“This is amazing,” Pearl said. I don’t know if she realized it, but she’d taken my hand in hers again. Or maybe she was just taking my advice from earlier and trying to look more natural.

We drifted past people and toward the table of baked goods. I was helping myself to a buttery roll of bread when a girl who looked eerily similar to Pearl approached–if Pearl had a hobby of trying to communicate with the dead and liked heavy metal, that was. The girl came rushing up and gave Pearl a punch on the arm, then a quick but fierce hug.

She had dyed black hair with straight black bangs just above her eyebrows. Her facial features were similar to Pearl’s, but with minor differences I noticed as I got a better look at her. Slightly thinner lips and a more pointed chin with less rounded cheeks. But their eyes were almost identical and they were nearly the exact same height.

“Dean, this is Steph,” Pearl said. She lowered her voice and gave me a significant look. “She knows.”

“What?” I asked.

“Yep,” Steph said. “Not all of us are dumb enough to fall for such a flimsy story. I saw right through it the first time she tried to pass you off on us.”

“You didn’t tell me anyone knew,” I said, feeling slightly irked that Pearl had kept me in the dark on that one.

Pearl looked a little embarrassed. “Well, now we’re all on the same page. Right?”

“Yeah, sure,” I said. It was a small thing, but for some reason I kept turning the idea over in my head. I mean, what was the difference in her telling Steph if I’d told Laney? I guessed it felt different because Pearl’s family was here. Laney, my brothers, and my dad were all hundreds of miles away and not connected to this at all. Meanwhile, Steph was right here.

I kept trying to put the thought from my mind because it seemed like it should hardly matter. Still, there was the faintest crack in my trust. It felt like she’d hidden something from me that I should’ve known before we arrived. I couldn’t help wondering if it was the sort of crack that would widen with time. I guessed it was part of the reason I was better off keeping my distance from relationships. All the dishonesty from past girlfriends had me jumping at shadows in the trust department. Pearl hadn’t done anything wrong, but my brain was so gun-shy it was trying to go into full alert over nothing.

“Are you going to show him to mom and dad? They’re over there.” Steph pointed to a group of people in fold-out chairs near the fire. I spotted the two who must’ve been the mom and dad. Early fifties, I guessed. The dad was handsome and rounded in the belly while the mom was the type of woman who appeared to age gracefully. She looked fit and was sitting with almost perfect posture. I remembered Pearl telling me she’d been a dancer on cruise ships when she was younger, and I thought I could still see the signs of it. There was a younger man and a woman I guessed was his wife sitting with them as well. The man was bearded and muscular and the wife was small and petite with blonde hair.