“But this was taken a long time ago,” Ariel said. “She’s dead now.”

“Do you have any idea why this woman,” he handed her another photo, a more recent photo, “would have photographs of this Lorelei Waverley?”

Emma could hardly believe what she was looking at. It was a photograph of Sydney standing next to the man. She was wearing a very tight and tiny evening dress, and his arm was looped around her possessively. This was a photo from her time away. She didn’t look happy. She didn’t look like she was doing wild and adventurous things. She looked for all the world like she didn’t want to be where she was.

Ariel frowned. “That’s Sydney Waverley,” she said flatly, then handed the photos back to him, as if they weren’t fit to touch now.

“Sydney?” the man repeated.

“Lorelei was her mother. Lorelei was a ne’er-do-well. Between you and me and the fence post, Sydney’s just like her.”

“Sydney,” he said, as if trying out the name. “She’s from here, then?”

“She grew up here and surprised us all by coming back. She tried to take my daughter’s husband.”

Emma looked at her mother. “Mama, she did not.”

“This person is Sydney Waverley?” He held up the photo of her. “Are you sure? Does she have a child, a little girl?”

“Yes. Bay,” Ariel said.

“Mama,” Emma said with warning. That was something you simply didn’t tell strangers.

The man immediately backed off, sensing that Emma was growing uncomfortable. Oh, he was good. “Thank you for your help. Have a wonderful day, ladies.” He walked to an expensive SUV and got in. The sky grew darker as he drove away, like he was somehow causing it.

Emma frowned, feeling funny. She took the nozzle from the car and put it back on the pump. There was no love lost between Emma and Sydney, that was for sure. But something was wrong.

“I’ll pay for the gas, Mama,” Emma said, hoping to get to her purse in the car, where her cell phone was.

But Ariel had her credit card already out. “Don’t be silly. I’m paying.”

“No, really. I’ll get it.”

“Here,” Ariel said, putting the card in Emma’s hand and getting back in the convertible. “Stop arguing and go pay the clerk.”

Emma walked into the convenience store and handed the clerk the card. She couldn’t stop thinking about that man. While waiting for the approval on the card, she put her hands in the pockets of her windbreaker and felt something. She brought out two quarters. She’d been wearing this jacket when Evanelle came up to her that day and gave her the money.

“Excuse me,” she said to the clerk. “Do you have a pay phone?”