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Of course he was right, though I hadn’t thought of it. That’s why I hadn’t told him it was forbidden. He’d never agree to it if he knew there was a punishment. And subconsciously I wanted this more than anything. “It’ll be easiest if we’re close,” I heard myself say. “Touching foreheads.”

Jesse smiled. “And you thought I wouldn’t want to do it.” He drew me close to him. We stretched out on the lawn, our feet touching. He placed his hand on my waist.

I touched my forehead to his. “Try to focus on what you want to share with me,” I said. “Bring it to the front of your mind. Make it narrow, like you’re sending it down a tunnel towards me.” My communication stream easily slipped into Jesse’s mind, which was more like a room than the tunnels I was used to. But at least I couldn’t perceive the entire brain, like I’d feared. I probably could, if I decided to search, though obviously I never would. The first thing I noticed was the music—Jesse’s song. I wondered if it played all the time, or if he played it just for me.

I felt his embrace—not just his arms but his whole being, caressing me with his love. There were flitting dark memories in the corners—a cluttered bedroom, a moment of intense pain. But Jesse wasn’t bringing those out on purpose, so I ignored them. Instead I studied the memories he was sorting for me: the first moment he saw me at school standing nervously outside the school office, when he glanced at me in choir, when I came to sleep next to him at my house.

I murmured.

Jesse shifted positions, pulling me closer, wrapping his legs around mine. He pulled his head away, then moments later I felt his warm lips on my forehead. he streamed.

I looked up into his eyes.

he responded in a whisper.

 CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

I hated to pull away from Jesse’s mind. He was surprisingly capable of manipulating his thoughts, allowing me to only see what he wanted to share. He could have been a great leader if he’d been born on my world. I felt as though I could remain in this state of connected minds and thoughts forever. But eventually I began to sense his fatigue.

We both pulled away, dropping onto our backs, touching one another only with our fingertips, and gazed into the noon-day sun above us. A gentle breeze caressed my face. A robin sat on the branch of a nearby tree chirping merrily.

Jesse knew.

And he still loved me.

Nothing had ever felt so right.

When he was rested, we began a lesson on keeping me out—throwing up a wall so my stream couldn’t enter. But I slipped in easily, time after time. We were still lying next to one another lobbing streams when I noticed one from Geery and retrieved it.

She sounded agitated.

I sat up.

 Jesse sat up as well. I smiled at him and put my head in his lap.

I smiled and reached for his hand.

Music began playing: the melodramatic strains of ‘Secret Agent Man.’

I sighed.

She cut me off. this
version?>

I sighed a second time, squeezed Jesse’s hand, and did my best to pretend I was being patient.

 Geery sighed. Her voice dropped. She was as serious as I’d ever heard.

 At first I thought she was quoting something. But realized she meant it. I started to sit up, then saw Jesse’s concerned look and put my head back in his lap. I streamed.

Jesse was running his fingers through my hair. I tried my best to not show alarm.

I nodded, thinking.

 Geery continued, voicing my thoughts.

Whoever they’re hiding from. It would be much easier if I had a clue to who any of these people were or what they wanted from me. I asked.

And I really was. I never intended to use her this way or this much when I left on my little jaunt to Earth.

I rolled to my side, facing away from Jesse. This was just the kind of thing I needed to keep from him if he was being watched.

I jolt of adrenaline burst through my body, making it difficult to hold still and act natural.

I tried to steady my breathing.

My mind was racing, trying to sort out the significance of what she was saying.

There was a long awkward moment of silence. I knew Geery was upset over my lack of enthusiasm for her findings and that I was with Jesse. I hesitated.

Silence. I began to squirm.

She finally asked with an exaggerated sigh.

I smiled, knowing I was forgiven.

Geery interrupted me, enthusiasm back in her voice. The spy music began playing again.

I rolled my eyes, but couldn’t help smiling as I traced Jesse’s knee with my finger.

I jolted upright.

I glanced at Jesse, who was giving me a worried look. Geery’s spy music was still playing, which made the whole situation seem ridiculous.

I closed my eyes, breathing deep, overwhelmed. I streamed.

I looked at my hand, which was resting on Jesse’s knee, and the little string wrapped around my wrist.

Geery continued. She abruptly closed the connection.

After Geery and her song left, I made a mental note to do her the biggest favor she could ever imagine. As soon as I had time to figure out what that could be. I turned to face Jesse. “Do you mind if we just sit here? I need to think.”

“About?”

“About the future.”

“Our future?” Jesse asked.

