Getting into my car, I pushed my hair back with hands that were still trembling. I needed to talk to someone, but I sat there in the driver’s side, the air-conditioning raising goose bumps on my skin, and racked my brain for someone I could talk to. Not David; things were still tense with us, and I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to explain why Bee and Ryan were weirding me out so much without him thinking it was a jealousy thing. But if I couldn’t talk to David, and I couldn’t talk to Bee, who could I talk to?

When the answer came, I felt a wave of relief wash over me.

It only took a few minutes to drive to Aunt Jewel’s, and when I got there, she was outside watering her roses, dressed in a pretty light green top that seemed to have some kind of bird on it, and matching polyester slacks. As soon as I pulled up, she turned the hose off and waved me inside.

“Well, isn’t this a nice surprise?” Aunt Jewel led me into the living room, and I flopped on the flowered sofa while she went into the kitchen to get us something to drink.

I fiddled with the hem of my dress, and when Aunt Jewel came back in, I blurted out, “I have something to tell you.”

Aunt Jewel had leaned down to hand me a glass of iced tea, and she froze in place, the glass halfway to me. “Oh, Harper Jane,” she said on a sigh. “You’re not in trouble, are you?”

I was, of course. In lots of trouble, and I almost said answered yes. But then I realized Aunt Jewel thought I was in that kind of trouble.

“No,” I said quickly, taking the tea before she spilled it. “No, no, no. Not even a little bit.”

Breathing a sigh of relief, Aunt Jewel pressed her hand to her chest, right over the painted hummingbird on her sweater. “Well, thank heaven for that at least.” She squinted at me, leaning a little closer, and I picked up the scent of Estée Lauder perfume and the slightest hint of baby powder. “But if you’re not in the family way, why do you look so sick?”

I didn’t know I did look sick, and when I pressed both hands to my cheeks, Aunt Jewel clucked, sitting next to me on the couch. “I’ve thought you looked peaked for a few weeks at least. You aren’t doing too much at school, are you?”

The tea was cold and sweet, and I gulped nearly half of the glass before setting it back on its coaster. “It’s not school, Aunt Jewel. Or it is, but not the way you’re thinking. Last year, during the fall, something... something happened to me.”