Steph waved at me briefly before the three of them climbed into a dirty white VW Golf, and then I watched them leave. As soon as I saw the Golf turn onto the street, I got up and headed for Joan’s car. I kept thinking about the twinge of disappointment I’d felt when I realized Steph and Lisa were together. When Lisa took Steph’s hand, claiming her.

Chapter 5

The house was too quiet when I got back from Safeway. Analemma didn’t even bark when I opened the front door, but as I put away the shampoo and Cosmopolitan, I heard footsteps upstairs. I thought about how Steph had said she worried about my grandmother, all alone out here.

I went upstairs and knocked on the door that led to the master bedroom, which was connected to Grandpa’s old office, where Joan now worked.

“Just a minute,” she called.

I heard wheels rolling across the floor, and a swoosh as if a cloth had been tossed down. Then my grandmother opened the door.

I hadn’t been up here in a long time, and I had a sudden memory of coming to see Grandpa on his hospital bed with the IV drip in his arm. But the hospital bed was long gone, and now only a queen-sized bed with a blue-patterned quilt faced the wall of windows. Grandpa and I used to climb through them onto the roof to gaze up at the stars. I remembered him pulling me up over the windowsill and outside, the ghost of his hand grasping mine.

I realized my grandmother was watching me. “Sorry to bother you,” I said. “I didn’t hear Analemma and wondered if you were home.”

“My friend took her on a hike,” she said. “Did you get what you needed at Safeway?”

“I ran into your gardener. Steph? And her friends Mel and Lisa.” I wasn’t sure if Joan knew Steph was gay, and for some reason I didn’t want to say the word girlfriend.

“Oh, how’s she doing?” Joan went through the connecting door into Grandpa’s office, and I followed.

“She’s fine.” I definitely hadn’t been in here since before Grandpa died, and I could barely remember it from back then. The room was long and narrow, with windows on three walls, and a counter had been built against the longest wall. I paused in the doorway and said, “They invited me to an open mic on Wednesday night in Fairfax. Apparently, Steph sings.”

Joan looked surprised. “I had no idea. Well, you’ll have to tell me all about it. Do you need to borrow my car?”

“No, they’re going to pick me up.” I wondered if I was supposed to run this kind of thing by Joan first. I’d stayed with her before, but never on my own, and never in this situation. “I mean, do you mind if I go?”