Tabitha and me playing a game of hopscotch with Lía and Marco. The two of us, gardening together. Cleaning together. There was a quick shot of me, leaning against the wall as Tabitha told me some grandiose story, her hands moving around her face. The expression I wore was amused and affectionate.

Focused. Only on her.

“It was that obvious then?” I asked, face hot.

“What was obvious?”

I indicated the screen. “I was in love with her this whole time.”

Rowan stopped the video with a wry laugh. “That wasn’t what I was showing you.” He clicked back, waved the mouse over the handful of posts about the park. “If you watch all of these, there’s one thing they all have in common.”

“Everyone can see I’m a fool for her?”

“Nope.” He pointed at the screen. “Every single one of these videos is about you.”

I froze. Replayed what I’d just seen until I understood what Rowan was trying to show me.

“Maybe she is running scared,” he said. “And I can’t blame her. This fallin’-in-love stuff sure seems scary to me. When I watch these? It’s clear to me you weren’t the only one acting like an obsessed fool.”

I dragged my attention back to the screen and shivered with goose bumps. The paused image was a shot of me and Rowan, talking with Eddie as I hauled a bag of trash over my shoulder. My body language was relaxed and I looked happy and content.

Tabitha stood off to the side, clearly enjoying whatever it was we were saying. She was biting the tip of her thumb with a wide grin, brown eyes shining up at me, and only me, like I was…like I was…

“See what I’m sayin’?” Rowan asked.

I huffed out a surprised breath. “Yeah,” I said, stunned. Talk about a hit I hadn’t seen coming: Tabitha Tyler, looking at me like I was the love of her life.

36. Tabitha

Thirty-Six

Tabitha

I was quickly learning that chalk drawings of tiny rainbow hearts didn’t smudge that much when you cried on them.

Juliet pointed at the heart I’d finished coloring in. “Aunty Tabby, you messed that one up.”

I peeked over her shoulder and pressed my lips together at the tear tracks. “You’re right, kiddo. I sure did. How about I fix it with some more green?”

She nodded and went back to her own drawing, which appeared to be another portrait of Pam but with more heads. I cast my eyes up to Alexis, who was sitting on the stoop, hands clasped in her lap, chewing on her bottom lip like she was about to cry with me. “Do you want me to get you some tissues?” she asked.