My nod seemed to satisfy him. I realized that if someone was watching through Jesse, they would probably be paying close attention right now. And it didn’t look like I would be able to teach him to keep intruders out. I just wished I knew what they were hoping to hear. I put my head back on his lap, took his hand and curled myself around it. For several minutes I sorted through all the things Geery had told me. But my mind kept going back to the same problem: Dad was leaving soon. With me.

Eventually I decided to give up and talk to Jesse while I had the chance. “My dad is going home on Wednesday,” I blurted, still facing away from him with my head in his lap.

“That’ll be good,” he said with no rise in emotion, except maybe a little relief.

“Not really.” I paused, breathing deeply. “He’s planning on taking me with him.” I felt Jesse stiffen as his anxiety peaked. The hand I was curled around went cold. I gripped it harder. “They’ve figured out that I’ve fallen in love. They think it’s Everett.”

A low rumbling of laughter started in Jesse’s belly. “Everett?”

My body moved with Jesse’s humorless chuckling. I couldn’t bring myself to look up into his face.

“What are we going to do?” he continued. “How do we fight this?”

I curled further around the hand. Clinging to it. “I’m not sure, but I think there are people…the ones I’ve been afraid of…who expect me to be on that transport.”

It took several moments for Jesse to speak. “I know this sounds dumb, but why don’t we run away?” His voice matched his emotions, which were intense and desperate. “Just you and me. We’ll head to Wyoming or something.”

“It wouldn’t work…” I traced the shape of his fingers, drew a circle in his palm. “My mom. It’s kind of what she does—chases runaways. I’m her daughter. She’d track me in an instant.”

“Perfect,” he said. “I have to go and fall in love with an alien who has some secret agent spy for a mother.” I looked up and saw him smiling affectionately at me, running his fingers through my hair. But his humor didn’t fool me for a minute. I knew I was killing him. “So this is why you need to think?” he continued, still smiling.

“Yes.” I hoped I was communicating the rest of the story—that I was trying to stay, but couldn’t tell him. But I couldn’t read his face or tell from his intense emotions. His body did finally relax, which I hoped was a good sign. I curled back up in a ball, tried to ignore all the stress Jesse was unintentionally emitting, then began my monotonous new past time of reviewing files—armed with the new information of what Dr. Tom was hiding.

There had to be some piece of information only I could provide. Otherwise, whoever had sent that file would have done it themselves.

For a while I thought I was on to something when I noticed Geery had included information on a fertility clinic at University of California Irvine that was steeped in scandal for misusing and misplacing donor eggs. But after close to an hour I couldn’t connect it to anything.

I kept my head in Jesse’s lap, lifting it only to return occasional texts to my friends—making sure they were all safe and accounted for—while he silently stroked my hair.

At one point I heard the song Jesse wrote. I smiled when I figured out it was his cell phone. He spoke for a moment, to his mother, said he didn’t know when he’d be home. Then told her his phone was about to die.

I looked up at him.

He set the phone on the grass. “I’m still not used to it,” he shrugged. “Forgot to charge it last night.”

I picked up the phone, sent a little energy its way, then handed it to him.

“It’s charged?” he asked. “How’d you do that?”

I rolled back into his lap to continue my thinking. “Just a little parlor trick I’m sort of not supposed to do.”

Jesse let it go at that.

Eventually, a doctor’s name caught my attention—Dr. Hutchison at the fertility clinic. I’d seen it somewhere before. I pulled up the list of doctors at the hospital from Dr. Tom’s first two visits. Sure enough, he was listed there as well. I could have sworn I’d seen the name somewhere else. Somewhere distinct. I was tempted to stream Geery again to learn more about Dr. Hutchison. But she’d be in the middle of resting her tired brain. Plus she’d have to go to all the trouble of hiding her trail. The best place I could think to look was the doctor’s lectures. Which meant another exhaustive minute-by-minute search of all those classes.

Around six o’clock I received a stream from Mom letting me know that they would come find me if I didn’t make it home for dinner. I was so comfortable in Jesse’s lap I’d almost forgotten the penalty for being caught. “I wanted to let you ask more questions,” I said to Jesse. “But my mom just called.”

“Called?” He touched the phone lying in the grass.

“Streamed.”

“Is that annoying? Having her just come into your head like that?”

“I’ve never really thought about it. It’s just normal. She can’t come in unless I let her. Just like answering a phone, except way more convenient. No stupid buttons to push.” I pulled myself up onto my knees. “But I really do need to go.”