“...really into Sue Wetherall, but she has a thing for Italian guys. It's the weirdest study group on campus 'cause there's all this tension, like a four-way unrequited thing going on. Me and Kurt only show up when we have to, otherwise we'd have to hold some sort of intervention for those poor saps, get them to finally come clean with each other before their heads explode.”

“Sounds like a tangled web,” Blythe replied, humoring him. “Who's this girl you've been seeing again?”

“Which one?”

Rose rolled her eyes at Bellamy and he gave her a little wink.

“The one you were telling us about,” her mom went on. “The advanced robotics girl.”

“Cheryl. Yeah, she invited me up to P.E.I to meet her folks.” Andy then paused, seemingly unsure if he should have said that. “But…I told her it wasn't a good time right now.”

Blythe’s drooped with sadness. “On account of me?”

“Of course. I've only got one mom.”

He'd never said a sweeter thing in his life. Rose couldn't see, but she guessed her mom would be tearing up right now. Even if he didn't give her another kind word, she'd always be glad he'd said that.

“Wait a minute. I think I recognize this place.” Rose pointed out a long, gently rising country road lined with dandelions, winding through farmland toward a small town ringed by a thick green forest. The road they were on forked ahead, giving them access. “It's been ages, but that town—we stayed there once, right? Or…somewhere near it at least?”

“I wasn't sure you'd remember,” Blythe answered with a proud grin. “What about you, Andy?”

“Um, nope. Not a clue. What's it called?”

“Greenwood.”

“Sounds fake,” he replied.

“Greenwood?” Rose turned the name over a few times in her mind. “I remember something about a hospital. And police cars. The name definitely rings a bell.”

“Take a left,” Blythe told Andy. “I'll guide you to it.”

“I can see the town, Mom,” he replied with residual teenage angst.

“We're not going to the town...yet.”

“Then where?”

“You'll see.”

“Mom, you're freaking me out. There's nothing else out here.”

“Maybe not anymore. But there was once.”

“It'd better be worth it. I'm missing day two of monster trucks for this.”

Blythe said nothing. She just ignored the world inside the car and focused on the one outside, or the one in her mind as she wistfully stared off in the distance.