That got me head shake number three. So much for that idea.

Please, Evie?

It was the first time he’d used my name. Even though it was in a text message, for some reason it made it impossible for me to tell him no. Maybe he needed to see what went on behind the scenes to begin dealing with his grief.

“All right,” I said. “I’ll take you in there and show you everything I can. Even…yeah. Okay. If you are sure you really want to.”

He nodded.

“We’ll have to do it when my parents aren’t around,” I said, knowing that my parents would absolutely 100 percent not be okay with it. Even if it was my mission to help Oren this way, they wouldn’t get it. Or why it was so important to me to give him what he needed to help him heal.

I looked over at him. Something was different. He looked…relieved.

Which told me he was nowhere near as freaked out as I was. To distract myself, I started yanking weeds out of the herb garden, but a second later my phone binged.

Why don’t you want any friends?

I looked at him. Was he asking because he wanted to be my friend?

A tiny part of me wanted to tell him about Sam. But most of me chickened out. I shook my head and returned to the giant dandelion in front of me. “It’s complicated,” was all I could bring myself to say.

Thirteen

Once we finished weeding the herb garden, we went inside to make lunch. I was going to make tuna sandwiches, but when I grabbed the loaf of bread and asked Oren if that sounded good to him, he made a face and shook his head.

“Do you hate tuna?”

He shook his head.

“You hate tuna sandwiches?”

He made another face that included a stuck-out tongue.

“Oh really,” I said, hands on my hips. “You think you can do better?”

He nodded. Emphatically.

My eyebrows went up. “You some sort of gourmet chef or something?”

He shrugged and pulled out his phone.

Not a pro, but I like to cook.

“Fine then, Guy Fieri,” I said, sweeping my arm around the kitchen. “Have at it.”

He actually smiled at that. Challenge accepted!

I have to admit I was impressed. Not just impressed, but really impressed. Because even one-handed, Oren had taken the cans of tuna I’d opened and turned them into a fancy dish of stuffed red and orange peppers. He’d even sprinkled cheese on top and added a garnish of dill and parsley from Mom’s herb garden before I put them in the oven.

I’d helped him with a few things, but he did most of it. While we waited for the cheese to melt, I kept thinking about how he wanted to go next door and see everything.

Everything.

I hadn’t even seen everything. Obviously, I would have to someday if I was going to be a funeral director. But that was years away.