“Oh.” He was obviously surprised. I guess it was pretty rare I went rogue on, well, anything. “How’d it go?”
“Actually, she ended up confiding in me.” I went outside, where it was very still and quiet, the sun coming up over the water. Once seated on the steps, I gave him the summary: lump, putting it off, biopsy, scan, surgery.
“Well,” he said when I was done. “Now we know why the house stuff was suddenly so urgent. Is she going to fill Liz and Kasey in?”
“I don’t think so,” I replied. “She asked me not to tell anyone.”
This had been one of the last things she’d said, just as we came up the driveway.Keep what we’ve discussed between us,she’d said.Promise me.I had. But my dad didn’t count. Or so I hoped.
Just then, there was a shriek on his end, some fumbling, and he hung up on me. I waited. When he called back—brrrrrinnnng!—it sounded like a gunshot in the quiet, even as I grabbed it on the first ring. “Sorry,” he said as Leo wailed nearby. “Someone woke up on the wrong side of everything.”
The door sounded behind me. Turning, I saw Lana carefully sliding out, shoes in her hands. She glanced down at me before hurrying down the steps, just as the truck came puttering up the drive. Ben was behind the wheel, his hair mussed like he’d just woken up himself. Like his awkwardness, this struck me as unexpectedly cute.
“Sorry, sorry,” she said as she hopped in. “I slept through my alarm.”
Ben gave me a sleepy wave, then shifted into reverse. I lifted a hand in response. Meanwhile, in my ear, Leo was still crying.
“I should probably—” my dad said.
It was rare we ever got to finish a conversation, on the phone or otherwise, without this kind of interruption. “Go,” I said. “I love you.”
I hung up, then got to my feet, gathering the line as I went up the stairs. After leaving the phone on the floor where I’d found it, I went and brushed my teeth, using the last of mytravel toothpaste. When I was packing, I’d just told myself they had everything in New York and I’d get more. Here, I hadn’t even yet seen a drugstore.
I was heading back to my room when I looked out onto the porch and saw the dollhouse was now at the end of the table, right in front of the windows. The box of furniture sat on a nearby chair.
I walked over, bending down to peer inside: In miniature, there was the hallway I’d just come down, the room in which I was standing. In the kitchen, two little cakes sat on the tiny counter. The rest of the house was empty. Something about the sight of it made me even more aware I was the only one awake, so much stillness surrounding me.
I reached into the box, digging past a small bathtub, a coffee table, and an old steamer trunk with a lid that opened. When I found a long table, I slid it in by the windows on the porch. It fit perfectly.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Less than an hour later, I ended up at the Egg. Kasey had said to return anytime. And I was hungry.
Already a line had formed out the door. Inside was loud and busy, all the tables full. The phone was ringing.
“Finley!” Clark called out as soon as I was inside. “Please tell me you can run food.”
“Or grab the phone,” Ben added.
“Water refills would be nice too.” Lana brushed past with a full tray of dishes. “I mean, if you’re sticking around.”
I decided I was. I picked up the phone, reaching for the nearby ordering pad.
“Egg. Can I help you?”
“Yeah,” a deep voice replied. “Two breakfasts, both bacon. Eggs over hard.”
Remembering the code from the day before, I managed to write this without taking up the entire ticket. “Toast, English muffin, or biscuit?”
“One toast. One muffin.”
“Got it,” I said, writingTGon the top and circling it. “Twenty minutes.”
“Can you bus?” Kasey asked as she passed by again. “Oneand two are gone and three just needs change.”
As I bent to get the bus pan, I remembered what she had said about an apron. I only had so many shirts. I grabbed one from the nearby box, then turned sideways to let Lana, who had a handful of napkins and place mats, get to the silverware. “Thanks, by the way,” she said. “For letting me… for the spare bed.”
“No problem,” I told her.
