Lost in thought as we set off, it takes me a while to notice Max seems as preoccupied as I am. A sideways glance takes in the frown on his face, his hands white-knuckled on the steering wheel.

“Are you okay? You seem a bit down,” I say as we pull onto the highway.

“I’m okay. A bit weirded out by the Dean House sale, I guess.”

I raise my eyebrows and he looks across at me. “I know, I know. It’s not my house, I haven’t been back there in forever but…”

“But?”

“You know we’ve known Jack and Sean forever, right? We used to live three streets apart when we were little kids. But childhood friends grow apart, it’s natural—we had nothing in common apart from our parents being friends.” He pauses to change lanes.

“Then Mum and Dad moved abroad for Dad’s job and they shoved me in the same boarding school as Jack and Sean. We never hung out in the same group and I didn’t even have Lena to balance things out. And then on school holidays, we’d go visit Mum and Dad for a couple of weeks in the summer and then get shunted off to Julia and Greg. We never used to see Jack and Sean—they had their own lives, their own friends.”

Did I even notice this back then? They came as a package, Jack and Sean and Max and Lena. I saw them as a unit. But—is that why Max stood out to me, beyond the obvious? Because I sensed he was the odd one out as much as I was?

“But when they bought Dean House and moved to your village, things were different,” Max says. “Jack and Sean didn’t have their old gangs or places to go. Jack and Lena used to moan about how boring it was, but I loved it—the beach, the woods, God, even those discos up at the amusement park, remember? Coming here…we all hung out together and it felt like a proper holiday. I used to look forward to school holidays again, meeting you and Bella. I guess what I’m feeling now is like someone’s sold my favorite holiday house out from under me. I know it’s silly.”

“No, I get that.” I glance over at him. “Sean thought you might be upset over them having Greg declared legally dead.”

“Right,” he says after a pause. “I am, of course. It was a bit of a shock, that’s all.”