Chapter 1218:

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A shadow fell beside her. She hadn’t noticed Caspian move, but now he was standing right there, his voice low and perfectly deadpan. “She’s right. Tyndall effect. You two are hopeless.”

Kailey and Kyson exchanged a look, both raising their eyebrows.

Felicity pretended she hadn’t heard a thing. Looking completely unbothered, she casually shifted to a different spot, though the fact that she’d moved at all suggested otherwise.

The mountain was tall, the road winding up its slopes like a long serpent. Beyond the halfway point, the road turned to dirt and was poorly maintained, so very few people ever came this far.

From the edge of the clearing, they could see the city sprawled far below and the mountains stretching even farther into the distance.

𝘋𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘴.𝘤𝘰𝘮

A breeze swept through, gently lifting the strands of hair by Felicity’s ear. Her hair used to be curly, but she’d straightened it long ago. Today, with her face bare of makeup, it felt as if the years had suddenly folded back on themselves.

The first time he saw her. That sudden, helpless lurch in his chest.

Caspian’s Adam’s apple bobbed. His gaze darkened, growing intense.

Noticing the shift in the air, Kailey and Kyson silently agreed to give them some space. They drifted back toward where Candy was playing, leaving the two of them standing at the edge of the overlook.

Under the canopy, Aleena had already laid out lunch. She’d even brought a portable stove and a grill; she was planning a full mountaintop barbecue.

“Kyson!” Sawyer called out from the camp. “Come help me get this fire going!”

Kyson called back an acknowledgment and started to get up. Candy immediately tried to scramble after him, but Kailey scooped her up before she could get far.

“Hold it right there. You’ll just be in the way.”

“Ah-ah-ah!” Let me go!

Kailey met her daughter’s gaze, her voice carrying a clear warning. “Is someone about to be a little troublemaker? Look over there, see Grandpa? He’ll deal with you if you don’t behave.”

“Don’t you dare try to make me the bad guy,” Sawyer called back without missing a beat. “I’m not doing it.”

Ryan leaned back lazily in his wheelchair. Kailey couldn’t tell if it was just her imagination, but he seemed unusually bright today, barely coughing at all.

“Uncle Ryan…” She pouted. “We’re supposed to be playing good cop, bad cop. If she’s not a little bit scared of someone, how is she ever going to learn?”

“Why does she need to be scared of anyone?”

Ryan clapped his hands, and Candy immediately abandoned her mother, running to him as if she’d just found her ultimate ally. She wriggled free of Kailey’s grip and wobbled over on unsteady legs. “Gampa Ry, hi!”

She meant: Hello, Grandpa Ryan.

Kailey just stared, speechless. Watching the two of them gang up on her, she let out an exasperated laugh and dropped into a nearby chair. “You certainly never talked to me like that when I was little.”

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