The man looked from Luis to Sutton, and then he continued on the path.

  “Wait!” Luis called out. “We’re trying to reach the north parking lot?”

  The man stopped. “Yes?”

  “Are we on the right path?”

  “That depends,” the man said, “on how you want to travel.”

  Sutton glanced at Luis. His eyes were huge, like he’d just met Dumbledore in the flesh. Even though this guy was obviously a quirky local, like the lady at the farmers’ market who spun dog fur into yarn and sold scarves and mittens, even Sutton had to admit the man could have leapt off the pages of one of Luis’s stories. And maybe this would all be just a little more fun if she pretended he had.

  “Flying would be nice,” she said. “If that’s an option.”

  Luis’s eyebrows shot up, but the old man didn’t bat an eye. He just turned and looked out over the water. “Inadvisable,” he finally said. “Given current wind conditions, I fear you’d be blown straight out to sea.”

  “We want to get to the north parking lot,” Luis said. “As quickly as possible.”

  “Ah. Well then, I would not advise you stay on this path. It is quite roundabout, twisting and turning for more than two miles. However, you can always take the Fort Buford Trail for about a quarter mile. It switches back a few times, but stay on it. You’ll reach a stream with a little bridge, and once you cross the bridge you’ll be able to see the main trail. That’ll take you to the parking lot.”

  He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a map folded over so many times the writing had faded in the creases. “This will get you from the trail to the parking lot.”

  “Won’t you need it?” Luis asked.

  The man smiled and stared out at the water. “No,” he said. “I won’t need it.”

  Then he carried on along the path, thumping his walking stick with each step.

  “Thank you!” Luis called out as Sutton examined the map. Then he turned to her. “Flying?”

  She shrugged. “I half expected it to work. He might have cast a spell and zapped us straight into the parking lot, but I guess this map is good enough.” She found a clearing right next to Puget Sound, which had to be where they stood. “Fort Buford Trail…”

  “Are you sure we should go that way?” Luis said. “It sounds complicated. We could get lost again. Weren’t you saying that maybe the fastest way isn’t always the best?”

  Sutton considered this. It had been true when she was thinking about her bot. “Yeah, but also I’m going to need a bathroom soon.”

  The Fort Buford trail was easy to find. There was even a signpost. But it went uphill in a totally ridiculous way—up toward the right for a while, and then over to the left, and then to the right again.

  “Do you know how far a quarter of a mile is?” Luis asked.

  “One thousand three hundred and twenty feet.”

  Luis gaped at her. “How did you know that?”

  “It’s math.” Sutton knew the math answer. But she had no idea what it felt like to walk a quarter of a mile. “I think we should be almost there.”

  “There!” Luis called out.

  Sure enough, there was a stream. If she were more adventurous, she could probably hop over it in one leap. But thankfully, a sturdy wooden footbridge stretched across the stream. Bridges often made Sutton nervous. She hated driving across Lake Washington on the 520—a bridge that actually floated on the water. The footbridge over the stream was close to the water, but she could see the sturdy posts that would support her weight. Plus, she’d be across it in about three steps.

  “We’re almost there,” Luis sang out, hurrying toward the bridge.

  “We’re almost to the trail.” Sutton pulled the map out of her pocket. “Let me see how far it will be after that.”

  She unfolded the map and found the bridge. She kept a finger there and with her other hand found the north parking lot. She traced the distance between the two points, then consulted the key on the map.

  “Come on, Sutton!” Luis called from the bridge.

  Sutton looked up. One moment Luis was waving happily. The next moment he was screaming and windmilling his arms. Sutton dropped the map and ran.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Bee!” he screamed. “Bee!”

  With all of Luis’s flailing, it took Sutton a minute to even see the bee.

  But she would be flailing too if a bee sting could send her into anaphylactic shock. They would need an ambulance, and Sutton had no way to call one. But they wouldn’t need an ambulance if she could get to the bee before the bee got to Luis.

