Keeper of the Light

with Paul,” he’d said, and Olivia, who had just returned from Paul’s cottage, fought tears as she described what she had found there.

“He’s wallowing in the memories of her, Alec,” she said. “He’s surrounded himself with take-out food so he doesn’t have to budge from his room and he can stare at her pictures for hours on…”

“Olivia?” Alec had interrupted her.

“What?”

“Please give me your permission to talk with him.”

“No.”

“He sounds like he needs help.”

“I know, but he won’t take it.”

“What if I just stopped by his house on the pretense of talking about the lighthouse?”

“Please don’t, Alec.”

Alec had finally given in, but not before he told her that he wished things were settled between her and Paul. “For my sake,” he’d said, his voice quiet, solemn, “if not for yours.”

Lacey tucked the blanket into the foot of the bed. “I’m thinking of getting my nose pierced,” she said, looking over at Olivia, waiting for a reaction. Her red and black hair was beginning to remind Olivia of a checkerboard. “What do you think?”

“I think it sounds revolting.” Olivia lifted the spread from the armchair to the bed. “Would your father let you?”

“My father will let me do anything I want, haven’t you figured that out yet?”

The bed was finished and Olivia looked across it at her house guest. “Let’s go get some dinner,” she said. “You can choose the restaurant.”

Lacey selected the Italian Palace, a family-style restaurant with pasta dishes that, to Olivia’s surprise, were better than passable. “This is my favorite restaurant,” Lacey said, her eyes half closed in a mock swoon over the taste of her lasagna. Then she suddenly sat up at attention. “My father gave me the money to pay for this,” she said.

“Well, that was nice of him, but hardly necessary.”

“He said I’m not supposed to take no for an answer.”

“Okay.” Olivia smiled and lifted her water in a toast. “Here’s to your father.”

Lacey grinned as she tapped her water glass against Olivia’s.

“I have a stained glass lesson with Tom tomorrow morning,” Olivia said. “Would you like to go with me?”

“Sure,” Lacey said. “I haven’t seen Tom since I cut my hair. He’s gonna freak.”

“Tom doesn’t have much room to criticize someone else’s hair, does he?” Olivia asked.

Lacey laughed. “I guess not.” She took a swallow of her Coke. “What’s your sign?” she asked.

“My sign?” Olivia frowned, confused for a moment. “Oh. Aquarius.”

“Oh, that’s excellent!”

“Is it?”

“Yes. I’m a Cancer. You know, the sign of the crab. A water sign, just like yours. You fit in really well with my family. My mother thought water signs were best. My father’s a Pisces—”

Like Paul, Olivia thought.

“—and my mother was an Aquarius, just like you, only she was a weird Aquarius and you’re—well, it’s hard to believe you’re the same sign. Clay, unfortunately, is a Scorpio. I don’t know how that happened. But anyhow, when my mother discovered she was pregnant with me and realized I’d be a water sign, she celebrated by taking a long swim in the ocean, even though it was, like, almost winter and the water was really cold.”

Olivia smiled as Lacey paused to take another bite of her dinner. This kid was wound up.

“My mother wanted more children than just us two,” she continued, “but she said it wasn’t fair to the environment. She believed that two people should only replace themselves, or we’d all run out of food and water. She and Dad talked about adopting some handicapped kids, but they never did. I’m sooo glad.” Lacey rolled her eyes again. “I’m very different from my mother. I’m really selfish. I didn’t want to have to share my parents with another kid. Sharing them with Clay was bad enough.”

“Do you and Clay get along?”

“I mostly ignore him. He’s been a complete prick this summer because now I, like, go to some of the same parties as him and he hates having his little sister around.”

Olivia frowned at her. “You are a little young to be hanging around with graduating seniors.”

Lacey smirked at her. “Graduating seniors,” she said, mimicking Olivia’s voice. “God, Olivia, sometimes you sound like an old lady.”

“Well, that’s what Clay is, right? A graduating senior? When do those parties get over?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean…I understand you don’t have a curfew. So what time do you usually get home?”