Filling in the grave should have gone faster, been easier, but it seemed to progress in slow motion, both of us exhausted and ready to be done. When Jenny had scooped the final bit of earth, we spread moss and twigs over the site, walked and kicked until it looked the same as the rest of the ground. Or at least same enough.

Jenny palmed dirt off her cheek with the back of her hand. “That’s it.” She looked at me. “Anything you want to say?” She gestured toward the grave with a dirt-stained hand.

What was there to say? He’d been my brother. My first love. The only person I’d ever trusted not to hurt me. “Yeah,” I said, grabbing the shovel off the ground. “He had it coming.”

I had to hand it to my mama, those words I’d sworn I’d never say were strangely satisfying on my tongue.

• • •

Jenny had done a good job hiding her car, although the chances of anyone happening along here were slim. I put the shovel in her trunk, and she tossed the flashlight in as well. “I’ll wash the shovel as soon as I get home,” she said. “Put it right back in the garage.” She glanced down at her dirt-streaked clothes with a wince. “And get rid of these.”

I looked at her. “Are you going to hold it together? Once daylight hits and all this is real?”

She stared back at me. “It’s already real. And yeah, I’ll hold it together fine.”

“What about Zach?” I asked. “He knew it was Cal.”

Jenny leaned back against her car. I could barely make out her features in the moonlight. “Don’t worry about Zach. The second I came out of the kitchen and told him I’d heard you two, the only thing he could focus on was the fact that now I knew he was Junie’s father. ‘What she said was true about that night, it was only one time. You and I weren’t even engaged yet. It never happened again.’” She snorted out a laugh. “Like I give a shit about that, at this point. It was years ago. They’re gone. Who cares? But Zach is Zach. He’ll carry his guilt around like a hair shirt for the foreseeable future.” She turned and opened the driver’s door. “I can use that, if I have to. But I don’t think I will.”

“For what it’s worth, he never really wanted to keep Junie a secret from you. That was my idea. I didn’t see what good it would do for anyone to know.”

Jenny gave me a little smile. “They found each other anyway, didn’t they? Zach and Junie. Junie and Izzy. Looking back, I feel like an idiot for not seeing it. The way he was always hovering around them when Junie was at our house, hanging on every word she said. I finally know why he never wanted to leave Barren Springs. It was written all over his face.”