“For a minute there, I thought…” She shook her head and passed it back to me. “You might have been too young, but your mom loved this herbal shampoo made by a pixie in South Carolina. It turned even the coarsest hair into silk. I’ve never smelled anything like it, and it might be all the pollen clogging my sinuses right now, but this reminds me of it.” A small laugh shook her shoulders. “The crazy thing is, when I saw it in your hand, I thought immediately of Diane. It’s exactly like those hairbands she used to wear all the time. Your momma had the craziest obsession with matching them to her socks. Do you remember that?”

“I remember,” I murmured. “She did the same thing with me and Lori.” I almost smiled. “We hated it.” Unable to resist, I brought the material to my nose and breathed in a peppery-mint fragrance that sparked instant recognition. “Mom never let us use that shampoo except on special occasions.” Those were few, far between and usually involved family portraits. “One night Lori used it as bubble bath. Dad laughed. Mom didn’t think it was funny. She bought a lock for her bathroom door the next day.”

Aunt Dot chuckled. “That sounds about right.”

“Where did it come from?” Who could it belong to? Not Mom, surely. I hadn’t seen her in years. “Could it have—I don’t know—fallen out of something in your trailer and gotten tracked over here?”

I was grasping at straws, and I knew it, but it was the only logical scenario.

“Anything is possible.” A frown touched her mouth. “I was doing some spring cleaning, as you can see. I might have dropped it outside and—” her shrug encompassed the area, “—someone might have picked it up and put it there.”

“Who?” I stretched the elastic. “If not us, then maybe Isaac?” My gaze went to the trees. “Unless someone from the pack came for a visit.”

The look I shared with Dell told her what I thought of that possibility.

“I’m going to grab a water.” Aunt Dot wiped her forehead with the back of her arm. “Can I get you girls anything?”

“No,” Dell and I said in concert.

With a chortle at us like she found us precious, Aunt Dot retreated to her trailer.

Beside me, Dell resumed excavating dirt with her toes. “Do you want me to tell—?”

“No.” I crushed the fabric in my hand. “He’s the last person I want to see right now.”