Yeah, good question, but inexplicably, her eyes filled. “Because I . . . I panicked. He said he wanted to kiss me again, and I told him that the first time was a mistake.” She looked at Zoey. “What is wrong with me?”

“Oh, honey. I’ll tell you what’s wrong. Sergei, the jerk.”

Oh, right.

“So you’re a little gun-shy. I mean, boyfriend number one kidnapped you and tried to take you back to his secret lair.”

Tae let herself smile.

“And I’m sure Colt would get that, if you let him.”

She sighed. “Probably. But maybe . . . maybe all this is for the best. I mean, I really have no idea how to be in a relationship, and . . . well, to be honest, Colt doesn’t either. I mean, he’s made it pretty clear that he intends to go back to his world as hired security, and I . . . I don’t want to be my mother, never knowing where he is, or what happened to him.”

Zoey nodded. “And it’s not like you’re going to follow him to the hot spots around the world.”

“No. He’s not the only one trying to make the world a better place. I— no, we—need to go to Atlanta, need to re-create the vaccine, and I need to let him go.”

Zoey drew in a breath. “Yes. Tomorrow. But tonight, maybe you watch the stars with a guy who makes you feel safe.”

Tae started to shake her head, but Zoey touched her arm.

“Listen. I know you have this all analyzed in your head, but what if you just let go a little. You don’t have to be in charge of everything. I know it’s scary, and you hate feeling helpless, but instead of theorizing the end of the story, what if you just . . . let the story unravel as it should?”

“That’s sounds terrifying.”

“Or freeing. Not to get all Dr. Bella on you, but what if your story is better than you imagined, and by holding on, you’re only creating the ending that you can see. The one you can control.”

Tae considered her. Then, “Wait. This is one of your ‘God loves you and has a good plan for your life’ talks, isn’t it?”

Zoey held up her hands. “I’m just saying that maybe there’s a reason you ended up at Sky King Ranch. And it’s because God has a bigger plan for you than you do yourself.”

“I ended up at Sky King Ranch because I crashed a plane and hiked through a blizzard and Dodge and Echo found me by chance in a snow pile.”

“By chance?”

“Okay, Echo’s dog found me, and kept me alive, and then found them— Fine. I guess it’s all in your perspective.”