“Thanks.” He steps back from her, suddenly speechless. He was a guy, and he’d let her see how vulnerable he could be, and so he was probably going to all guy up right now. She wants to hold his hand, but she doesn’t.

“My father wants me to move to London and live with him. Or even go back to Ghana, go to school there, live with my grandparents.” The words spill out in a flood. “I won’t do it. I don’t want to leave Lakehaven. My friends. You.”

“You can live with our family,” she says. “To finish school. There’s no way Mom or Dad wouldn’t agree to that.”

“Sure they might. Your mom doesn’t like me.”

“Of course she does.”

“She just doesn’t. She didn’t like my mom, either.”

“Ned. If she didn’t like you, she wouldn’t have come with us to the station.”

“She did that for you, not me.”

“Ned…” But she doesn’t want to argue with him. Not now, on the day his mother died. “We wouldn’t have Grant without your mom. My mom always said that.” She puts her hand on his shoulder.

“I’m not going to London or Ghana. Mike said I could stay with him and Peter, but Mike doesn’t have any rights. My dad has all the rights, and he’ll be just enough of a jerk…” Now the tears shine in his eyes. “Mike’s got a friend with a private jet. He’s flying Dad here from London. He’ll be here in the morning. I have to figure out what to do.”

“You know, maybe we can talk to your dad. He can’t want to disrupt your life further.”

“He wants to take care of me. Now. Now he decides to be my dad.” Ned’s voice rises slightly. “I haven’t seen him maybe but ten times in my whole life.” Ned gives off an awful, choking laugh. “But Mom’s dead, and so he knows he has to…he has to…step up, because, like, the world is watching.”

“Let us talk to him.”

“He won’t care what Mike or your parents say. But he is going to have to drag me onto a plane. I will kick and scream and someone in the airport will film it and it will go viral and…”

She pats his shoulders, trying to calm him. “Let’s not worry about that right now.”

He nods. He swallows. He looks her in the eye. She thinks for a moment he might kiss her, and maybe a kiss would be a solace. “I have to pick out a coffin.”

The words are a punch in her gut.