  Sutton reached Luis on the other side of the bridge, where he was still in constant motion. The bee darted around him. Sutton looked for something to use to swat it away. Hitting a bee with a stick required more athletic precision than Sutton would ever have in her life. Plus, she might smash Luis while she was at it. He’d probably rather be smashed in the head with a stick than stung by a bee. But still. There had to be another way.

  “Can you stop waving your arms?” Sutton called. If she could get a clear shot at the bee…

  “It’ll get me if I’m still!” Luis yelped.

  “Not if you trust me! Imagine one of your stories! There are… lasers all around you, and if you hit one the alarm will go off and… wake the ogre!”

  Luis stilled.

  “Crouch down in a ball,” Sutton said. She knew what she had to do, and she was ready to do it. Luis had been afraid to see her again. After all the miscommunication at the MoPOP, she couldn’t blame him. But she could show him that wasn’t who she was. She needed to get Luis out of the way. And she needed the bee to hover where she could reach it, instead of above Luis’s head.

  Luis crouched. The bee buzzed down lower.

  With the hand-eye coordination of a seasoned video-game player, Sutton’s hands shot out and trapped the bee between her palms. “Got it.”

  Luis jerked his head up. “You killed it?”

  “Not exactly.”

  His eyes bounced to her cupped hands. He gasped in horror as she gasped in pain.

  She opened her hands and the bee flew out. The stinger was stuck in the center of Sutton’s right palm. “He’ll die now,” she said. “They can’t live without a stinger, you know.”

  Luis nodded gravely. “I can’t believe you did that for me.”

  Sutton shrugged, though her palm really hurt. “This family date would have been even worse than the MoPOP if you’d died.”

  “I have tweezers in here somewhere. We have to remove the stinger.”

  Sutton looked at her palm. The sight of the stinger jutting out made her a little woozy.

  “Here, sit down,” Luis said, guiding her to a large rock. He fumbled around in his pack and came out with his first aid kit.

  “That’s the same one I have!” Sutton said.

  Luis grinned and reached for her hand, but Sutton snatched it back.

  “Wait,” she said. “Are you sure you should touch it? There might still be venom on it.”

  “That’s what the tweezers are for.” Luis pulled her hand back, and before she could protest again, the stinger was out. Once a bandage had been applied, Luis pulled Sutton to her feet. “Are you okay to walk now?”

  “I’m okay. Let’s get back to the parking lot.” She felt a little embarrassed, but she didn’t know why. “Hey, Luis? Thanks.”

  “You took a bee sting for me,” he said. “We’re like soldiers on the battlefield together. I wasn’t going to leave you behind.”

  Sutton reached for the trail map to double-check the way to the parking lot, which was when she realized she’d dropped it on the other side of the stream. “Hang on.” She stepped onto the footbridge to retrieve the map, but as she did, something flitted past her face—another bee?—and she jerked her head around. As she spun, she lost her balance. It all happened far too quickly to understand what was going on.

  Sutton heard a shout—had she shouted, or was it Luis? And then he was there, grabbing onto her arm, and then they were both falling.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Luis

  It wasn’t so much a fall as a topple, and Luis hit the water only seconds after he grabbed onto Sutton. To be more precise, his rear end plopped through a couple of inches of water onto the muddy bottom of the stream.

  Looking back, he probably shouldn’t have grabbed onto Sutton as he fell. He had meant to stop her from falling. He might have pulled her in instead.

  When she popped up, gasping, he thought she might yell at him. He definitely did not expect her to yell, “There’s another bee!”

  The stream truly was only a stream—the water didn’t even come up to Luis’s knees when he jumped to his feet. “Where? I don’t see it!”

  “There! Oh… wait.”

  Luis followed Sutton’s outstretched finger to an orange butterfly flitting around the bridge. He looked to Sutton. She looked at him.

  “I’m not allergic to butterflies,” he said.

