Now, she looked at her mother in Mr. Haynes’s embrace and tiptoed backward into her room before either of them saw her.
Was it real with Greer? She was beginning to think so. Maybe.
She pulled out her cell, deciding to text Marissa. Her fingers hovered over the alphabet keys. She started several times. She wanted to share, but she also wanted to keep it to herself. Finally, she wrote: Met Greer at denos. Nobody showed but him and me
Immediately, Marissa wrote back: I shoulda gone. Sick of being home
Harley texted: good I’ll see you at school
To which Marissa gave her a thumb’s-up emoji.
Harley’s stomach rumbled. She opened her bedroom door with a flourish to alert the adults, just as Emma and Duchess came into the hall. The dog nearly knocked Harley over with her enthusiasm before going on high alert and suddenly howling wildly.
“Jesus, don’t freak me out, Duchess,” Harley said.
“Yeah, me too,” said Emma. “Don’t freak me out. And don’t swear.”
* * *
Jamie pulled herself out of Cooper’s arms at almost the same moment she heard Harley and Emma and Duchess enter the hall. The dog started howling, which made her jump about a foot. “What’s going on?” she asked, alarmed.
Duchess ran toward Cooper and slid to a halt. She checked him out all over and finally started wagging her tail.
“You were too close to Jamie,” Emma stated matter-of-factly.
Jamie looked from the dog to her sister. Sometimes Emma was almost prescient, in a weird way.
Cooper patted Duchess’s head. “Good guard dog.”
They all sat down at the table for dinner and Duchess, apart from some minor whining, waited until they were finished to be fed her evening meal. Harley had come downstairs and scooped herself a heaping helping of manicotti and Jamie looked at her hard.
“I didn’t eat any pizza,” Harley admitted. “We just talked.”
Cooper looked at Harley and then at Jamie.
Emma said, “Jamie doesn’t like her boyfriend.”
“That’s not it,” Jamie denied.
“They fight,” Emma added for Cooper’s benefit.
Harley said around a mouthful of manicotti, “I do like pasta. I just wanted to go to Deno’s.”
Jamie looked at Cooper and said dryly, “Welcome to the Whelan/Woodward household.”
“Are you and Jamie having sex?” Emma asked, to which Harley nearly spit out her food.
“Emma,” Jamie said on an intake of breath.
“It’s personal,” Emma said. Cooper looked a bit taken aback, but then he just chuckled. Emma gave him a sideways look, and though she didn’t quite smile in return, she said, “You and I are good friends.”
Cooper slowly grew more sober, and he looked at her with warmth and a tinge of sadness. “We have been for a long time, Emma.”
Harley looked over at Jamie. She was clearly moved by his words, as was Jamie. I’m sorry, Harley mouthed.
Jamie winked at her in forgiveness.
* * *
An hour later, Jamie walked Cooper out to his car, parked at the end of their driveway. “Emma,” he said, shaking his head and smiling.
“I know. I think she enjoys being a little outrageous. She always was a little that way,” said Jamie.
He nodded. “What happened with Harley?”
“One moment she’s wonderful, the next she’s testy and prickly and kind of gunning for a fight.”
“Sounds like fifteen.”
“Yeah.” She then told him about Harley meeting Greer at Deno’s, and him bringing Harley back by car.
Cooper said, “Marissa was supposed to go to that. I just talked to her before I got here. She feels like she’s under a microscope at home, yet she’s a little afraid to go out. I encouraged her, but she decided not to.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear there were actually other people invited who didn’t show. I thought it might be a setup.”
Jamie told him about Vicky’s phone call and her acceptance that Tyler had some responsibility for what had happened with Katie Timbolt. “She was commiserating with me about Gwen. She felt terrible.”
Cooper said, “Hopefully, we’ll know some more tomorrow. Gwen’s parents should be here in a day or two.”
“How terrible for them. I can’t imagine it.”
He nodded, and they were both silent for a minute. Then he said, “I talked to Dr. Ryerson again.” He brought her up-to-date on that phone call, and they discussed his engaging Deke to go to the Ryerson house to put the scare into his wife. “Ryerson seems to believe Deke attacked Emma. He didn’t mention Dug, so I don’t think he knew he was there.”
“It sounds like Deke saw Dug. Do you think he came back later and attacked Emma? And has spent all these years trying to make it up to her in his way?” Jamie asked.
“It’s possible. Doesn’t sound like the Deke Girard Hillary Campion knows, but then, she considered him her boyfriend, so she’s hardly impartial.”
They talked a bit more, running over more territory. He pulled her to him and kissed her hard, then set her an arm’s length away. “I’ve gotta go. If I don’t, I won’t, and you have responsibilities.”
“Yes,” she said, throwing a glance at the house.
“Tomorrow,” he told her.
“Tomorrow,” she agreed, and she walked back inside as Cooper got into his SUV.
When the morning came, Jamie received a phone call from the school. Could she substitute for a sophomore Social Studies teacher? She agreed and didn’t tell Harley until they were at the school that she would be substituting in her class.
“Oh, okay,” Harley said. She was already outside the car and strapping on her backpack, her gaze on the school.
“Really? Okay?”
“Gotta go.” She began hurrying away, and Jamie saw that she was heading toward where Marissa was just climbing out of her mother’s car. Laura got out as well, and Jamie thought about her partner, David Musgrave, and his ingratiating manner at Elgin DeGuerre’s law firm.
And then Teddy Ryerson’s words came back to her.
I’m just asking you to pay attention. That’s all. I don’t want you to lose your money, or somehow be ... cheated out of what’s yours.
She’d never trusted that Teddy might
