The ceiling of the cat room was just visible in the faint glow of the nightlight. The cracks in the old plaster looked like the lines on the palm of a hand. I tilted the palm of my own hand until it caught enough light to compare the two. It was impossible to be sure in the almost dark, but I seemed to have an awful lot of downward lines branching out from my life line. Or maybe it was my heart line.

I reached over to the top of the rickety pile of books, turned off my alarm before its obnoxious buzz could make me feel even worse than I already did. My entire body ached, as if I was coming down with the flu and my immune system had kicked into overdrive to try to ward it off, even though it was way too late for that.

I barely remembered the rest of last night. I’d walked back out to Carol’s minivan feeling numb right down to my toes. I was sure neither Polly nor my father had seen me—they’d only had eyes for each other.

Carol had pushed the button to open the side door for me. A burst of hot air hit me in the face, like getting burned twice.

I faked a smile. “High Tide it is. Dad’s sitting at the bar in there with some aging hot tamale, and even if we were crazy enough to want to join them, the bar is packed and there aren’t any seats left.”

“Casting the line and getting ready to reel her in, huh?” Billy Jr. said.

“Hoping for a little backseat bingo in the ice cream truck later on,” Michael said.

“Eww, thank you for those lovely images,” Carol said. “But at least Dad’s back on track with his dating again. I knew I just needed to give him a nudge to get the momentum going.”

Carol took the beach road back to Marshbury, the minivan twisting and turning along with the jagged coastline. Even under the stars, the ocean was a gloomy black. There must have been music playing, but I couldn’t hear it over the sound of the waves crashing in my head.

“I wonder how Johnny’s doing,” Christine said.

“He hasn’t called or texted yet,” Michael said. “That’s a good sign.”

“Or a bad sign,” Carol said.

I waited until we were a few blocks away from the house. “Hey, do you mind dropping me off? I have to get up really early tomorrow.”

“Ha-ha,” Christine said.

“Surely you jest,” Billy Jr. said.