Page 24 of Jury Woman, Part 4 of 6

"Warren," I said, more gently. "How are you doing?"

He laughed, a short, humorless sound. "Not well. Sales are still sliding. Corporate's got me on a sixty-day improvement plan, like some rookie. And Heidi..." He pressed his lips together. "Heidi signed up to date a happy guy with a nice house and a boat. Not… whatever this is." He glanced at the dashboard clock. "I gotta go."

"Warren, wait—"

He'd already hung up.

I sighed and massaged my temples. I'd had every right to say what I'd said… but it was the wrong time to say it.

Jill was right. At that moment everything inside me wanted to hightail it back to the house and save everyone. It was like a compulsion, this need to fix everything.

Only to resent it afterward?

October 25, Sunday

ELAINE WAS alone on the couch, her laptop propped on the coffee table and a bowl of popcorn in her lap. It was ten in the morning.

"Don't judge," she said, tossing a kernel into her mouth. "I haven't had breakfast, and it's the only thing in this house that doesn't need a can opener."

"Where are the kids?"

"Upstairs. I knocked on both doors and got a 'no' and a grunt. You can guess who gave which." She set the bowl aside. "They don't want to talk to anybody right now, Iz. Don't take it personally."

I tried not to. It didn't work.

"Warren told me about the picture of Lily through the front window."

Elaine's face darkened. "I was here that night, you know. I brought my good camera, because I figured somebody should take proper photos. She looked beautiful, and her hair was perfect." She swallowed. "We did pictures by the fireplace, pictures on the porch. Then she sat on the stairs to wait for him."

"Josh said an hour and a half."

"Closer to two. She kept saying he was probably stuck in traffic. Then that his phone must have died." Elaine pressed her fingers under her eyes. "When she finally saw the photos of him at the dance with Ariana, she made this sound like somebody had stepped on her. Then she ran upstairs and locked herself in the bathroom. The dress was on the floor when she came out the next morning. She hasn't touched it since."

"And then Josh," I said with a wince.

Elaine gave me a long look. "He said you told him to take care of it."

"What?"

"His words. 'Mom said to take care of Lily. So I did.'"

"That's not what I meant at all." My voice climbed. "I told him to bring her cereal. Sit with her. Watch one of her terrible shows. I didn't tell him to go break somebody's nose!"

"Oh, I know that." Elaine held up her palms. "But he's fourteen. You know how literal kids that age are. You told him to protect his sister, and he found the most efficient way to do it."

I covered my face with my hands. "I'm going to be sick."

"Don't be. Listen to me." She waited until I looked up. "Josh made a bad choice for a decent reason. Lily's heart got stomped on, which happens to every sixteen-year-old girl in the history of the world. They're miserable right now. They'll survive. We did."

"Barely."

"Barely counts." She picked the popcorn back up. "Now. How are you?"

"I'm okay."

"That's what you always say."

"This time it's mostly true."