Kylie smiled at him, her red hair in a style that she’d only recently started wearing, a sort of complicated braid crown that suited her fox-like face. She was beautiful, Mary thought. And happy. And so was Matty. So many harsh things had happened in these kids’ lives and here they were grinning at each other about cookies.

“Can I take my break, Mary?”

“Of course.”

“I’ll go too,” Via decided, her eyes bouncing back and forth between Mary and John. She leaned across the counter, kissed Mary on the cheek, and then the shop was empty again.

“Via wants me to come with them the first time she ever visits Cora’s grave,” Mary said without preamble.

“Wow.” John’s eyes grew wide, his expression somber. He knew the gravity of the ask. Mary had explained to him the complicated web that held Mary, Sebastian, Via and Matty all together. The hole that Cora had left behind, the balm that Via had become for all of them. Not a replacement, but a beautiful addition to lives that had been missing Cora for far too long. “Wow. Do you want to?”

Mary nodded. “Yes. It’s been a while since I’ve been there. And I’d love to make things easier for Via, for all of them, if I can.”

John’s somber expression softened infinitesimally. “Sweetest person on planet Earth,” he told her.

Mary smiled. “Will you come too? For the weekend? It’s just up in White Plains. We could get an Airbnb or something. Maybe Estrella could watch Ruth? Oh! We could invite Fin and Ty and Ky to come too. They don’t have to do the whole cemetery thing, but they could hang out with us in the meantime. What do you think?”

John nodded. “I think,” he said carefully, “that White Plains isn’t very far from Connecticut.”

She frowned. “You want to meet my parents.”

“Well. No,” he answered with his patent honesty, making Mary laugh. “But I wonder if maybe we shouldn’t end the standoff with your mother. It wouldn’t have to be a huge deal. We could just pop in for an hour. Get things moving again.”

“I’ll think about it,” Mary promised. The weekend would be emotional enough without adding a trip to her mother’s house. But maybe he was right. Maybe it was time to see if things could be repaired. Mary had always been the odd man out at her parents’ house. But maybe John would be the odd man out as well, just like with their friends. And they could be odd together. Emphasis on together.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO