“The girls made it,” Emma says. She’s still staring at me. It makes me want to sprint back to the hot car.

“Is he here? Is Mason here?” A man’s excited voice booms through the entryway, and Emma scoots over to make room for Simon. He is white, clean-cut with medium-blond hair, a slight sunburn, and seriously muscular calves. His T-shirt has a picture of a witch in running shoes and the words Banks Realty Wicked Half Marathon in red. Everything about him screams “wholesome.” His smile is so big, it nearly tips me backward. He extends his hand. “Mason! So good to finally meet you. How was your trip?”

Boston to Salem isn’t exactly what I’d call a “trip,” but I’m not going to correct him.

“Fine. Thanks.” I’m standing an awkwardly long distance away, so I take a few awkwardly long steps forward to meet his hand, and my duffel bag falls and hits me on the back of my legs. Simon shakes Kate/Kaitlin’s hand also, then turns back to me. “Mason, I said this last time too, but you look like your mother. Exactly like her, doesn’t he, Emma?”

“Exactly like Naomi.” Emma says my mom’s name quietly, and it splits me down the middle. It’s been so long since I’ve heard anyone say it. For a moment, I hold on to it. I’ve always loved my mom’s name. Naomi sounds like a name for a sophisticated art exec, someone with a portfolio and a briefcase who answers e-mails at all hours and goes to wine tastings on the weekends. Not someone who has been in and out of rehab programs and jail and shitty basement apartments and all the other places she’s been for the past eleven years. Naomi is the name of someone who is going to take charge of her life. It’s one of the reasons I know everything is going to be okay.

“Thank you,” I say awkwardly, even though I’m not sure if it counts as a compliment. People who knew my mom when she was young always make a point of saying how pretty she was, but they say it in the “used to be” kind of way. She was tall, like me, and in her high school photos she has thick dark hair and rosy cheeks. Her lifestyle had been hard on in her a lot of ways, and sometimes I think the pretty got all used up. Maybe that will get better once we’re back together?

Kate/Kaitlin is now giving off the approximate wattage of a supernova. I can see what she’ll write in her notes about today’s placement. Instant connection. Great placement. “Now, remind me, Emma, you and Mason’s mom were best friends?” She says it innocently, like she doesn’t know the answer.