Jack reached for a shoebox in the middle of the table and handed it to me. “I was saving these for you,” he said. “For Dane and June’s wedding.”
I blinked in confusion, then gingerly lifted the lid. Inside, I found a pair of men’s dress shoes exactly my size. They glistened, unscuffed. Perfect and new.
“There’s something else.” Jack fished a slip of paper from his front pocket. He looked strangely nervous.
What was going on? Why wasn’t he yelling at me?
Jack set the paper on the tabletop. “I wasn’t sure when to give you this.”
My stomach did a little flip when I recognized my mother’s handwriting, and I snatched it off the table.
“You can stay, if you want. You’re always welcome here.” Jack shifted in his chair. “I just want you to know that you have a choice.”
I stared at the phone number scrawled on the wrinkled page, the careless loops of a name written in the bottom corner.
Lottie.
My throat got very tight, and I was taken back to the day she left. She’d written something down for Jack. Had he known how to reach her this whole time?
With one hand, I closed a fist around the paper and held it to my chest. With the other, my fingers beat a rapid rhythm against my thigh.
“Excuse me,” I rasped, shoving to my feet.
“Arthur, wait.”
I couldn’t look at him right now. I didn’t turn around, and in my frantic state I nearly barreled into Izzy as she turned a corner.
“Whoa!” she cried out in surprise.
The monster yanked me sideways, our shoulder slamming into one of the golden picture frames. Adrenaline beat heavy in my chest, flooding my body with panic.
But Izzy only laughed. “Sorry, Fairy.”
When I realized what she was holding, my horror dissipated, replaced by hot embarrassment. Izzy extended a box of condoms with the cool arch of a brow, her quicksilver grin laced with danger. “Don’t hurt my sister,” she chirped politely, “or I’ll peel your skin off from nail to armpit.”
I blanched. “I… We’re not—”
“Very subtle,” Izzy finished firmly.
Heat crawled up my neck, but I accepted the box and ducked past her into the old sewing room. Then, slowly, I unclenched my fingers from around the crumpled paper. My chest hurt from too much swallowed feeling.
“Well?”the monster prodded me.“Are you going to call?”
“I don’t know.” Saying even that aloud felt like a betrayal. It should be easy, obvious.Yes,of course I was going to call. That’swhat I’d wanted all summer long. My home was a person. My home was her.
The monster turned our neck to look out the window, where a sea of coneflowers rippled across the hill leading down to the hive boxes.“Or maybe,”it hedged,“home is here.”
Chapter 31
Eva
Arthur stared at the satellite phone in his hand, visibly distraught.
“Hey. It’s all right. We’ll find a better spot for a signal,” Eva said, touching the inside of his elbow and coaxing his attention back to her.
But the tension in Arthur didn’t release. “You don’t understand. He’s not well, and I… I have to protect him.”
She frowned. “What are you talking about?”
