"Yelled it, actually. More than once." But he was smiling. Lila shrugged and blew on her coffee. The liquid was still burning hot. And so were her cheeks.
"Impressive memory," she said, deciding not to bring up what he had said: that if she wanted to hang out with zombies like Carly Hollander, she could go right ahead and do that. And
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not to worry about singing with him, because he'd rather never sing again than sing with her.
"Well," Beau said quietly. "Any chance you'll reconsider?" Lila shook her head, looking away from him.
"You go," she said. "If you want. I'm a really good audience member."
He shrugged, and she had to blink a few times at her mocha to clear the sudden fog in her eyes. When she looked up, Beau had somehow talked the previous folk/punk girl out of her guitar and was settling onto the stage like he owned it.
Lila sat back in her chair and prepared to lead the cheering section.
"Hi," Beau said. "I'm visiting from California. Thought I'd play a few songs." He strummed a chord, then smiled that killer, crowd-pleasing smile of his. "Oh, yeah," he said. "I'm Beau."
A table of girls near the front burst into applause. Lila shook her head. She should have known he wouldn't need any help winning over the entire coffee shop. Beau lived and breathed the stage. And he could read a crowd better than anyone she'd ever met. Which was no doubt why he took one look at the hipster-but-not-too-hip clientele and began to play an acoustic, mellow version of Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl." The crowd loved it.
"I ain't no hollaback girl," Beau sang, in his scratchy, soulful voice. Three guys in skinny jeans leapt up and started cheering. Then they sang along.
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Lila looked on in disbelief. So Beau did listen to pop music! Enough to cover a Gwen Stefani song, anyway.
She didn't know if she wanted to hit him or hug him. Maybe both.
"You guys are great," Beau said after a few songs. He scraped his thick dark hair back from his face, calling attention to how impossibly blue his eyes were. "But I feel like something's missing." He trailed off and searched the crowd. "I need a front woman"
"Me!" cried one of the girls in front, throwing her hands in the air. She jumped up and down in her combat boots, her goth black hair flying around her face, her purple tights gleaming.
"I would," Beau said with his flirtiest grin, "but I have a good feeling about that girl right back there."
He pointed at Lila. The entire crowd swiveled around to stare at her. She froze mid-sip. Great. She probably had whipped cream on her nose.
"Her name is Lila," Beau told the coffee house. "And she has a song she wants to sing for you, but she's shy."
"Don't be shy! Be a warrior woman!" cried the folk/punk chick with blue-tinted hair.
Lila wanted to die. Actually, she wanted to kill Beau, and then die.
"Li-la! Li-la! Li-la!" the crowd chanted.
What else could she do but get up and join him on the makeshift stage?
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"You're a dead man," she told Beau when she got there, furious and embarrassed all at once. Staring out at all the eager, waiting faces, she felt her heart start beating double-time. "I hate you," she added.
"That's code for 'I love you," Beau told the audience.
"Whoo-hooooo!" they cheered.
Before Lila could respond, he started playing the opening chords of that old song of theirs, the one that he'd sung in Big Sur. And just as she had then, Lila felt herself drawn back in time, back into the safe cocoon of those Friday nights they'd spent with their guitars, sprawled across Beau's bed.
Those days were gone, but when she caught Beau's eye, none of that seemed to matter. He smiled at her. And she sang.
The words came back to her with ease, but what shocked her, after years of never doing more than singing in the shower, was how easy it was to slip back into singing, even in front of a crowd.
And how easy it was to sing with Beau.
"Let me just say that gifts are cool, though allergies make me feel a fool," they sang together. "Roses are red and violets are blue, and animals are better off in the zoo."
They easily picked up their familiar harmony, and Lila had to admit that she loved it. She'd missed the joy of it all, the way her voice and the guitar and Beau's voice all melded together and sounded so perfect, so effortless. She couldn't believe she'd
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forgotten how much she'd loved it. She felt happy and free straight down to her toes.