  She snorted, then threw a hand over her face to hold in any amusement. But then Luis let out a snort of his own, and they both dissolved into giggles.

  Luis sat back down in the stream. He was soaked already anyway. “On the bright side,” he said, “our parents will probably never make us go on a hike again.”

  Sutton giggled harder.

  Luis stopped giggling, however, when he saw something else flying through the air. It wasn’t a bug of any sort. It wasn’t something he was allergic to. It was the map. And it had been lifted by a gust of wind to dance over the water.

  “The map!” Luis and Sutton both cried at the same time. They lunged to reach it; they never had a chance. It took a dive and landed on the surface of the water.

  Luis splashed through the stream to reach the map, but when he got there, it was already dissolving. He held up the sopping, gloppy remains of the paper.

  Sutton gave a grim nod. “Well, no more map,” she said. She stood up and waded out of the stream. “But look over there—that must be the main trail. Once we’re on it, maybe we’ll run into other hikers.”

  Luis was imagining they’d never be found. They’d have to climb trees to sleep in for the night, so creatures on the ground wouldn’t get them.

  Sutton hoisted her pack onto her shoulders and headed for the trail. Luis scrambled out of the water. After everything they had been through, he wasn’t going to be separated from Sutton now! His shoes squished as he ran to catch up. Sutton walked on ahead, looking like an experienced hiker. Except that she was dripping all over the trail.

  She had suffered a bee sting for him. He and Sutton had gotten off to a terrible start, and she didn’t seem like someone he had much in common with. But maybe that didn’t matter. She had acted like a friend today.

  He caught up with her. Her shoes were squishing too.

  “My mom’s been really happy since she met your dad,” he said.

  Sutton grunted and shifted her backpack.

  “I’m not saying it’s not weird,” he added. “It’s totally weird.”

  “How long have you guys been… just you guys?”

  “My mom and I? As long as I remember. My dad died when I was two.” Before she had to ask, Luis added, “Cancer.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “She hasn’t dated anyone since. So this is a big deal. Not only going out with your dad, but wanting me to meet him. Wanting us to meet.”

  Sutton was quiet for a minute, and Luis wondered if he’d said too much. Then she said, “My dad has gone on a few dates since my parents divorced. But never more than two or three with the same person. I’ve never met someone he’s dating before. In fact, the night you got bitten by the guinea pig—”

  “I didn’t get bitten—”

  “I thought he was going to propose.”

  Luis stumbled and only stayed upright because Sutton grabbed his backpack. He liked Martin. And he and Sutton were starting to get along. He’d thought about his mom getting remarried someday, sure. Hearing it out loud, said by another person, was something else entirely.

  “Are you okay? I could be wrong,” Sutton added. “It’s just a hunch. He didn’t show me a ring or anything.”

  Luis’s mom wore her wedding ring on a chain around her neck. What would happen to it if she had a ring from Martin? What about all the pictures of Papi around the house? And his art?

  “Honestly,” Sutton continued, “there’s not a lot of evidence for my hypothesis. Just all the dates. And how happy he seems. Mostly the way they keep trying to get us together.”

  “To see how we work as a family?”

  “Maybe.” Sutton kicked a rock. “Or maybe they just want us to be friends. My dad’s always trying to get me to make more friends.”

  “Don’t you want friends?”

  “I have friends. I just don’t need a whole orchestra-full like he does. There are kids on my robotics team and in our homeschool group. Kids in my building, even. We live in an apartment.”

  Luis had been so focused on the novelty of his mom dating that it hadn’t even occurred to him that there could be more changes ahead. If their parents got married, where would they live? He loved their house on Queen Anne. But it wasn’t big enough for two more people. Maybe they would be expected to move into the downtown apartment?

  Would Martin try to act like his dad? What on earth would it be like to live with Sutton? They had made progress so far today, but not that much progress.

  “What if he planned to propose today?” Luis said. “While we were all together? That spot overlooking the water would have been perfect.”

