Lastly, he turned to Emma’s picture. She’d had it taken before the accident and the school had put it in the yearbook, even though she hadn’t finished senior year. Her blue eyes were full of confidence and there was something almost mischievous about her smile, like she had a secret she didn’t want to share.
He stared at the photo a long, long time, determined to make good on his promise to find out what really happened to her.
* * *
Saturday night, Jamie had everything she needed to make spaghetti. Maybe bucatini carbonara had been a bit of a disaster, but spaghetti was in her wheelhouse, and probably Emma’s, too. She was just getting ready to cook up the hamburger for the meat sauce when her cell phone rang.
She glanced at the screen, but didn’t recognize the number. “Hello?” she answered cautiously.
“Hi, Jamie. It’s Ted Ryerson.”
“Teddy,” she responded, surprised. “Well, hi. What’s going on?”
“My sister and I are going out to dinner tonight, meeting another friend, and we wondered if you’d like to join us. We’re heading into Portland. Pearl District, maybe? Pick up Serena and then meet at a restaurant. Maybe catch a film afterward.”
Jamie was nonplussed. Maybe he was just being nice, or maybe he thought she had money to invest, but either way, she didn’t want to take him up on the invitation. It just felt weird. “Well, thank you, but I’m sorry, I’ve got other plans,” she lied. “Maybe another time?”
Teddy and Serena were only seven years behind her, but it felt like a full generation to Jamie. She really didn’t know them, and anyway, she’d half-hoped, though it was maybe silly, that she might connect with Cooper tonight, somehow. He’d called and told her he’d met with the retired detective on her sister’s case.
“That’s too bad. I thought if Harley was at my house, maybe you could use some company.”
“Harley’s not going to be there,” Jamie corrected him. “It’s only Marissa. We had a change of plans.”
“Oh . . .” Now he was the one who sounded nonplussed. “All right,” he said reluctantly. “Next time.”
“Next time,” she agreed.
“Who was that?” Emma asked when Jamie was off the phone. She was in the kitchen with her apron on and Jamie had tasked her with opening the jars of tomato sauce while she browned the hamburger.
“It was Teddy Ryerson. He asked me to join him and Serena for dinner.”
The open jar slipped out of Emma’s hand and thunked on the counter. In a surprisingly swift move, Jamie lunged for it and grabbed it before it fell to the floor, slopping a glop of red sauce onto her hand.
“I don’t like them,” Emma said, her face screwing up as if she were about to cry.
“I know. You said so before. But I’m not going out with them. And Harley’s not babysitting for them tonight. But Emma, we have to be able to do things that we think are okay, and if that means being with the Ryersons, well, we’re going to do that.”
“Okay.”
Her sudden capitulation raised Jamie’s eyebrows, but she let it pass. Half an hour later, Harley wandered downstairs, phone in hand, just as Jamie served up the spaghetti, a green salad, and the garlic bread Emma had prepared. Though the garlic was a little heavy-handed, both Jamie and Harley complimented her on the bread.
“I’ve been talking to Marissa,” Harley admitted, out of earshot of Emma. “She’s really pissed at her mom.”
“Hmmm.”
“Do you really like Mr. Haynes?” she asked curiously.
“I hardly know him.”
“He called you today.”
“Are you checking up on me?” She gave her daughter a look.
“I think it’d be cool if you liked him, that’s all.” Harley fingered her phone’s keypad. “I kinda like somebody.”
“Greer?” Jamie didn’t know if she was more surprised by the speed of this new attraction or the fact that Harley had willingly brought it up to her again.
“He barely knows me. He’s a senior. It’s not anything.” She shut down as fast as she’d opened up.
“Okay. If you want to talk more, let me know.”
But Harley clearly felt she’d said too much already. And she had, in a way, because Jamie, having been given another kernel of information, was curious about this boy who had tickled her daughter’s fancy, so to speak.
The three of them ate the spaghetti and garlic bread and an Italianesque salad with an oil and vinegar dressing; then Jamie headed upstairs, leaving Emma downstairs watching her DVR’d cooking episodes with Harley, who was watching with her . . . and texting with Marissa. Jamie warned her to let her friend be. Marissa was foremost in charge of Oliver and Anika, and the last thing Jamie needed was to hear more about it.
Camryn called and asked if Jamie was free to go out. Jamie almost said yes. She could visit her friend and also make good on the excuse she’d given Teddy Ryerson. But she felt unsettled. It didn’t feel right leaving Harley and Emma alone tonight. She begged off, but she and Camryn confirmed plans for the next weekend.
She then took a bath and tried to put Laura Haynes out of her mind. It bothered her that things had gone so sideways with Cooper’s ex. Icky Vicky’s tribe had said how nice Laura was, and they’d been half-scandalized that Jamie had allowed Marissa to come to their house while spreading Mom’s ashes and not warn Laura in advance.
That had been a mistake. But she wasn’t sure how to ameliorate the situation beyond the apology she’d already given.
“Maybe she’s not as nice as everyone says,” Jamie muttered to herself.
Later, after Emma was in bed, Harley was in her
