Page 37 of It’s All in How You Fall
My eyes roll so hard I think they might fall out of my head. “I hope she brings a pint of rotten tomatoes to toss at you.”
“She’s the type who would.”
Artemis might actually live up to her violent namesake if he pulls the same shit with her that he does with Liv Rodinsky. I mean, she’s majoring in business and accounting, and if she didn’t suffer fools before, she definitely won’t after a year of studying for a career defeating corporate bro-schmoes. I wouldn’t put anything past her.
We arrive at the Lius’ place, and Nat taps three cheery times on the horn. Peregrine and Artemis emerge with twin waves.
“In the back with you, Caro.”
“Huh, what?”
“In the back. You and Peregrine. I want to quiz Artemis on college life.”
Um. What? “You could do that at the lake.”
“Just get in the back.”
I would fight him but the girls are fast approaching. Instead, I exit and hold the door open. “Nat says college girls in the front, high school girls in the back.”
Nat puts on his best grin from the driver’s seat.
To my surprise, Artemis doesn’t hesitate. “Okay.”
Peregrine’s upper lip curls and her eyes narrow. “Okay? He just made you sound like some sort of 1960s stereotype.” She makes her best Beatle-mania face. “College girl.”
Okay, I’m the one who made her sound like a stereotype, but I’m still not going to save him.
Artemis shrugs and slides in. She answers her sister but is looking at Nat. “It gets curvy as we approach the lake, and I bet Nat takes curves like he’s on the autobahn. I’m less likely to get motion sickness in the front, and if I do, he’ll be the one who pays.”
And we’re off to the races.
Sunny’s family lake house is on Lake Dabinawa, about an hour west of the city. I’ve been to it several times, but always for her end-of-summer birthday bash. Never just as a one-off, hey, let’s soak and sunbathe and gossip all day.
It’s an honest-to-God log cabin (it’s been in her family a long time) surrounded now by properties that could eat it for lunch and use the remaining splinters to clean its teeth. But the thing is, no one would let that happen because, like Sunny herself, this little house literally makes everything brighter. Red geraniums call out an invitation from window boxes, and twinkle lights stand at the ready for nighttime along the roofline and in the trees.
Sunny greets us and we wave hello to her parents, who are inside, making what will most likely be a delicious lunch.
“Sunny, can we take the canoe?” Nat asks, gesturing to Artemis as we hike around the side of the house. Behind the cabin there’s a rambling deck with stairs to the lake and dock, and between the two winds a dirt path that dead-ends in a patchwork garden Sunny’s mom maintains with seemingly just her fairy spirit and a supremely green thumb. It’s a smorgasbord of sun-loving plants too wild and varied for someone like me to name. I only know the obvious—in this case, the giant green stalks of soon-to-be sunflowers. They ladder toward the sky, ready to open in a few weeks. Some are already taller than all of us but Nat.
I’m sure he’d be proud of this if he noticed the flower stalks at all, but he’s having too good a time giving Artemis shit.
And she’s taking it. Like, legitimately laughing and giving it right back in a way I haven’t witnessed anyone else do with my brother. She doesn’t balk at the canoe idea and it’s all just bizarre.
“Sure. I thought we could do some yoga on the paddle boards anyway.”
“Sweet.” The pair of them angle off toward where the canoe is tethered and Peregrine and I stop walking almost at the exact same time.
“Something smells questionable,” I whisper, pointedly looking the other direction in case either of them turns around.
“That’s for sure,” Peregrine agrees. She isn’t even pretending not to watch. The look on her face would split my brother’s skull in two if he weren’t the most hard-headed individual in the universe. “They have literally said like two words to each other the last four years, despite all the gymnastics meets. And now they’re boarding that tiny canoe like they do this every Sunday.”
Okay, but there is the matter of their participation on the Northland cheer squad ruining that particular sisterly hyperbole from Peregrine, but still… it’s not normal behavior from them. She’s right. But it’s to our advantage. Artemis might dunk him in the lake, but at least Nat’ll be distracted enough not to crash any conversation Peregrine and I can start about Alex.
I grab Peregrine’s hand and we jog to catch up with Sunny, who is hauling the stand-up paddle boards out from their careful storage under the cabin’s deck.
“I mean,” I say, “he has a history of liking brunettes and sheislaughing at his jokes.”
Peregrine tugs on her purple-tinged black ponytail and then dabs the same hand on Sunny’s raven curlicue bun. “Hear that, Sun? If we laugh in Nat’s vicinity, we’re screwed.”
