Page 38 of It’s All in How You Fall
I drop my face into my hands. “Can we not use the wordscrewedin reference to my brother, even if it’s in the negative sense?”
“Not a problem,” Sunny says, and I unpeel my hands to look at her. She thrusts a board and paddle at me. “Because we shouldn’t be talking about Nat—we should be talking aboutyouand Alex Zavala.”
I would run but even as strong as I am, I’m too short to properly haul the board at a hasty pace. So I turn toward the dock as if walking away from this conversation. Because I am. Until I eradicate this line of thought from Sunny’s adorable head, there’s no way she’s going to let the Angelica Schuyler vibes work. “Ugh. Can we not?” I scramble for a way to turn this into discussingherpotential with Alex without outing his interest in her, and I stomp down the hill because it seems easier to navigate than the extremely steep stairs while I carry the board.
Sunny is used to hauling the paddle boards and speeds up effortlessly to be right in my sight line with a perfectly arched brow. “You brought this on yourself when you got caught.”
Caught? Oh. Ohhhh.
“I wouldn’t be askingagainabout Alex Zavala at all if you hadn’t decided to get all sweaty with him on a Saturday morning.” Sunny’s eyes twinkle as we hit the wood planks of the dock. “You did say the running was your idea, did you not? Like you’d just casually go running for no reason at all. The boy is proof of your ulterior motive in sweat-wicking fabric and Nikes.”
I secure my ankle leash, check my life vest, and push my board into the water, giving Peregrine time to jump in and help me here. Instead, my wait-and-hope strategy for my bestie dies on the vine as Sunny glides into the water and drags her into the conversation as a witness for the prosecution. “Per, help me out here. Have you ever seen Caroline around a boy so frequently in her life? Purposefully—and not Nat or because she’s with Nat.”
Peregrine’s eyes flick to mine as she steadies herself on her board. I really hope she helps me out way more than she did at the farmers’ market. “Er, no.”
Come on, P.
“But,” she says, squinting at Sunny, who is now somehow in front of us, leading us toward a current that will work in our favor and keep us away from where motorboats are allowed. Safety first. “We do have to factor in the fact that we want our girl Caroline out there, spreading her wings and doing new things, since she can’t be with us.”
There we go. I mean, it sucks but it’s true. “I have a lot of time on my hands to try new things,” I add. More truth.
Sunny executes a turn on her board and the two of us copy her as best as we can. There’s a cove a little ways down and I’m pretty sure that’s our destination. The wind picks up, which means that to continue our conversation, Sunny has to half yell across the water. “Are you doing any othernewthings with your new six-foot-five BFF?”
Oh. God. Seriously, this cannot keep trending this way.
“No,” I say, more measured than I feel. A pointed attack might be the only way to actually get her to believe me. Or at least dig me out of this conversation. “Why are you suspicious anyway, Sunny? That’s Peregrine’s job. You’re the mom.”
That’s her role—in the gym originally, but outside of it too with the two of us.
“Momsaresuspicious.”
“Not my mom,” I squeak.
“Moms who don’t parent over text from a boardroom in another countryaresuspicious,” Sunny clarifies, waving things off. “And so is Peregrine. She made that clear when you rolled up to practice with him… though now…” Sunny turns around and looks between us. I find myself very interested in the angle of my paddle. Peregrine messes with her ponytail again. Sunny isn’t buying either one of us. “What’s going on here, girls?”
For a beat we’re both silent. Still looking away. Making it worse. Sunny stops paddling and stares us down like Olga does when the team’s ready to move on to something new but someone is still mid-conversation and oblivious.
Peregrine is the first to break it up. “Caroline is learning to be something other than a gymnast.”
A smirk pulls at the corners of Sunny’s mouth. “A girlfriend?”
“No!” I insist. “An athlete! I’m learning to put my athletic talents to good use elsewhere.”
As my cheeks flame, Peregrine lays it out with punctuated precision. “Sun, she needs something to do. Alex offered to coach her in other sports.”
I hold my breath.
“Why didn’t you say so?” Sunny reads my puffed-out cheeks and pleading expression. “Did you think we’d be upset? Like you’re cheating on us?”
“No, no, it’s just that it’s so new. It’s like I still have the training wheels on. Or something.”
Struggling in private with something new is one thing. Admitting it to my friends or family—especially Dad and Nat—is just… I knew exactly what I was doing for the past ten years, even when I was trying something new. Now I don’t know what I’m doing no matter what I try. Everything is a new frontier. If Alex were in my brain he’d probably come up with someStar Trekjoke again.
“That’s so nice of him,” Sunny says, turning around for a second to pick up speed.
The cove is ahead and appears empty. We paddle for a minute or so before Sunny gives it up and turns around again, in full squint and not from the high morning sun. “Are we sure he doesn’t want more? I mean, coaching you has to be time-consuming, right?”
I nod. “Well, yeah.”
