She waves at the air, but their eyes are locked. “It’s really not interesting.”
“Maybe not to you,” he says, leaning forward. “How’d you get into journalism?”
“Curiosity, I suppose.” Amelia Mae’s seated beside her, finishing off the last of her sandwich, and Fiona reaches across to touch her head. “I wanted to learn about lots of things, and journalism offered an opportunity to get paid to find out about them.”
“That’s smart. What kinds of things?”
“Mostly environmental stuff,” she murmurs.
“Mom could have been famous,” says Amelia Mae, nodding.
Miguel arches an eyebrow.
“Oh, she’s just talking about the story I’m best known for. Back when I was at thePost,someone tipped me off about a major pharmaceutical manufacturer dumping toxic chemicals into Illinois’s waterways. It didn’t take a whole lot of digging to figure out that officials knew and were looking the other way. Jon helped me sort through their corporate recordsand evaluate the water samples. We caught them red-handed. But that was a lifetime ago, or so it feels.”
“Wait.” Miguel leans back and eyes her. “You’rethatwoman? Like the Erin Brockovich of the Great Lakes water system?” I have no idea who he’s talking about, but it must be someone important because the man looks like he finally met JMB himself. “I had no idea.”
“I don’t usually talk about it,” says Fiona, smiling.
He shakes his head. “You should—I’m seriously impressed.”
She beams. “Thank you. Most people don’t seem to think it’s a big deal, so I rarely mention it.”
“Idiots,” he says, and her grin widens. “But how did you go from uncovering a public health crisis to working for your brother?”
Good questions are how you make friends; good listening is how you keep them. That’s what Amelia said. She’d be proud of him right now.
“Well, Jon’s career took flight right around the time I had Amelia Mae, and…”
“My dad’s a bum who flew the coop when I was a baby,” Amelia Mae supplies.
Fiona’s smile tightens. “Sadly, that’s accurate. What’s more, I got laid off the minute my pregnancy became obvious. Jon and I were already used to being a team, as you know, so he stepped in to help me raise Amelia Mae, and I helped him navigate his career. I guess nothing much has changed, since we live right down the block from each other. Though given his surprise European vacation…” She trails off.
“I don’t mean to pry,” says Miguel.
“As a former journalist, I can say with certainty that it’s onlyprying if the other person doesn’t want to disclose. It’s obvious that I’m happy to yap your ear off,” she says, and they smile at each other before finally turning their attention to their food.
Amelia Mae rolls her eyes at me, but I can tell she’s happy, too.
Between bites, Fiona and Miguel talk about nothing at all, which is a rare human skill I’m not envious of. They’re nearly finished when Amelia Mae, who’s back on the ground beside me, looks up at Miguel. “Hey, you have a car, right?”
He nods.
“Can you give us a tour of the town before it gets too dark? We’ve never been to West Haven before. Mom and I want to see everything. Or at least I do.”
He frowns. “Aside from the lake, there’s not a whole lot to check out.”
Even if that’s true—which it isn’t—why wouldn’t he take the opportunity to spend more time with Fiona? But then he surprises me and says, “I suppose I do live here on purpose. I’d be glad to drive you both around and let you form your own opinion.”
“Thanks! Harry’s coming, right?” she says, and Fiona laughs nervously.
Miguel looks down at me, then back at Fiona. “He’ll grow on you,” he assures her.
“I don’t know about that, but he does seem sweet,” she says, regardingme.
I am! And it’s extra easy to be that way on a day like today, when I get to ride around in the back seat beside Amelia Mae and listen to Miguel chitchat with Fiona, still talking aboutlittle of importance yet sounding more like himself than he has since Before.
If only life could be like this all the time,I think, sticking my head out the window as Miguel drives us down Main Street, then loops over to the road that leads to Lake Michigan and shows them all the big houses along the lakeshore.
