As soon as I closed my bedroom door behind me, I couldn’t help but giggle like a maniac. Aster really wanted me to come with him to California. And why shouldn’t I go to Cali? The schools there might not’ve been as prestigious as the Royal College of Art in London, but they were good. I could learn anything I wanted and still hang out with Aster after classes. 

The idea made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but I couldn’t think of it right now. I had a date with Aster and a mysterious thing I had to see. Well, not a date, per say, but I definitely wasn’t going to pass on any excuse to hang out with him away from gossiping maids. 

I threw on a coat and gloves, grabbed my art knapsack, and hurried downstairs. 

Aster was waiting on the porch with a full backpack at his feet. When he saw me, he slung it over his shoulder and waved for me to follow him down the hill. 

The land directly around the house was as pristine and green as always, a testament to the groundskeepers’ constant attention. Starting at the bottom of the hill, however, several acres of unkempt evergreen trees and thorn bushes made up what we called “the woods.” They were probably manmade for hunting purposes, but they’d been around so long that no one was entirely sure. 

For me, it didn’t matter whether they were natural or manmade. The majority of my childhood exploits had taken place in the woods—my one respite from the constant attention of my nannies.

As we reached the trees, I kept an eye on my feet to keep from tripping on any exposed roots or underbrush, but that wasn’t nearly enough to distract me from Aster’s mystery.

“What’s this thing I’ve got to see?”

He laughed. “Actually, it’s something Vance—you know, the groundskeeper’s kid—he says he was out hunting this morning when he found a talking cat speaking in a different language. Crazy, right? I bet him twenty bucks he just heard it yowling or something. You and Izzy are our ‘impartial witnesses.’” 

He put finger quotes around the last two words, obviously knowing as well as I did that Izzy was anything but impartial when it came to Vance. Even if she hadn’t been lying about dating him, she definitely had a serious crush on him. 

I scoffed. “I wouldn’t exactly call him a kid. What is he, your age?” The image of my little sister hooking up with a twenty-year-old made me grimace. 

“No, I think he’s twenty-two or twenty-three. Can’t remember, but I know he dropped out of college his first year because of money problems, and he just went back this year.”

“Ugh, he’s so old. It makes me sick.” 

He snorted and ducked under a hanging thorn vine. “Since when is twenty-two ‘so old?’ I still feel like a teenager, and I doubt that’ll change in two years.” 

“That’s not the point.” I followed him under the vine, and we settled into a casual walking pace down what looked like a fox trail. “Just because you feel like a teenager doesn’t mean you should date them.” 

“I shouldn’t? I mean, I wasn’t planning on it.” He stumbled over a root sticking up from the ground. 

I caught his arm, and he steadied himself. “Of course not. She doesn’t have a clue what she’s doing, and she’s bound to get hurt. Even if he’s a decent guy—I mean, if it’s true, he can’t be, because what kind of pervert gets off on manipulating a fifteen-year-old?—still, she’s not ready for all that. The other day, she called him her ‘soul mate.’ Can you believe that? What are the chances her ‘soul mate’ lives downstairs from her? Just because it’s convenient doesn’t make them ‘soul mates.’”

Face twisted in a look of confusion, he shook his head. “I just realized I have no idea what you’re talking about. Who’s fifteen? And who’s the-” He grimaced. “Is Vance dating a fifteen-year-old?”

I shrugged. “Izzy says they’re dating. Knowing her, it could all be a story she made up to feel ‘mature’ since she’ll be the only teenager in the house after tomorrow.”

“Technically speaking, eighteen is still a teenager. But I get what you mean.” He paused. “Do you think it’s a story?” 

“I hope it is.” I scowled as the creek came into view. “It wouldn’t be the first time she’s gone after a college guy, but it would be the first time one’s dared to reciprocate.”

He opened his mouth but closed it as we reached the creek edge, apparently preferring to focus on crossing the creek without getting wet. Despite his efforts, he landed on a wobbly rock and ended knee-deep in the frigid water. Cursing, he trudged up the far bank.

I danced across the stepping stones, avoiding the wobbly one and landing on the far bank significantly dryer. Aster just shook his head and led me deeper into the trees.

He looked pensive, but the seriousness in his expression wasn’t enough to overcome the comical squishing of his boots. I tried hard not to smile, apparently not hard enough.

“Something funny?” He raised his eyebrows and started to march with exaggerated steps that made his boots squish even more. 

“Oh, no, nothing funny at all.” Giggling, I waved at the path ahead of us. “How far is it, anyway?”

He chuckled. “We’re here.”

“Where-”  

He held up a finger to cut me off. Breaking through the tangled branches of a dead tree, he stopped at the edge of a clearing littered with fallen leaves. A boulder stood in its center, nearly as tall as me and covered in a combination of autumn leaves and dried moss. 

Vance leaned against the bolder’s left side, a hunting rifle slung over his shoulder. Izzy stood a little ways away in the trees. Looking at them together, Vance wasn’t much taller than her, but that was the only physical feature they held in common. Her soft cheeks were nothing like his angled jaw, and his blond buzz-cut couldn’t have been more different than her feminine braids. Not to mention, her petite frame looked almost fragile compared to his muscular body. 

They said opposites attracted. Maybe that was true, at least in matters of physical attraction. If it was true, I didn’t have a chance with Aster. Not that my crush was the most important thing right now. 

I crossed my arms. “So, you’re Vance, Izzy’s new boyfriend?”

“Yeah, and you’re the adopted Ortiz. We’ve met.” 

“How could I forget?” He’d lived on the estate his whole life, and we’d had more than a few run-ins as kids. The most memorable one was when he was fourteen and thought it was a funny idea to throw a rubber snake out in front of my horse. I got bucked off and bruised my leg, but he ended up with a broken arm after I was through with him, so I figured we were even. 

At least, we were until he started dating my little sister. “What do your friends think of you dating a high school sophomore? Like, do they think it’s gross, or are they also perverts like you?”

Izzy scoffed, but before she could protest, Vance asked Aster, “This is your ‘impartial’ witness?”

Aster shrugged. “Hey, at least I didn’t bring my underage girlfriend.”

“Yeah, right.” He slid the rifle off his shoulder and pointed it at a hollow near the base of the boulder. “Talking cat’s under there. You bring the sardine?”

“Yep.” Aster took a baggie of sardines from his backpack and dumped them out on the ground in front of the rock. He gestured for us to move back, and Vance followed suit.