Chapter 12: Come and Get Them

"What game?" said Magnus.

He had gone still under Teddy's hand.

The clapping in the shop trailed off into the buzz of forty people trying not to stare.

"It's not a game game," Teddy said. "It's more of a thing."

Poppy tapped the chalkboard behind the register with the end of her chalk.

Magnus turned his head.

There it was, in Poppy's cheerful capitals, running down the slate in eleven neat lines.

DAY 1: LOBSTERS. THE GAME ENDS WHEN HE SAYS IT.

DAY 3: RED. HE HELD THEM LIKE A BABY.

DAY 6: HE HELD HIS HAND UNDER A TARP. NOBODY MENTIONS IT.

DAY 10: HE LAUGHED LIKE A SEAL.

Magnus read all of it.

He read it twice.

Teddy felt the whole front of his chest drop.

"You were timing me," said Magnus.

"No. Magnus. Wait."

"The whole time. Every night you hung one on the rack, and I thought it was the cat."

"The cat did take them. I just helped."

"You left the gate open."

"I left the gate open."

"On purpose."

"Yes! On purpose! Because I wanted to see how long you'd keep the basket!"

Teddy took Magnus's face in both hands, dirt and all.

He did it in front of Garrick Spindler, three tables of succulents and a man holding a rubber tree.

"I wasn't laughing at you," he said, fast and low. "I swear.

"I wasn't timing how long it would take you to be ridiculous. I was timing how long it would take you to be mine.

"I was hoping you'd keep every single one."

Magnus's eyes came up slowly.

"Please," said Teddy, "read the next line."

Poppy turned the chalkboard over.

On the back, in a different color, she had written: TEDDY WON'T SAY IT BUT HE LIKES YOU. I'M SAYING IT. MAGNUS, HE LIKES YOU.

Magnus looked at that for a very long time.

"That's a lot of chalk," he said at last, rough.

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