"Maybe this spring fever will pass, maybe I'm acting like an ass," they sang to each other and to the audience. "Maybe the flu will do us in, and maybe your heart's not mine to win."
And when the song was done, everyone in the coffee house jumped to their feet. Lila laughed in delight and turned toward Beau.
But whatever words she'd been about to say died on her tongue the second she saw his eyes. They were deep and blue and saw her--all of her--from her fuzzy seventh-grade hair to their perfect harmony, and everything in between. The air around them seemed thick and the audience faded into nothing. All Lila could think was how much she wanted him to kiss her.
And then he did.
His mouth felt so familiar--and so different. Warm and sweet and with an underlying kick that made her whole body shake. She kissed him back, heedless and happy, one hand curling into his thick hair.
The audience went wild.
"Encore!" they shouted.
Encore, indeed.
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Chapter 17
*** OUTSIDE PERK-O-LATE
SEATTLE
DECEMBER 23
9:30 P.M.
***
Lila could feel the cold slap of the winter wind the moment they stepped back outside, leaving the warmth of the coffee house behind them. The difference was, she didn't care anymore. She felt warmed from the inside out. She couldn't seem to look away from Beau, and neither of them could stop smiling. It was like they were lighting up the Seattle dusk with their smiles. Beau kissed her again, right there on the sidewalk.
He took his time, lingering against her lips and holding her face between his hands. When he pulled back slightly, he smiled even wider and then kissed her again.
"I just want to make sure that wasn't, you know, a trick of the stage lights," Beau murmured against her mouth.
"There weren't any stage lights, you idiot," Lila replied affectionately, standing on her tiptoes and kissing him as the
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snow swirled around them. She felt like she was in one of those shake-up snow globes that her mother collected. Like there was a bubble around the two of them, and maybe the city of Seattle had been arranged around them just to enhance the perfect, Christmassy moment.
Beau pulled away and slung an arm over Lila's shoulders. It was like a puzzle piece clicking into place. It was crazy how well they fit together--and Lila remembered, suddenly, how well they always had.
"Seems real," Beau drawled. "But I might have to check again..."
She stuck her tongue out at him and then glanced at her watch. Her stomach dropped to the ground with a sickening lurch, and she stopped dead.
"What?" Beau asked, his hand lingering on her neck.
"Oh my God," Lila managed to say. She waved her wrist at Beau like a crazy person. He only stared back at her, not comprehending. "The train!" she practically screamed in panic. "It's arriving in ten minutes!"
Beau swore, loudly and rudely enough to attract the offended stares of two nearby ladies in fake Uggs. But then they were running again--slipping and sliding down the wintry Seattle sidewalks, weaving in and out of the crowds of pedestrians getting in their last-minute Christmas shopping.
"How could we let this happen?" Lila shrieked.
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Beau didn't respond until they came to a skidding halt at a traffic light. He bounced up and down on his feet, impatient.
"We can't let them get past us here," he said in a low voice. "If they find a way to sne
ak across the border..."
Lila's hands were in fists at her sides, her breath coming in giant puffs in the frozen air.
"They'll be in Canada," she finished flatly. "And we don't have passports."
"Exactly," Beau said. "We're screwed"
The traffic light changed.
"Better run," Lila said.
So they did.
Lila was out of breath, and even Beau was breathing hard by the time they reached the Amtrak station. Beau threw open the doors, and Lila collided with his back as he came to a halt. Beau muttered something and used his arm to usher Lila around the pile of suitcases he'd almost tripped over. It seemed like the entire city of Seattle was milling around in the train station. It was almost Christmas Eve Day, after all. Lila skirted the edge of the porter's trolley, nearly bruising her shins, only to narrowly avoid being knocked down by a couple who refused to separate their clasped hands. They wove their way through the crowd of people, fighting to get in front of the big arrivals board.
