I sighed. “I’m so sorry you haven’t really had the time to mourn your grandmother. This was supposed to be her day.”
Jeremy leaned in the doorway. I wasn’t sure how long he had been there. “I can’t think of anything she would have liked more than to get answers about what happened to Phoenix all of those years ago.”
He walked toward us. “Where are we going tomorrow? I missed that part.”
Phoenix nuzzled the back of my neck. “The Hamptons.”
“Right. I haven’t been there in the winter in years. Okay.” He squeezed my foot. “Love you, Alatheia.”
I smiled at him. “I love you too.”
“That’s good. Because I am not sure what I’d do if you didn’t anymore.”
His words were like a warm bath through my mind. They flushed the day away with them. There would be plenty of time to worry about things tomorrow. Those struggles weren’t going anywhere.
The wind blewhard at my head. It was cold even though I had the slightest bit more of fuzz on top of my scalp . Sally stood next to me, and we stared at the lake together.
I swallowed. “And you’re sure? Because you could come with us. I mean now that you know you could totally come with us.”
She side-eyed me. “I… I know I shouldn’t be so comfortable in so little a period of time, but I really like them, and I don’t want to leave them. They don’t seem to want me to leave either. When I brought it up, they actually got really quiet, and I think upset. Sam said that maybe if I went, they would come too. That seems silly. Phoenix has stuff to do or whatever. You guys need to go. I’ve never… felt this way before. Maybe I had to go through what I went through to get here? Or is that just fantasy ridiculousness or something?”
I shook my head. “I would be the last person to know how to answer that. This has all been nuts for me. In the best possible way. But I don’t think that either of us, or any of us in that place, had to go through that for any particular reason. I don’t believe that. It just happened because it happened.”
She hugged me to her. “I think we’ll see each other again soon. Sam will miss Phoenix. I bet we come see you soon.”
I hoped that was true. I had hardly gotten to see her, but I did like the idea of leaving her here. No one was trying to kill Sam’s family. Or kidnap them. Or whatever. For Sally, maybe this place would be tranquil and healing.
“If it doesn’t work out, you always have a place with me. Okay?”
She hugged me. “Thanks for saving my life.”
I blinked. Had I done that? I guessed I had. I’d wanted to save everyone. I had no idea what happened to anyone else. “Do you think… they’re all dead?”
She sighed. “Maybe. I mean… I keep thinking I should start googling them, but I don’t know what I’ll do if I find out they’re dead. Who’s going to believe any of us? We were branded as bad, you know?”
I did, actually. From the moment my mother died everything about my life had changed. “That seems to be our story, right? Everyone’s, I mean. Something happens and the world makes a decision about us and that’s that. We’re too young to know we should be protecting ourselves when it happens and yeah, that’s it.”
She nodded. “Yes. But how could we protect ourselves anyway? Even if we did know.”
She looked away. “Anyway, I’m glad to be here. Be careful, okay? It sounds like up there… everything is a lot.”
That was putting it mildly. I had inadvertently brought her here. What was going to happen to her now was anyone’s guess. But she wouldn’t get killed by the Lents’ worries. They would have no reason to bother with her.
I could keep her safe by leaving. That much I knew.
I couldn’t really remembermy flight over here. Just the sense of the Lents talking to me as we boarded the plane, but I tried to remember some of it anyway. The whole thing was just a blank. A big old emptiness.
Barrett sat down next to me, snuggling against me. “You okay?”
I chewed on my lip. “I was trying to remember flying here.”
He winced. “You were in such bad shape. It’s like a miracle you’re upright and doing as well as you are right now considering what you just went through and what is happening around us.”
I leaned on his shoulder. “Maybe I will fall apart into a million pieces one day and can’t be put back together.”
He kissed my temple. “I can’t see that happening. Not with you. But if it happened, that would be okay. I’d just fall apart with you, and we could be broken together.”
I smiled. “I hate flying. This is my, I guess, my sixth flight ever. I only remember three of them. I hate it.”
