He stood up and brushed the pine needles off the back of his T-shirt and the seat of his pants, and sat down beside me on the bench. The breeze picked up. A shiver passed over me. I rubbed my arms. Arch walked around the edge of the circle and then sat down again, casting a furtive glance toward the woods behind us, as if he thought someone might be eavesdropping.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I don’t know. I should have. Every time I thought about it, I told myself you probably already knew.”

“I didn’t,” I said. “I should have, though. I saw things.”

“Most of the time, we see what we want to see,” he said. “I’m really sorry. I just didn’t know how you’d take it, that’s all.”

“I feel like an idiot.”

“I do too.”

“What about Vanessa?” I asked. “Does she know?”

“She knew a long time ago,” Arch said.

“Did you tell her?”

“She figured it out on her own.”

“So you talked about it?” I asked. “That’s just great. I mean, terrific. Really.”

“She said she thought you knew. And if you didn’t, it wouldn’t be right for us to tell you,” he said.

“Bullshit.”

“It’s not bullshit. I mean, yeah, we were scared of what might happen. Uncle Jim was going to run for governor, for fuck’s sake. You think I wanted to be the one to blow that up?”

“You think I would have told?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “It was just easier not to say anything.”

“And what about Jamie?”

“He would have told you.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Jamie couldn’t keep a secret like that to save his own life.”

“Fucking A,” Arch said.

I shook my head.

“All that crap Mr. Haltom’s always preaching to us about,” I said. “Honor, loyalty, integrity. It’s just a bunch of bullshit to him, isn’t it? He’s just another creep.”

“That’s not fair,” Arch said. “Uncle Jim loves your mom—can’t you see that? And from what I can see, she loves him too. I think it just happened. Things like this happen, you know.”

“Like your dad and Mrs. Potter?”

“That was different.”

“What makes you think so?”

I stood and turned my back to Arch so he wouldn’t see the tears forming in my eyes.

“Shit,” he said. “I thought Aunt Cici knew anyway. I love her, but you know Aunt Cici. She’s nuts. I mean, hiring your mom as her assistant, moving y’all into the house—I figured it was one of those ‘keep your enemies closer’ things. Or maybe she was okay with it so long as no one else knew, and having your mom around all the time would make it easier to hide. Or maybe it was an arranged thing. I don’t know. I didn’t want to know. You know?”