Then Annie asked, “Lucy? Why did you post a picture of Jonas standing on the beach?”

Lucy didn’t answer right away, then said, “He was there, you know?”

“I do know, yes. And I know he’s really cute. Do you agree?”

“Sure. Yeah. I guess.” She kept typing, though only God and the internet knew what she was writing.

“Lucy? You do know he is quite a bit older than you are, don’t you?”

“Duh, yeah.”

“He’s in his twenties.”

She kept typing.

“It’s just that I wouldn’t want you to . . .”

Lucy stopped typing, looked up at Annie, and tucked her hair behind both ears. “Look, Annie, I know what you’re trying to say, but forget it. I’m fourteen. I might not be starting high school until September. But I’m not naïve.”

Annie wasn’t sure if that meant Lucy knew that Jonas was too old for her or that she thought she was mature enough to make those decisions for herself. Which maybe she was. What did Annie know about raising a teenager?

“I know. I just don’t want you . . .”

“What? To get hurt?”

“For one thing, yes.”

“Don’t worry. Besides, Jonas would be the last one to hurt me. That guy knows what hurt feels like. Do you know he only met his mother—officially—last summer, and that he never got to know his father?”

“I know, honey,” Annie said. “I also know that might make him vulnerable.” She remembered when Jonas had showed up at her door not even a year ago, when he’d apologized that his grandfather had booted her from her rental. Jonas had been kind. And sensitive.

Lucy laughed. “He’s hardly vulnerable. He graduated from college last year. He’s an artist. And he’s really good. He’s even been asked to show his paintings at the Sculpin Gallery and Featherstone this year. A ton of people have friended him online, but he never posts anything. I thought that if we showed his face doing something exciting, it might get him some visibility. Help make him more famous, you know?”

“So you were only trying to help him?”

“Duh, yeah,” Lucy repeated.

Annie realized it was just as well that she’d never raised a child. She clearly had no idea how a young mind worked, perhaps had never even known how hers had. Otherwise, her life might have been very different.

* * *

After cutting and pasting an image of a jack-o’-lantern and announcing the hoax, Annie left John’s house. She did a few errands in town, then made it back to Chappy around dinnertime. Neither John nor Kevin had mentioned mealtime plans; maybe it was just as well—she needed time alone.