Steel made a face. “I should be there with them.”
“He says it’s under control. Says it sounds like the roads aren’t passable between here and there, anyway. We’re all stuck.” She tucked an errant lock of hair out of her eyes. “Wonder what we’ll find when the rain finally ends?”
“Whatever it is, we’ll pull through,” Steel said. “Our families always do, right?”
Stella nodded resolutely. “That’s right.”
When he opened his arms to her, she went to him willingly, pressing her sopping wet body to his. Steel let himself breathe her in. This was all he needed. Stella close by. His family safe. He could handle everything else.
“You must be exhausted,” she said, squeezing Steel’s shoulder. “Trade you?”
Steel started to protest, but he recalled Stella had been training for the body-drag portion of her deputy test. She was more than up to the task of carrying a few sandbags.
“Okay,” he said, taking her place filling sandbags, promising himself he’d switch roles with her again soon.
As Stella took a filled bag from Liz and dragged it into place, Steel realized the girl had been packing scoops of sand into a bag without complaint. “You haven’t gotten the best impression of Chance Creek, have you?” he asked.
He braced himself for the same couldn’t-care-less act as before, but her eyes welled up, her tears joining the raindrops sliding down her skin. “Chance Creek isn’t the problem. I am. I’m an idiot.”
“No, you’re not.” Maybe she had made some poor choices, but she couldn’t have known what she was getting herself into, and she didn’t have enough life experience to recognize trouble.
At least, she hadn’t when she first came to Chance Creek. She did now, Steel reflected, looking at the bruises on her head from when Eric had knocked her out. He suspected Liz was going to be a lot more careful in the future.
“I don’t belong anywhere,” Liz said bitterly. “I’m not like Justin. Working hard, making friends, doing the right thing—I don’t know how it’s always so easy for him. I guess he’s like Mom was. And I’m like Dad.”
Steel had heard about the twins’ father, and he didn’t think hanging out at the pit was quite as bad as embezzling money. On the other hand, he knew how one wrong step could lead to another. His own father’s indiscretions had started out small enough. To brush aside Liz’s concerns would be to do her a disservice.
“You’ve made mistakes,” Steel told her gently. “Everyone does. Sometimes, when a person messes up too badly, their mistakes go on to define their life. But they don’t have to. It’s up to you whether you repeat them or learn from them.”
She gave him a wry smile. “What am I supposed to learn from this? Don’t live in a town with serial killers?”
“That’s not the lesson, and you know it. You said it yourself: Chance Creek isn’t the problem.” He considered his next words carefully. “Whatever you’re looking for, you’ll find. That’s the lesson here. You were looking for trouble, and you found it. But Chance Creek is a great place to live—if you want it to be. Give it a chance. Give yourself a chance.”
“Are you sure the lesson isn’t ‘Stay away from the likes of me’?” Lily broke in. She was packing bags on the other side of Liz, but Steel hadn’t known she was listening.
“You give yourself a chance, too,” he said firmly. “It’s never too late to decide to be someone different if who you are isn’t working for you.” Even Dale had redeemed himself in the end.
It occurred to Steel that he could tell everyone his father’s real story now. He knew word of his own secret identity was already spreading.
“I spent years trying to find Eric, and so did my father before me,” he told the girls. “No one can blame you for not figuring it out.”
“But it was right in front of me!” Lily’s voice broke. “Rena died… and I took his word for it that she was the one who messed up.”
“Did Rena know Cecilia?”
Lily ducked her head. “Cecilia used to be her best friend. Then she kind of disappeared. She stopped coming to school much. Rena started hanging out with us.” She made a face. “I’ll bet you anything it was Cecilia who introduced Rena to Eric. He did the same thing over and over again, didn’t he?”
Steel nodded, but inside he was seething. He remembered what Eric had said at the Burger Shack: girls like Rena couldn’t be saved.
Steel decided then and there he was going to spend the rest of his life proving Eric wrong.
Lily gave Liz a curious look. “Except he took you next. That was different. He hadn’t partied with you before. Why didn’t he grab Lara? She still wanted him even after Sue died.”
Liz nodded. “Lara’s been texting me nonstop. She told me her parents wouldn’t let her see you anymore, so I thought she was looking for a new friend. She kept hinting around that I should invite her for a sleepover. We’d barely met, so I thought that was weird.”
“She was going to sneak out,” Lily told her. “She was probably still texting Eric. He’s always giving away phones,” she told Steel, still filling her bag. “He gave one to Rena. I’m pretty sure he gave one to Sue, too, even though she said her mom bought it for her. He probably gave Lara one, and she was going to use Liz as an excuse so she could be out all night. She probably would have brought you along if you’d wanted to go,” she said to Liz. “That’s why she wouldn’t answer my calls—she wanted to be Eric’s girlfriend next.”
Liz nodded. “I have a feeling she already told Eric about me, because I saw him at the water Olympics. He started talking to me when I was in line