  “Well, I guess we ruined that!” Sutton laughed. “I don’t think so, though. I think he would talk to me before a step like that.”

  “It’s the biggest step,” Luis said.

  “Yeah. Hey, look, people!” Sutton said, interrupting his spiraling thoughts. “We must be close!”

  Coming around a bend up ahead was a couple walking a black Lab.

  “Dog!” Luis yelped.

  “Are you allergic to dogs, too?”

  “No, they just scare me.”

  “Do you want to pet him?” the woman called.

  “Sure.” Sutton jogged over.

  “Bella’s really friendly,” the woman called to Luis, who had plastered himself against a tree.

  “He’s allergic,” Sutton said. And he was, only not to dogs. “We’re trying to reach the north parking lot. Are we headed in the right direction?”

  “Yep.” The man pointed back the way they’d come from. “Right around that bend, the trail splits. Head right, and just after you pass between two big boulders, you’ll see a bridge. Cross the bridge and the parking lot is right through the trees!” He paused. “Are you kids here with your parents, or…?”

  “We got separated,” Sutton said. “We’re okay now, though. Come on, Luis!”

  Luis stuck as close as possible to the trees as he moved along the path past the black Lab. “Bella” meant beautiful in Spanish, but beauty was in the eye of the beholder.

  He scooted past them and met Sutton where the trail split. “The two boulders!” he said, pointing. They were close now.

  They raced together, four shoes squishing, so excited to finally reach the parking lot. Like the man had said, there was a bridge right beyond the boulders.

  It wasn’t a sturdy wooden bridge, like the one over the stream. This was a rope bridge that stretched across a deep ravine. “Cool!” Luis cried as he bounced onto the bridge.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Sutton

  Sutton froze between the two boulders.

  She watched the bridge swing wildly as Luis jumped onto it.

  He turned back. “What are you waiting for? Let’s go!”

  Sutton was not going to cross that bridge. That bridge did not obey any of the laws of engineering. It was made of ropes! Ropes that would shake when she stepped on them. Ropes that could snap at any second!

  “Come on, we’re almost there!”

  Sutton backed up farther. She was safe between the two boulders.

  Luis hopped off the bridge and bounded over.

  “Are you afraid of heights?”

  “No.”

  Luis looked from Sutton back to the bridge.

  “I’m afraid,” Sutton said, “of super-dangerous bridges!”

  Luis looked thoughtful for a minute. Sutton expected him to try to convince her that the bridge was safe. That was what her dad would do. And it wouldn’t work.

  But instead, Luis said, “Yeah. It’s super dangerous. But the thing is, the dragon that lives in the ravine is asleep. So now’s the perfect time to cross.”

  Sutton frowned. She was so busy trying to figure out how to respond, she let Luis pull her over to where the bridge began.

  “See?” he said, looking over the edge. “He’s zonked out. But he won’t be for long. And when he wakes up? Yikes. One puff and the whole bridge goes up in smoke.”

  He stepped onto the bridge. It shook like crazy.

  Sutton wanted to run back to the boulders. But Luis was holding out his hand.

  “We have to go now, Sutton. The dragon will wake up soon. And we have to warn the people on the other side.”

  If Sutton thought for a second about what was real, she would never be brave enough to step onto this bridge. But if she tried it Luis’s way, if only for a minute…

  “What if…” This was so weird, but if anyone would get it, Luis would. “What if it’s not a dragon? What if we’re penguins, and the ravine is filled with hungry sea lions? But we have to cross to get to the sea or we’ll never be able to feed our chicks?”

  Luis blinked at her. For one horrifying second, Sutton thought he might laugh at her. Then he nodded. “Sea lions are terrifying,” he said. “And penguin chicks are the cutest thing in the world! We have to save them.”

  She stepped onto the bridge. It swung and her heart galloped in her chest, but Luis gripped her hand.

  “Hurry,” he said. “I just heard a sea lion roar!”

 

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