Climbing out, I pasted a smile on my face as I approached them.
“Arlo, this is my old lady, Harper.”
I glanced at him and nearly rolled my eyes. He’d never called me his old lady before, though technically, that’s what I was.
I preferred goddess. Lover. Girlfriend.
“Nice to meet you, Harper,” Arlo said, reaching out to shake my hand.
“You too,” I replied.
Bas’s brother had striking hazel eyes, and his beard was a few shades lighter and redder than his hair. He was wearing a green flannel and jeans, and I got the impression that was his version of dressing up for the occasion.
“Where do you want me to park this thing?” Forrest called from the street.
“Back it in the driveway,” Bas ordered.
We watched as Forrest backed the truck expertly.
“Told you,” I said smugly, lightly smacking Bas with the back of my hand. “Bet you couldn’t have done that.”
“Yeah, okay,” he said and replied with a huff of laughter.
Over the next fifteen minutes, the rest of our group showed up, and Bas introduced each of them to hisbrotherArlo.
“You ready?” Bas asked Arlo as we followed them toward the house. He paused with the storm door open and the regular door closed. “Fair warning, she left our room how we left it.”
Arlo swallowed hard and nodded.
We left the brothers to it for a while, giving them some time to make peace with old ghosts. Bas had filled his best friends in on an abbreviated story of why he’d left home, so everyone knew that going back wasn’t going to be easy.
I took my time looking over the photos on the wall that I hadn’t had a chance to check out the first time we were there. There were so many of Bas as a kid. He’d looked so different,but his smile had never changed. It was wide and happy and so beautiful you felt it in your chest. With him in a lot of the photos were Arlo, a younger dark-haired boy that must’ve been Mateo, and an even younger girl that I knew was Josie.
With one look, I understood why Bas had been drawn to Lou. Both of the girls had the same slight build and dark eyes, though Lou’s hair had been short since I’d met her and Josie’s hung long down her back. Josie’s wide eyes and delicate features would’ve made her an absolute stunner if she’d been able to grow into adulthood.
One of the photos was just Bas and Josie. By the hat Josie was wearing, I thought it must’ve been a birthday party. Bas was standing with his arm around his sister’s shoulders, and she had hers around his waist. He was smiling directly at the camera, but she was looking at him, grinning adoringly. I reached out and pressed my finger to the glass where her heart was.
“I got him,” I breathed.
“Baby, I need your help,” Bas said, coming to stand beside me.
“Josie?” I asked, pointing.
“That’s Jo,” he confirmed. “Could you come here a sec?”
“Sure.” I followed him to the closed bedroom door that he hadn’t touched the last time we were there.
“Can you—” He cleared his throat. “Last time I saw it, it was covered in crime scene shit. Me and Arlo…uh, can you check it out before I go in?”
“Of course,” I said, reaching up to cup his cheek. “Why don’t you go tell the others what to do, and I’ll come get you.”
“Thanks,” he replied, his shoulders sagging.
I waited until he walked away and then let myself into the room, my breath catching at the time capsule it had become.
The bed was covered in a pink and white, ruffly comforter with a matching sham on the pillow. Next to it was a smallnightstand with a lamp and a tiny tray for jewelry, with a couple of rings sitting in it. On the opposite end of the room was a tiny closet without a door, an antique vanity, and a mismatched dresser with knobs shaped like flowers. Along the edges of the vanity, Josie had taped photos of her and her friends, Bas, Arlo, and Mateo, and a few that had to be her and Bernice. Books were lined up neatly across the top of the dresser. A few classics and some romance novels. There was a poster of Albert Einstein on one wall and Marie Curie on the other.
There was no sign that anything bad had happened in that bedroom.
