He opens the door and gestures as if to say, Lead the way.

I didn’t think to bring a flashlight, so I trail my hand along the wall to keep my sense of direction. But I’m not frightened. The sound of Trey’s heavier footsteps is welcome company.

We travel the tunnel in silence, and when I open the door leading to the grassy area near the marina, icy wind rushes in, and Emmaline rushes out immediately to squat.

The clouds have broken a little, and moon shimmer turns the grass faintly blue. Crickets squeal, and spring-peeper frogs chorus like bells in the trees and bushes all around us. The air reeks of wetlands and fish, but I don’t find it unpleasant. It smells natural. Good, even.

“All this,” I say, gesturing vaguely, “is worth saving, don’t you think?”

Emmaline finishes her business and scrapes at the grass with her hind legs, so it’s a moment before I sense that Trey has been staring at me.

I turn, and sure enough, his gaze is fixed on me, his eyes bright with reflected moonlight.

“Paige,” he says.

I’m not sure what he wants or what to say, so I wait.

He reaches for my face, grazes his thumb across my chin. He says, “I want to kiss you so badly right now.”

The fresh air makes me bold. I smile at him, maybe a little drunk with this sudden feeling of power.

“Honestly, I’ve wanted to kiss you for a while now,” he confesses.

“Why haven’t you?”

Everything comes out in a rush. “Well, you were sick, and we haven’t known each other very long, and I didn’t know what kind of person you were at first, and I was too lonely to have good judgment. I mean, after I lost Teena, things got so bad for me that I almost . . . and then I was so glad and relieved to find you that everything was all jumbled . . . then suddenly we were running for our lives, and then we met Tanq. . . .”

“And now it’s the end of the world, and you think we might not have much kissing time left?”

“Something like that. No, it’s closer to ‘now it’s the end of the world, and I might lose the chance to tell her that I want to kiss her.’ That’s all. For now, I just want you to know.”

I consider a long moment. Trey shifts on his feet. Maybe I could make it happen. Right now.

My body cants toward him almost of its own accord, but I stop myself, and blurt: “Shawntelle made me swear off of Black guys.”

“What? Why?”

Emmaline is sniffing around now. She pounces on something, though I have no idea what.

“She said that white women fetishize Black guys. That it’s a form of racism. And she was my best friend, so . . . I listened.”

“I see. And now?”