I picked it up and looked at the photo of a young woman with a wide, bright smile and shiny brown hair. Although she wasn’t as fair as her mother, there was no mistaking that she was Carlie’s daughter. “She looks like you.”
“Do you think? I’ve always thought so but I’m never sure.”
“Her smile especially.”
“She’s coming to visit for a few weeks later in the summer. Maybe you’d like to meet her? She knows about you.”
“Knows what?”
“That you were my first love.” She flushed and dipped her chin to stare into her lap. “My first kiss.”
Could I be her last, too? I made a promise then and there that I’d do whatever I needed to. If there was a chance to win her love, I’d do it. “Okay, full confession. My niece Sarah knows about you too.”
“Knows what?” she asked, repeating my question.
“That you were my first love. My first kiss.” The one to whom I compared every woman I met.
“Is it wrong that I find that incredibly sweet?”
“Not at all,” I said. “I love that Brooke knows about me.”
She chuckled as she looked over my shoulder. “When she was in high school, I told her she needed to wait for the fluttery feeling that Cole Paisley gave me.”
“Fluttery feeling? Is that what it was called?”
“Butterflies,” she said.
“I had those for sure. Only every time I saw you.”
We grinned at each other for a moment, lost in each other’s eyes.
“Can I take you to dinner tomorrow?” I asked. “Then dancing at the Rooster? They have a live band every weekend. The cover band only plays country, though. Do you still like country?”
“What else is there?”
“REO Speedwagon,” I said.
“Right, how could I forget?” She tugged on one of her earrings. She’d done that when she was nervous as a kid.
“What is it?” I asked softly. “Your mother? Would she not want you to see me?”
She dipped her chin, staring into her lap. “Oh no, nothing like that. Mom would be thrilled. She thinks I’ve given up on men. It’s just there’s something I haven’t told you yet.”
“You can tell me anything.”
She returned her gaze to me. “I found a journal of Beth’s. Written the summer she was killed. She’d hidden it in her closet. In it, she talks about another boy. She was cheating on Luke.”
I flinched. “You’re kidding. With who?”
“I don’t know. She calls him Z.”
“Do you think he could be the killer?” My stomach hollowed at the thought. “Was he someone we went to high school with?”
“He has to be. Where else would she meet anyone? It’s not like there were any neighboring high schools. Which means we might have known him. Beth goes on and on about him. They were sleeping together.” A lone tear escaped from her left eye. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for what happened to Luke.”
“Please, don’t cry. Luke’s all right, I promise.”
“Knowing what Beth was doing—it seems like my family ruined yours,” she said.
“What happened to her or Luke wasn’t anyone’s fault but the killer. Even if this guy she was sleeping with killed her. She didn’t ask to be murdered. Anyway, she was a kid.”
She hung her head. “I’m mad at her. I know it’s wrong, but I am.”
“That’s understandable. But you have to remember she was seventeen years old.”
“Luke would never have done anything like that,” she said.
“Regardless, Beth didn’t ask to be killed. Cheating on your high school boyfriend isn’t the worst crime in the world. She was a kid.”
“I’d never have done that to you. And because of her, we never had a chance.”
“Because of the killer, not Beth,” I said. “Maybe we could see about that chance.”
“A second chance?” She folded her hands together on the table. “Is that really possible?”
“I mean, we’re both here. Both single.”
“For years, this town was the place where Beth was killed and sent you away from me. I was the other Webster girl. The one still alive. Everywhere I went, people looked at me with pity and curiosity. I couldn’t wait to get out of here.”
“And now?”
She laid her hands flat and leaned closer to the edge of the tabletop. “And now you’re here. Plus, the stars. The river on a warm afternoon. The way the air smells in the morning. All the things I used to love.”
“Could you love them again?” I asked gently.
“I think I might be able to.”
“It’s worth exploring, at least.”
“We owe it to ourselves to just see, right?” She inched her hands across the table. I grabbed them with my own. “What would your family think if they knew we were sitting here together after all this time?”
I thought about that for a moment. Would they care? If my fantasies were to come to life and I finally had a chance to be with the girl of my dreams, would they approve? They would. I felt certain. They knew how hard I’d taken it when we had to leave. “They’d love it, actually.”
“Really?”
“They want me to be happy.”
I glanced through the branches of the tall oak that grew next to the patio as a town car pulled into the parking lot. Town car? Someone fancy must be in town.
“I got tested for everything. All the diseases. I’m clean.”
Her words drew me back to her. “What?” Clean? I wasn’t following.
“My husband slept with prostitutes.”
Right. Her husband could have brought something home to her. I’d love to get my hands on her ex-husband. Teach him a little about humiliation. “Good to know.”
“I wanted you to know, just in case you wanted to kiss me.”
“I’d do just about anything to kiss you,” I said.
A middle-aged couple were coming up the steps of the patio. They looked vaguely familiar. It took me a moment to place them. Take thirty years and twenty pounds and I suddenly knew who they were. