“Prudent? Like—um. Wise? Showing good judgment?”

“Ros warned me your vocabulary was good.” Jess’s smile was wide and gorgeous, which struck me as highly favorable compared with a big vocabulary. She looked like she’d never had braces, that her teeth had grown straight enough that no one complained. And her smile grew even bigger when Ros walked into the room. “You find it?”

“Right where you said it’d be,” Ros said. “Oh, good—you’ve met.”

“Get my back, Ros?”

Ros obliged, and my stomach turned. It wasn’t the touching that got me. It was the familiarity with each other’s bodies. They couldn’t have been hanging out more than, what—two weeks? How were they already so comfortable putting their hands on each other’s skin?

“So you’re a Jammer!” said Jess, while Ros spread sunscreen all over Jess’s back. Okay—so, fine. We were going to have this conversation now, while this sunscreen situation was happening.

“Um,” I said. “I don’t know if I really identify as a Jammer, but I watch a lot of Power Jam, I guess.”

“Dude, I fucking love that show. Kenna and Louisa? Finally, am I right?”

“Finally,” I agreed. Ros’s hand was moving under Jess’s sports bra. I appreciated their thoroughness—I’d never let them forget the time they’d somehow missed an entire section of my neck and I’d had a sunburn that outlined their fingertips. Sometimes, if I hunted for it in the mirror, I thought you could still see it—evidence both of where they’d touched me and where they’d let me down.

“Celia’s buddy-buddy with Oliver Teller,” Touchstone said, emerging from his nook upstairs and descending the spiral staircase to join us.

“No way!” Jess said. How she was able to have a conversation with me while Ros paid such careful attention to her shoulders was beyond me. “I heard Blade was in town! I was actually waiting outside his window one morning trying to get a glimpse of him, but I think I freaked him out.…”

“We’re not buddy-buddy,” I said, shooting a glare at Touchstone. “He’s in one of the shows in the festival, and I’m working in costumes. So I’ve just been around him a little bit.”

“They went to the Dropped Acorn,” said Touchstone.

“I love the Dropped Acorn,” said Jess.

“Heard it’s nice,” said Touchstone.

“Touchstone, I’ve both apologized a thousand times and promised you that we’d go to the Dropped Acorn together.”

“I love what they’re doing with his character. On Power Jam, I mean,” said Jess.

“Yeah,” I said. “It’s… it’s…”

I could not concentrate. Ros’s hands were on Jess’s low back now. I hung on to the island counter to prevent myself from spinning away.

“Making him human?” Jess offered.

“Yeah,” I said. “Agree.”