With that same, cunning hint of a smirk on her face.

The group around us began to disperse as people walked toward their cars. In the distance, thunder rumbled. Cars pulled away from the curb, and I resisted the urge to look over my shoulder and back at Violet’s Mini Cooper.

But Henry, Violet, and I remained where we stood, all of us watching Mischa as neighbors, friends, and relatives shook her hand, and she politely filled them in on Amanda’s prognosis.

Pete emerged from the thinning crowd and made a beeline for Violet.

“No, no, no,” I said to Violet under my breath. “He can’t be here right now. Get rid of him!”

Without acknowledging me or Henry first, Pete reached for her and tried to kiss her on the mouth, but his lips landed on her cheek when she didn’t turn her head. “I thought you weren’t coming,” he said, and then shot Henry a sheepish look with his head slightly hung. “Hey, man.”

Henry nodded stoically in response. “Hey.”

I didn’t think Henry and Pete had ever spoken since the fall, when Pete had started going out with Violet shortly after Olivia’s death. At one point, before Henry graduated, they’d run in the same social circle: the jocks, the privileged guys who drove nice cars. It had to bother Henry that his sister had been so quickly replaced, but today was not the day for him to confront Pete about his romantic choices.

“My mom and I are going to Bobby’s,” Pete told Violet. “Come with us. I barely saw you all weekend.”

Violet ran her hands over the front of his wool coat and told him, “I can’t. I have plans. But we should go to a movie or something tomorrow.”

Pete gave me and Henry a look, as if he didn’t want us to hear him. He leaned closer to Violet and said in a low voice, “But your parents will be back by then.”

Highly aware that there were only a few people remaining at the grave site expressing their condolences to Mischa, Violet stood a little taller and said, “I’m sorry. I just have to do something today.”

Now Pete took a step back, perhaps humiliated that she’d dismissed him in front of us. He narrowed his eyes at us and said, “I don’t understand what’s going on, here—why you’re hanging out with these people.”

Surprising me, Violet took a step closer to me. “Just… I’ll call you later, okay?”

Her shoulders slumped when he turned and walked back to his mother, clearly miffed at Violet. It was easy to see that their exchange had upset Violet, too. “Stay focused,” I reminded her. “Don’t think about him anymore.”

It was then that Mischa finished her conversation with the rabbi and turned to face us. She stepped around the graves as she walked toward us at a pace so leisurely that it made my heart beat faster. She seemed to ignore Violet and Henry, and focused all of her attention on me. The hairs on the back of my head stood on end, and I felt my skin prickle beneath the heavy sleeves of my winter coat.