I began composing a text. Not to Nick. To Campbell and Sadie-Grace. “Lily’s gone,” I said under my breath, talking as I typed in the words. “Not sure for how long. I need to go to Two Arrows.”

Campbell didn’t reply, but Sadie-Grace did. All her message said was I’ll drive!

CHARLOTTE, LIV, JULIA,
TRINA, AND THE BOYS
SUMMER BEFORE SENIOR YEAR
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS EARLIER

As it turned out, Trina was a good sport. The kind of good sport who had six brothers and could tread water all day long. Charlotte could see the instant Liv decided the new girl was interesting.

I don’t care if she’s interesting, Charlotte thought as the minutes turned to hours. I’m your best friend. She glanced at Julia. Second-best.

“Don’t look so glum.” Sterling wrapped a towel around Charlotte’s shoulders.

They’d all jumped multiple times. When Trina was finally allowed back onshore, there was drinking.

A campfire.

Another trip over the ledge, in the dark.

And now this. Charlotte let her body lean against his. He knew how she felt about him. He had to. But this was the first hint she’d gotten that he could see it, too.

What the two of them could be, together.

“Want to know a secret?” Sterling asked her, nodding toward the ledge, where Liv sat side by side with the townie girl. “I brought her here to make you jealous.”

“Want to know a secret?” Charlotte murmured back. “It didn’t work.”

Shortly thereafter, Liv volunteered to drive the local girl home.

CHAPTER 52

There were days when I thought Sadie-Grace was the living, breathing embodiment of an exclamation mark. Today was not one of them.

“I’m tired,” she told me, practically wilting in the driver’s seat as we made our way back to the belly of the beast. “Audie is adorable, but he stopped sleeping. At night. Did you know babies can do that? They can stop sleeping. At night.”

All I could think in response was that Audubon Charles Richard Waters might not be the first baby that Lillian’s twin sister had given someone, in exchange for money.

Don’t get ahead of yourself. All you know is that Ana spent some time in a small town near the lake, after which she was baby-free and able to travel the world. You know that Ana says she gave the baby up.

You don’t know anything other than that.

That wasn’t quite accurate, I realized as Sadie-Grace pulled the car off onto the main road in Two Arrows. I also know that Ana has a history of asking people for money. My mom had adapted to life on a budget, more or less. I wasn’t sure that Ana had.

And if she did come to Two Arrows, if she left with no baby and money to travel . . .

I didn’t let myself finish the thought.