He was different yesterday. Sluggish. As if every movement he made was in slow motion. There had been bags under his light blue eyes, and his skin looked a little paler than usual. Even his curly blonde hair seemed a little down, like a wilted flower in the fall. He'd been breathless and a little short, making mistakes he normally didn't make. Sweat beaded at the top of his hairline, like he was overexerting himself on a hot day. But it hadn't been a hot day. It had only been about 70 degrees.

"Hey," she'd said, holding onto his arm and looking into his eyes. She'd broken her rule about touching, but she didn't care. The concern she'd felt had trumped whatever other emotions she had swirling around inside her. "Are you okay?" He'd blinked at her, like he hadn't quite understood what she was asking. "You seem really tired today. Are you... not feeling well?"

He'd given her the smallest of smiles, but it was a shadow of what was normal, like a dimmed lightbulb right before it went out. "Yeah. I'm okay. I just didn't sleep well last night, that's all." She'd nodded her head, still not fully convinced. It had been Tuesday evening, and he had just come back from spending the night in the city again. He stayed out there every Monday, and usually he seemed fine when he came back. But yesterday he'd seemed really off, and she couldn't quite figure out why.

"Maybe you caught a bug out in Seattle?" she'd suggested, having watched him carefully for signs that something else was wrong.

But he'd just shrugged his shoulders. And that was it. The subject had been dropped. They'd finished working for the day, and she'd gone home thinking of him, wondering what he'd done in Seattle the night before to make him look so tired. She often thought about what he did in Seattle, but she never had the courage to ask. Part of her thought that maybe he had a girlfriend in the city, and he visited her one night a week. But that didn't make sense. She remembered that Kiel said Zeke had business he took care of in the city on Mondays. But what was the business?

But he was back to normal the next day. The color had come back into his face, and his curly hair was back to standing up like someone had just rubbed a balloon over it. It was like someone had given him life in the middle of the night. He was laughing with her, making jokes and having a good time. And then, when the sun was starting to set, and as they were packing things up for the night, he turned to her and said, "Have you ever been to Port Townsend?"

She gave him a look out of the corner of her eye, wondering if he was joking or not. "Um. Yes. I've been there once or twice." She said this with a smile. Growing up, she'd spent almost every weekend in Port Townsend. It was a tourist town on the mainland, and as a kid she'd always spend the week earning as much money as she could from her grandparents so that she could buy herself a ferry ticket and spend the day in Port Townsend with her friends.

He nodded his head. "Yeah? I've heard it's really nice over there."

"It... is," she said, wondering where he was going with this.

"I've... never been," he said, kicking the grass gently with his sneaker. He lifted his hand and started rubbing the back of his neck. The way he'd done the first day she'd met him. She looked away from him and tossed the scrub brush into the empty water bucket, rubbing her wet hands against her ripped blue jeans. He took a little breath. "Do you want to go to Port Townsend with me this weekend?"

She froze but felt like a defibrillator had shocked her heart with how fast it was suddenly beating. Was he asking her out? "What?" she asked, not sure she was believing what she was hearing.

"Not like a date or anything," he said, raising his hands defensively. She frowned, and he said, "No. That's... also not what I meant. I meant...." He stopped and bowed his head. Then took another deep breath and said, with a sheepish smile, "Can I please start over? To before I made it awkward?"

"Sure?" she replied, not sure what his problem was.

He let out a breath of air. "Great. So, I've never been to Port Townsend. And I keep hearing cool things about it. And I think there's a bonfire thing going on there on Saturday night. And I was wondering if you would want to go with me? As friends hanging out?" Her heartbeat slowed down significantly at this last bit. Friends hanging out.

Okay, so he wasn't really asking her out. Not on a date, at least. But she remembered Axel mentioning something about him and Avery going to a bonfire in Port Townsend on Saturday night. They'd invited her via text, but she'd told them she wasn't sure she was going to make it, since she had church the next morning. And now Zeke was asking her to go with him. "Funny you mention that," she said, and he raised his eyebrows. "I have a couple friends who invited me there this weekend. I wasn't going to go, but if you want to go, then yeah. We can go. As friends."