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Lila glimpsed the track number, next to the bright digital time: 9:37. "This way!" she shouted, taking off. There was no time to think about the fact that, according to the board, the train was arriving. Did that mean in a few minutes, or did that mean right now? Lila pumped her arms and legs and tried to make her tired body move faster than it ever had before. Beau sprinted ahead of her, vaulting over another pile of luggage.
Lila got her answer moments later as she followed Beau to the right track. They skidded to a stop at the end of the platform and saw that the train was still moving, pulling into the station at this very second. The moonlight gleamed on its shiny silver exterior.
"Thank God." Lila's whole body sighed with relief.
Beau yanked his hat down over his ears. "We don't have them yet."
The good news was that the train ended its run in Seattle, so everybody had to disembark. There would be no games this time, the way there had been in San Jose. The boys would have to transfer trains in order to go north into Canada. Which, Lila knew, didn't mean there wouldn't be other games. She'd be an idiot to underestimate Cooper now.
Lila and Beau moved down the platform as the train's doors opened and the passengers began to pour out. They traveled in packs, lugging suitcases behind them, bottlenecking at the train
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doors. There were so many people exiting from so many doors, it was hard to imagine being able to pick out just two. "Great," Beau muttered.
"Just look for the short people." Lila scanned the crowd for Cooper's brown cowlicked head.
Her heart sank. The platform was a zoo. There were so many people--the passengers from the train and the people meeting them. Whole families arriving and searching for their loved ones--because, duh, it was Christmas.
Beau dove to the left and came within inches of attempting to kidnap a little kid who was definitely not his brother.
"Sorry," he murmured as the little boy's mother glared at him and hustled her child away.
"Oops," he whispered to Lila. She winced in sympathy but couldn't muster the energy to tease him.
"Did we miss them?" She scanned the now-thinning lines of passengers exiting the train doors. Were they hiding somewhere onboard? Could they have done something really crazy, like jump off the train before it hit the station? Lila's stomach twisted as she treated herself to an image of Cooper leaping from a moving train, hitting the frozen ground...
No, she told herself. We will find him. That's it. Nothing else is possible. There were so many people, and way too many kids. No one seemed to notice that they were jostling and shoving Lila.
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She tried to ignore the screaming reunions, the impromptu Christmas carols, the noise, and the crush. Too many bulky coats and shopping bags. Too much noise--louder than any football rally Lila had ever attended. Someone rolled a suitcase over her foot, and she barely spared a moment to see if it hurt.
Lila's panic spread through her stomach and took up residence as a lump in her throat. The boys could be right in front of her and she wouldn't necessarily see them.
Her eyes snagged, suddenly, on a patch of green in the crowd.
She grabbed Beau's arm. "Beau. Look. By the bench."
He looked. Lila couldn't move for a long moment, too busy taking in the sight of Cooper. His eyes were wide and worried, and he looked a little worse for wear--though he'd probably gotten a much better night's sleep than Lila had. He and Tyler huddled together by the bench. Cooper was holding on to his backpack like it was a teddy bear, chewing on his lower lip nervously.
Good, Lila thought, her eyes narrowing. He should be nervous.
"Come on," Beau said, his voice gravelly and commanding. He sounded like a grown-up. A pissed-off grown-up, who had absolutely no doubts about the outcome of this scenario.
Lila wasn't so sure. What if Cooper bolted? What if he claimed Lila and Beau were abducting him? She wouldn't put anything past him at this point.
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Lila followed Beau as he cut through the crowd, looping around behind the bench where their brothers sat together, looking smaller and more pathetic the more they stood there, almost swallowed up by the chaos of the holiday crowd. Obviously worried that the boys might run, Beau indicated with hand gestures that Lila should go around one end of the bench while he took the other. Keeping their eyes on each other, they circled the boys, until they had them cornered.
"Oh," Cooper said when he saw them.
"Oh?" Lila echoed, all the tension and panic leaking out of her body. "That's all you have to say?"
