“Well, I better face the music.”
Jackson laughed. “May the force be with you.”
He was nerdy too? Man, I actually kind of liked this guy when he wasn’t just blathering.
I walked around to the back of the shop where the yelling was coming from, going through different scenarios that could get me in and out as fast as possible. I didn’t want to get anywhere near a screeching Louisa, but I was already late meeting Emma at the library. And I had a horrible feeling that something was about to happen.
Joel shrugged when Louisa looked away to peer at her car, then she started yelling about a grease smudge on the hood. He shot me an apologetic look, but then when she looked at him again, his face morphed into one of innocence and worry. “Let me buff that out,” he said. “And you can be on your way.”
I was pretty sure Joel wasn’t getting out from under Louisa’s thumb for a while yet, so I wandered toward the back part of the bay where my truck was sitting, hopefully, ready to go. Joel usually had the vehicles that were finished in the lot behind his shop, but he must have been too busy to drive it out there yet. I just hoped when he called me to tell me it was ready, it wasn’t like, “it’ll be ready by the time you get here.”
But sure enough, my truck was looking better than she’d looked in years. He’s cleaned up everything, had it washed, and even had those little papers on the floors, to protect the mats from grease. My baby was ready to go!
And since I’d already paid, I knew I could grab my keys, give him a wave, and he’d be relieved not to have another customer waiting while he was screeched at. It was one of the many benefits of a small town, that I’d been to this shop enough to know what to do.
A box on the wall held the customers keys. Joel locked it at night to prevent thefts, but it sat open all day. Walking over to it, I snatched my keys from one of the hooks and turned back toward my friend. But before I opened my mouth to interrupt the furious Louisa, something caught my eye.
In a toolbox on the ground, just casually thrown to the side, was a pin. An equal sign the exact color and style of the one I’d seen in Sarah’s journal.
Theexactone.
Today.
There was no way this didn’t mean something. I just hoped it didn’t mean something bad.
I turned slowly toward Joel. What did he have to do with my wife?
Chapter Twenty-Five
Emma
“Hey, you guys,” I said in a hushed voice. We’d searched the entire library again, and Beth and Deva were using their magic to try to sense anything that might give us a clue where to go next or what to check. The whole thing came up empty though, as though someone had cleansed the entire library and made it a big blank spot.
I’d run out of things to try and had picked up the yearbook that contained what I was sure would be my parents’ beaming faces somewhere on this page. All of them looked so hopeful and innocent. It was hard to believe what my parents had coming. Two kids, a strange secret, and a horrible accident that wasn't an accident that brought about their untimely demise.
My gaze scanned over the black and white photos of each member of their graduating class until I found the first person I was interested in, my dad Anthony Foxx right, and then my mom, Elizabeth Nobleman. What I hadn't expected was what I saw next to her. Joel Northman.
“Holy crap,” I breathed. “Look!”
“What?” Deva took the book and Beth peered over her shoulder. Both of them looked unimpressed. I knew the supernatural was common, but I hadn't expected Joel to be part of that. As far as I'd known he was human. But then there had been a lot I hadn't known.
“It’s Joel.” I pointed to his picture. His hair was perfectly combed back and he wore a polo of some kind with the collar perfectly folded. “And he doesn’t look a day over twenty here.”
They looked at me blankly. “Okay?”
“Guys…” I furrowed my brow. Why weren’t they seeing this? “Wewent to high school with Joel. Why is he in my parents’ yearbook looking exactly the same?”
Deva’s jaw dropped and Beth’s eyes went wide. “Oh, my gosh," Deva breathed while Beth's jaw just dropped open. It was rare for her to be lost for words in a moment like this.
"Why would you go through high school twice?" Deva muttered as though the concept was horrific. “Most of the supernaturals around here have ways of making it so the humans don’t realize they aren’t aging at the same rate. But it isn’t something they do that impacts the minds of supernaturals. And we don’t just choose to go back to our years where we’re young, in school, and under the thumbs of parents and teachers. Most supernaturals look between twenty and thirty for most of their lives… not seventeen. None of it makes sense”
"There had to be a reason. He wouldn't just do it because he missed taking classes or something," I said, knowing deep inside myself that this was going to all come together in a way none of us expected. All of this had to be connected though, it was too weird for it not to be.
"Maybe he just really loved math or something," Beth added, grinning a little. Sure now wasn't the best time for jokes, but if we didn't laugh sometimes we'd all go crazy.
They switched volumes with me and poured over the photo of him in our yearbook. His hair was shaggier and he was just wearing a t-shirt, but there was no mistaking that it was him. The more I stared at the local mechanic though, the more something else kept bothering me but I wasn’t sure what it was… Until it hit me.
“Oh…” I stared at my friends. A cold chill raced over my skin and my body broke out in goosebumps. “Really focus on what you know Joel looks like now,” I said. “I mean,think hard.Not what he wears, but his face.”