He visibly relaxed, and she thought it was so cute. Then she cursed herself for thinking of him that way. It was so obvious he didn't think of her like that. And she really appreciated that he wasn't giving her the wrong impression. Even if her crush on him was intensifying with each passing moment of each passing day. "But, if it's okay with you, I don't want to stay out too late. Church the next morning."

He nodded his head. "Of course. Can't miss that. What would the choir do without their star vocalist?" he teased, and she felt the heat rise in her cheeks. "I totally understand though. And I promise you, we won't stay out too late. Believe it or not, I don't want to miss church either."

This surprised her. She knew all the reasons she enjoyed going to church. Despite the fact that she'd always had faith in God, she also felt like it brought her closer somehow to her dad and grandpa. They'd spent their lives as part of the church, and she loved knowing that she was following in their footsteps. But she was always interested in knowing why other people went. If they were willing to share. "You like going to church too?" she asked.

He nodded his head. "Actually, yeah. I do. To be honest, I didn't expect to like it as much as I do. But there's something kind of... I don't know. Comforting about it, I guess? I never knew what to believe, but the idea of a higher power looking out for me... well, I suppose it makes me feel good. And it also makes me feel like... like anything can happen, you know?" She was shocked at how candid he was being with her, but she also appreciated it. He'd been pretty honest about his lack of familial connections, so when he opened up to her like this, it made her feel like he could trust her. And that made her feel like maybe she could trust him too.

"Yeah," she said, a small smile tugging on the corners of her lips. "I do know." A comfortable silence fell between them as she began packing up the cleaning equipment she brought out with her every day.

"So what's your favorite thing about Port Townsend?" he asked, breaking the silence as he lifted the bucket full of brushes and began carrying it over to her bike.

She considered this for a second, thinking about all the times she went there as a kid. "The shopping," she said, and she saw a tiny grin take shape on his handsome face. She swallowed, turning away from him so that he couldn't see her blush, and continued. "They have so many cool little stores out there. There's an art museum out there too, and I'm pretty sure they still have some of my grandma's pieces. We can check it out if you want. And there's a really awesome Italian restaurant out there as well."

He nodded his head as he set the bucket in the basket attached to the back of her bike. Then he wiped his hands on his khakis and said, "You know, I have an idea. Why don't you show me what a day in the life of young Emersyn Collins would've looked like? We can go into Port Townsend, and we can do all the things you loved when you were a kid."

"Everything?" she asked with a smirk. "Because I was a little bit of a wild child back then." His eyebrows shot up in surprise, and she had to fight a giggle. "Oh yeah, I really knew how to turn it up. I used to go skinny dipping with my friends out on the beach. We'd get high by the old rickety dock. Axel would steal vodka from his parents' liquor cabinet, and we'd get stupid drunk. And we were only 14, if you can believe it."

"Whoa," he said, chuckling. "I don't know if I'm down for all of that. Well, the skinny dipping might not be too bad." Wait. Did she hear him right? She side-eyed him, but he wasn't giving anything away. "But how about we keep it PG? Shopping, museum, pasta, bonfire. That all sounds pretty great."

She threw her head back and laughed. "Sure. That all sounds perfect. And then I can introduce you to my friends at the bonfire. Since they're going to be there anyway."

"Are these the friends you'd go skinny dipping with?" he asked.

"Man, you really are stuck on the whole skinny dipping thing, aren't you?" she said teasingly.

He smirked, but she noticed a light pink tinge on his cheeks. Was he embarrassed? "Sounds like a good time. But probably best to keep it PG, like I said. And yeah, I'd love to meet your friends. Get to know some more people on the island. I'm looking forward to it."

She smiled. "Yeah. Me too." And she was. She wasn't sure what he was thinking or feeling. He was great at keeping his cards close to his chest, which she found highly frustrating at times. But she was excited to spend some time with him outside of the graveyard and church. They hadn't done anything else together since their hike, and even though she'd wanted to, she hadn't been able to think of a way to ask him without feeling foolish. She was glad he had taken the first step, even if it wasn't a date. Still, she didn't feel disappointed in this fact. It was okay that it wasn't a date. Better even. One thing she liked about Zeke was he never made things weird. And him being open and honest about the bonfire not being anything romantic actually made things easier for her. She didn't have to fret about the upcoming weekend, or what she was going to wear. It was just two friends hanging out on a Saturday. Not a big deal at all.

Chapter Thirteen

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