarrassed.”
“None at all.” Soph steps around the tree, startling us both and snorting when Minka jumps. Then she shoves me out of the way and crushes Minka in a hug. “We’re family here.”
“What the hell are you doing?” Minka kicks and squirms, trying, but failing, to push Soph away. “Get off me!”
“Shhh.” She squeezes her tight. “Just let it happen. Just relax.”
“Soph!”
“It’s okay. I forgive you. Now let me violate your personal space without having to listen to you whine about it.”
KANE
“Let’s go.” The Malone crew stalks onto the bus and finds their seats. No one mentions Minka’s thing. And no one stares too long.Except Soph. But everyone—from my crew, anyway—understands what the fuck we just witnessed.
We’ve seen Soph do the same.
Once, back when her baby sister was thought to be dead and the world, as Soph knew it, was ending.
Hell, if I don’t agree with Detective Malone’s volcano analogy.
“It’ll take just a few minutes to drive into town,” Jay announces, swinging his captain’s chair around and dropping into the bouncy seat with a smug grin. “Then we gotta get changed and head over for the wedding.”
“Uh, no.” Minka folds onto a chair beside Archer, half sitting on his lap and not at all shy about it. Though I figure,typically, she would be. “We’re not going to the wedding. We’re going to the airport.”
Jay leans over the steering wheel and presses whatever buttons start this thing. “Yeah. Airport after the wedding.”
