“I don’t have the money.” Quiet tears trailed down her cheeks. “I thought maybe I could make it work. But this is too big. Too grand.” She pressed the spot between her eyes. “When am I going to stop hoping for the fairy tale? What is wrong with me?”

“The fairy tale?” Liv asked, pushing a stray hair away from Kincaid’s face, her heart hurting for her friend.

Kincaid looked down. “Yes. I think it’s the lie I had to tell myself when I was little. If things were as bad as they were, then I must be Cinderella, right? I was paying some penance that was going to get rewarded down the line.”

A little fissure went through Liv’s heart at the earnestness in her friend’s voice. She knew what that felt like. “Kincaid.”

“One day, I would get to be happy. I wouldn’t be the girl ignored by her mom or deemed not worth the trouble by her dad. I’d have my pretty house and a job I loved and maybe my very own prince. Friends who loved me. A family.” Her voice caught. “I thought I was on my way senior year. That life was falling into place. I had plans for school. I had a boyfriend I loved. A best friend who meant everything to me.”

Liv nodded, listening, knowing how that story ended.

“And then the shooting happened,” she continued. “I lost Graham. Everything fell apart. And I thought, surely, this is the ultimate penance. I get to the good part now. I get to the part that doesn’t hurt so much. Right?”

Liv’s ribs contracted. “Oh, sweetie.”

Kincaid lifted her gaze. “I’ve tried so hard to be happy,” she said, voice fervent. “I’ve been determined not to give my parents’ failings a say in my life, not to give the shooters a say. I’ve tried to give them all the finger and declare, Just you wait. Look at me. I’m going to show all of you how deliriously happy my life can be.” She started crying audibly, her breath hitching. “And I am sometimes. I really am. I have Grace and Charlie. I have you guys. Y’all are my heart.” She pressed her hand to her chest. “I’m so lucky in so many ways. But right now, sitting in this house that I know isn’t going to become anything, this house that will one day be labeled Kincaid’s Random Shit, I just feel like I never got out of that crappy house on Pine Street. This place is bigger, but there are still holes in the floor and empty rooms with no one home but me.”

Liv’s heart broke for her friend, and she slid into the spot next to her to put her arm around her. Taryn and Rebecca lowered to the floor with them, surrounding Kincaid and putting their hands on her.

Liv squeezed her friend tight as Kincaid cried softly. “You are not alone, chica. You will always have us, and even if it takes a few years, you can make this project happen. We’ll help you with whatever you need.”