The easy chatter between the three girls just died. All at once. Their eyes locked on Nox, and the air in the little cafe suddenly felt a lot heavier.
"Stay here? What the hell are you talking about?" Kendra's brow was all scrunched up, like she was trying to solve a math problem that made no sense.
"With your families," he said, his gaze bouncing from Kendra to Yeda to Vasa. "You found them. They're safe now. You should be here, with them. Protecting them. You don't need to be dragging yourselves across the country with me."
A beat of dead silence, and then Kendra just started laughing. Not a mean laugh, just pure, unfiltered disbelief. Yeda let out a little giggle behind her hand, and even Vasa, the queen of stoicism, had the corner of her mouth twitching up into a tiny smile.
"Are you for real?" Kendra managed, wiping a tear of laughter from her eye. "Did you take a nasty hit to the head while you were out? We're not leaving you, you massive idiot."
