It didn’t happen. But I did use the time to think carefully over the previous night’s events. Every time I looked at Laura now, I would think: You had a sister and she died. It’s what I would have thought about anyone at all who might have shared an understanding of what I’d been through.

I had to proceed carefully. Clearly, Laura didn’t feel comfortable talking about Lily, but it seemed like she was the kind of person who carried around her secrets like a heavy burden on her shoulders. The obvious cause would be Agatha’s illness, but what if it went deeper than that? Barrett made it sound like she’d never been a particularly happy person. What if she’d been mourning her sister in silence all these years?

Well, it wasn’t like she was going to want to talk to me about it, although I thought I might make a pretty good confidante on the topic. It was something I knew a little bit about, anyway. But maybe I could just help her feel more comfortable with the memories, so she could think of Lily with a sense of peace.

Maybe I was wrong, and she had processed the grief in a perfectly healthy manner. But I seriously doubted it. Otherwise, why wouldn’t she have told her own kids about Lily? Why would she keep the graveyard locked and hidden?

Just to unlock that gate would be such a huge step for her. Just to open up those memories—or just provide a place for all those memories to rest. Because obviously you could never really let this kind of burden go.

What if I could give her a safe place to go when the past caught up with her?

BARRETT AND JOHN had gone to John’s law office for the day, and they reappeared in time for dinner. At first, Barrett had come to the table in his shorts and a dark blue CAMDEN LACROSSE T-shirt, but Laura sent him back upstairs to dress properly. He glanced at me with an almost-smile as he left the room, and I felt a delirious rush of connection.

When he came back, we proceeded with our meal in the usual way, with polite conversation. I tried not to speak directly to Barrett, for reasons I couldn’t quite name, but our eyes kept meeting and I couldn’t stop myself from feeling happy just to be around him.

I felt Laura watching me, but that was nothing new, and she asked enough questions about my nap and my level of sleepiness that I thought it was just her normal interest in my health, amplified a bit because of my tiredness that morning.

Afterward, I carried the stack of plates over to the sink and handed them to Barrett one at a time, to rinse under the firm spray of the faucet.

“Hey,” he said. “Any midnight adventures planned?”