Jack palmed the phone. “Look, Riley, I understand it’s been really hard for you, but things will get better.”

“How?”

He was out of his element, but he put up a good effort. “Time will make it better. After a while it won’t hurt so much. I know you loved your mother, and—”

“I didn’t love her!” Riley cried. “She thought I was ugly and stupid, and the only person she liked was Trinity!”

“That’s not true,” Jack said. “She loved you very much.”

“How do you know?”

He faltered. “I—I know, that’s all. Now I don’t want to hear any more. You’ve caused enough trouble, and you’ll do what I tell you.”

“No, I won’t.” Dry-eyed and furious, she curled her hands into fists. “I’ll kill myself if you make me go back! I will! I know how. I can find Mom’s pills. And Aunt Gayle’s, too. I’ll swallow all of them. And—and I’ll cut myself like Mackenzie’s big sister. And then I’ll die!”

Mad Jack was clearly shaken. Dean had gone pale, and April tugged on her silver rings. Riley started to cry and rushed toward her. “Please, April! Please, let me stay with you.” April’s arms instinctively curled around her.

“April can’t take care of you,” Jack said brusquely. “She has things to do.”

Tears rolled down Riley’s cheeks. She was staring at the ribbon tie on April’s top, but she was talking to her father. “Then you stay. You stay and take care of me.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Why not? You could stay for like two weeks.” In a display of youthful courage, she regarded April with pleading eyes. “That would be okay, wouldn’t it, April? If he stayed for two weeks?” She took a tentative step toward her father. “You don’t have any gigs or anything until September. I heard you say you need to get away somewhere so you can work on some new songs. You could get away here. Or at the cottage. April’s cottage is really, really quiet. You could write your new songs there.”

“It’s not my cottage, Riley,” April said gently. “It’s Dean’s. So is this house.”

Riley’s chin trembled. She dragged her gaze from April and focused on Dean’s chest. Blue felt his skin burning through his T-shirt.