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It didn’t escape Blue that his slightly accented voice was as nice as his looks It was all Henrietta sunset: hot front-porch swings and cold iced-tea glasses, cicadas louder than your thoughts He glanced over his shoulder, then, at the sound of a car on a side street When he looked back to her, he still wore a wary expression, and Blue saw that this expression -- a wrinkle pinched between his eyebrows, mouth tense -- was his normal one It fit his features perfectly, lionby boy isn’t often happy, she thought

"Well, that’s nice of you," she said "But it’s not you that needed to apologize"

Adam said, "I can’t let hiht I did want to talk to you But I didn’t want to just -- try to pick you up"

This here she ought to brush him off But she was stymied by his blush at the table; his honest expression; his newly h that she wanted to keep looking at it

The fact was that she’d never been flirted with by someone who she wanted to succeed at it

Don’t do it! warned the voice inside Blue

But she asked, "And what is it you wanted to do?"

"Talk," he said In his local accent, it was a long word and it seemed less of a synonym for speak than it was for confess She couldn’t help but look at the thin, pleasant line of his uess I could have just saved a lot of trouble by co up to talk to you in the first place Other people’s ideas always seeet me into ot everyone into trouble at her house, too, but then she realized he would say soo on all night So about Adam told her that this was a boy she could have a conversation with Out of nowhere, Maura’s voice was in Blue’s head I don’t have to tell you not to kiss anyone, right?

And just like that, Blue was done She was, as Neeve pointed out, a sensible girl Even the very best outcome here could only end in torment She blew out a breath

"It wasn’t about what he was saying about you, anyway It was that he offeredher foot on the bike pedal The thing was not to iine what it would’ve been like to stay and talk When Blue didn’t have enough ine what it would’ve been like to have whatever the sonized her retreat "He doesn’t know He’s stupid about money"

"And you aren’t?"

He just leveled her with a very steady look It wasn’t an expression that left roo up at the stars It was strange to iine how quickly they wheeled across the sky: a vast movement too far away for her to detect Leo, Leo Minor, Orion’s Belt If she had been her h the heavens, would she see what she ought to say to Ada back to Nino’s?"

"Aerous thing, that s Maura wouldn’t be pleased with

Blue had two rules: Stay away from boys, because they’re trouble, and stay away from raven boys, because they were bastards

But those rules didn’t see in her pocket, she pulled out a tissue and wrote her na, she folded it up and handed it to hi self around, he began to push his dolefully squeaking bike back the way he’d coave a boyher aru so to kiss him

Blue jumped when the rear door of the restaurant cracked open But it was only Donny, his expression clearing when he saw her In his hand was a tantalizingly fat leather-bound book that Blue knew instantly She’d seen it in President Cell Phone’s hands

Donny asked, "Do you knoho left this behind? Is it yours?"

Meeting him halfway across the lot, Blue accepted the journal and flipped it open The journal didn’t ie to open to; it was so orn and well-stuffed that every page clairavity instead of use

The page it opened to was a s from books and newspapers Red pen underlined a few phrases, added coins (Luray Caverns count as spiritual place? crows = ravens?), and jotted a neatly boxed list titled "Welsh-Influenced Place Nanized most of the towns listed Welsh Hills, Glen Bower, Harlech, Machinleth

"I didn’t really read it," Donny said "I just wanted to see if there was a name in there to return it But then I saw that it was -- well, it’s your stuff"

By this, he hter

"I think I knoho it belongs to," Blue said She had no i to spend es "I’ll take it"

After Donny had returned inside the restaurant, she flipped the journal back open Now she had time to marvel at the sheer density of it Even if the content hadn’t i would have There were so s she’d noticed before that the journal wouldn’t stay book-shaped unless tied shut with leather wrappings Pages and pages were devoted to these ripped and scissored excerpts, and there was an undeniable tactile pleasure to browsing Blue ran her fingers over the varied surfaces Creaant font Thin, browning paper with spidery serif Slick, utilitarian white stock with an artless ed newspaper in a brittle shade of yellow

Then there were the notes, made with a half-dozen different pens and markers, but all in the same business-like hand They circled and pointed and underlined very urgently They ins They contradicted one another and referred to one another in third person Lines beca became doodles ofcars