“Really, I appreciate you having us in your home when you don’t know me from Alejandro,” he tells her. “I just want to get Jonathan to come to our store like he said he would, preferably as soon as possible. I have more than a hundred people waiting for a rain date.”
“Psstt.”
Before I even cock my head, I catch a whiff of an apple-ish fragrance, maybe from shampoo. It’s her, the girl who was on the roof! She’s crouched down in the doorway, waving at me. Fortunately, Miguel’s let my leash go slack, so I slowly scoot across the tile and around the corner.
“Finally!” the girl whispers. She bends down and reaches for my collar. She smiles as her eyes move across the letters on my heart-shaped tag. “Harold!” she says, peering into my eyes. “That’s a funny name for a dog.”
I’m so dumbstruck that I just sit there drooling all over the floor.
“I’msohappy to meet you, but you’d better get back in there,” she tells me. “My mom gets weird about dogs. Between you and me, she gets weird about everything—driving on highways, cellphone towers, even cheese puffs, which she calls fluffy food coloring disguised as sustenance. But dogsreallyfreak her out.”
She’s petting me so softly that I don’t want to return to the kitchen, but I really do need to check on Miguel.
“I understand your frustration and promise I’d help if I could,” Fiona’s telling him as I round the corner. “But as I said, Jon doesn’t want to be found.”
“If that’s the case, then we should jet,” says Dane, frowning at Fiona. “When you finally find him, tell your brother he’s gonna be the nail in Lakeside’s coffin.”
The girl jumps over me so fast I don’t even have a chance to be startled. “Don’t say that about my uncle!” she yells, putting her fists on her hips and glowering at Dane.
Before Miguel or Dane can respond, Fiona rushes over to the girl and wraps her arms around her. “Amelia Mae!”
Instinct is my first language, so I immediately do what a dog does upon hearing his owner’s name exclaimed loudly: I start barking my mother-loving head off and zipping around the kitchen to locate her. I’ve just circled the counter a second time, leash dragging behind me, when I run smack-dab into reality.
A name is not a person. Is notmyperson. That wasn’t Miguel speaking, either, and he’s the only one who regularly called Amelia by her first and last names.
I don’t know what just happened, but I don’t like it. Did my judgment fail me? It must’ve. A good person wouldn’t say a bad thing like that.
I’m not the only one who’s upset.
“Is this some kind of joke?” says Miguel, shoving off his stool. He’s not just mad; he’s a whole swarm of yellow jackets. Which is…kind of terrifying. I’ve seen him like this one other time, and in that case, Amelia’s parents had it coming.
He glares at Fiona and the girl, then turns to me and Dane. “We’re leaving.Now.”
Twelve
Oh my, oh my, ohmy.I still don’t understand what’s happening, but I know enough to put myself between Miguel and Fiona. While I’m not pleased with her, either, Miguel isn’t himself these days, and I don’t want him to do anything stupid. We need him, even if he forgets that.
Fiona blinks. “I beg your pardon?” She pulls the girl back a bit farther. “Is he going to attack us? Dogs sense anger, and you’re clearly very angry, though I have no idea why.”
“He’s harmless, Mom,” the girl tells her, but Fiona’s staring at me fearfully.
Miguel grabs my leash from the ground without answering her. “The World Wide Web was a mistake. Sickos put everything on there.” Dane’s frozen in place, so Miguel turns back to him as he tugs me toward him. “En serio.Let’s get out of here.”
“I’m very sorry I’ve offended you, but I truly don’t understand what I did,” warbles Fiona. She glances around, and the girl takes the opportunity to slip out of her mother’s arms. “Amelia Mae!” she exclaims. “Get away from the dog!”
“That,” growls Miguel. “Thatis what you did wrong.You said Amelia May.”
“Yeah, because that’s my name,” the girl growls back. Her voice gets surprisingly deep for such a young human. Now that I’m examining her, she looks sort of like a smaller version of the woman, except her skin’s darker, like Riley’s, and her flashing eyes say she doesnotcare about being nice. “I’m Amelia Mae. A-M-E-L-I-A M-A-E. And you,” she says, jabbing a finger at Miguel, “are being mean to my mom.”
Miguel’s face has gone pale. And Dane, who’s beside him now, is as still as a stalk of bamboo on a breezeless day. He opens his mouth to say something, but Miguel beats him toit.
“I—that’s my partner’s name. Amelia May.” He swallows. “By which I mean, itwasher name. She’s…”
I hang my head. Six seasons later, she’s still gone for good. No—gone forbad.Because it’s forever.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” says Fiona in a choked voice, and she sounds like she means that with every fiber of her human being. “How stupid of me. She owned the store with you and…you didn’t know she and my daughter share the same name. Though Mae,” she says, lifting her chin at the girl, “is Amelia’s middle name, not her surname.”
“No, I didn’t know,” says Miguel bluntly. “How couldI?”