But she wasn't as mad as she expected to be. In fact, looking at his freckles and his little face with a chocolate smudge on one cheek and his hair standing on end, she had the completely unexpected urge to hug him. It was almost as strong as her urge to choke him with her bare hands. He was maddening, but he was her brother, and she couldn't deny that she was glad to find him all in one piece.
Not that she planned to tell him that.
"I have to rescue Santa!" Cooper cried, his eyes wide and serious. "It's an emergency!"
"Santa can take care of himself," Beau interjected, flicking a look at Lila. He had one hand on Tyler's shoulder, and Lila couldn't tell if he was doing some kind of guy almost-hug thing, or if he was making sure his brother didn't take off. Again.
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"But--"
"He's been around how long now?" Lila asked, following Beau's lead as he started to walk through the crowd, propelling Tyler before him. Cooper let his sneakers scuff against the concrete floor a little more than was necessary, but he followed too. Lila stayed just slightly behind him--prepared to tackle him to the ground if he so much as thought about running for it.
"The ice caps!" Tyler cried. "What about the ice caps!"
Beau threw an exasperated look at Lila over his shoulder. His meaning was clear: This is your mess. Clean it up.
She rolled her eyes but nodded.
"Guys," she said, as they stepped out onto the street in front of the station. The cold Seattle twilight surrounded them. "Are we talking about Santa Claus here, or what?"
"So?" Cooper demanded.
"Does he or does he not possess flying reindeer?" Lila asked in her best are you dumber than Paris Hilton? voice. "And does he or does he not have an entire workshop of elves?"
Tyler looked hopeful behind his rapidly fogging Harry Potter glasses. But Cooper just scowled.
"So what?" Cooper asked. "What does that have to do with global warming?"
"I think Santa can handle himself," Lila said with a sniff. "He manages to make Christmas happen every year. He flies around the world and delivers presents to billions of houses. Plus he
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knows who's been naughty or nice. What's a little warm weather compared to that?"
They arrived at Erik's car. Cooper and Tyler stared at it in confusion.
"My sister's boyfriend's car," Cooper said after a moment, rolling his eyes at Tyler, like that w
as a punch line. Tyler sighed in commiseration.
Lila wondered if Beau bristled at the word boyfriend, but she didn't dare look.
"Just get in," she ordered them.
Beau turned to look at her as they ushered the boys into the backseat, his mouth quirking up in the corner like he was fighting a smile.
"I love that snotty voice of yours," he told her. "Especially when you use it for good instead of evil."
Lila wanted to climb into his arms again, but Cooper and Tyler were in the backseat. More importantly, they had entire states--and about eighteen hours--to drive through if they wanted to beat her parents home by tomorrow night. So she only smiled and climbed into the passenger seat. Then, remembering Cooper's escapades, she clicked the child safety lock.
"You didn't have to do that," Cooper said sulkily.
"You're lucky you're not bound and gagged in the trunk," Lila told him without turning around. Beau started the car.
"Fine," Cooper said. "But I want McDonald's."
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"Well, I want you in the trunk," Lila said, craning her head around to glare at him as Beau pulled out into traffic and started the long drive toward home.
Cooper's mouth twitched, like he couldn't decide whether to laugh or pout.
"If you don't put me in the trunk," he said, "I'll give you your phone back."
Lila realized as soon as he said it that she'd completely forgotten about it. How weird was that? When her dad had so often threatened to surgically remove it from her ear?
Everything that she'd forgotten about while she'd been so caught up with Beau rushed back to her then: her party that had been hijacked and no doubt thrown beautifully--if traitorously--by Yoon. Erik's betrayal. Her entire life at North Valley High, that she'd stopped thinking about somewhere around Oregon the night before. Even now, remembering everything that had seemed so critical to her, she felt an odd distance from it all.
She wasn't sure if she wanted the phone back. It was like she was afraid to reconnect with it, with who she was when she had it.
But that was crazy. She could handle a cell phone. She stared her brother down, extended her hand, and waited.