It seemed too hard to explain. But she nodded as if she understood anyways. She didn’t move from her spot by the bed.

“What did you go through?” she asked. “To get to me.”

I looked down at my boots.

“Tell me, Chance,” she said quietly.

So I did. I gave an abbreviated version of the empty church, of Chet’s attack and how Zeus died. The cemetery and the barricade, the climb up the pass and how I’d waited for dusk to come on, the terrible sounds of the assembly line carrying to my perch in the hills above the cannery.

She didn’t say a word, not even after I finished. Her lips were pursed, her eyes glimmering. It looked like she might be about to cry, but I wasn’t sure why. We stood in the silence a moment.

Then I remembered. I dug in my pocket. Came up with her jigsaw pendant.

“Patrick told me to bring this to you,” I said.

She seemed to realize she was still holding the towel, and she dropped it on the quilt next to the cowboy hat.

She reached back and took up her wet hair, exposing her slender neck. The whole time her eyes held mine. “Will you put it on for me?”

Blood rushed to my face. I looked down at the silver piece in my hand. That chain pooled in my palm, the tiny, delicate links. I willed my legs to move, but they wouldn’t listen.

“C’mere, Little Rain,” she said.

Keeping my eyes lowered, I walked over to her, my boots creaking the floorboards. I was standing right in front of her. We were about the same height, and I wondered when that had happened—she’d always been a few inches taller. Her neck was right there before me, an arc of wet hair floating just off the skin. I was looking at her jawline, her mouth. I didn’t dare lift my eyes to meet her gaze for fear of what they might reveal.

I reached up, the pendant dangling between my hands. My fingers grazed her neck. Her skin, so smooth. Her hair, cool against my knuckles as I fumbled with the clasp.

At last I got it.

She leaned forward.

And kissed me.

My heart stopped.

Her lips were as plush and soft as I’d ever imagined.

She pulled back, plucked the cowboy hat off the quilt, and seated it on my head. The room felt hazy to me, my thoughts and emotions swimming. Words drifted out of reach.

She gave me a sideways smile and brushed past me toward the door. “Let’s get going.”

Yanking on the backpack, I stumbled out after her, still unable to speak.