Shady

“…I’ll try,” Ky decided, nodding. “Do you have options you could pull out and I could ask him to come help me decide?”

(I look forward to it!) “Um… I still want to look. But… I think their parents should be involved in that decision. I just used that as an excuse.” She ...

(Oh god that’ll either be really cool or terrifying or both) “Yessir.” She nodded, glancing around. “Thank you… your work is beautiful.”

“No.” She shook her head. “I make bad choices. If you think it might risk making him feel bad, then I won’t. It’s not worth the risk.” How disappointing.

“…that makes sense…” she furrowed her brow. “But it’s not a gift if he picks it out. My allowance is his money anyhow. It wouldn’t be special to just buy ...

“…you think he doesn’t?”

Oh. That was a good point, yes. She nodded, blushing a little. “Well… the topic of heart boxes came up last night and the twins were talking about theirs and ...

Ky glanced over her shoulder to be sure Tomhas hadn’t come back in. “…will you keep a secret? It’s not a bad one, I promise.”

“…oh.” Was she being a jerk about this? She felt like a jerk. “…well… oh…” this was a bad idea. How disappointing.

“Mm.” She was pushing her luck. She nodded, glancing away. “Okay.”

“…what if, like…” Careful. “What if there’s an adult who grew up here and never got one? How would you ‘do that’ right?”

Was he calling her out? She looked at him warily. “…oh?”

“They’re Southern,” Ky said, glancing at him. The lie was getting harder to weave together. “But the younger one will be born up here. And I live up here now.”

“…so what if… well, let’s say there’s an older sibling, too. One who didn’t get a heart box when they were a baby. How would that work?”

Ky nodded slowly. “This is a big job.”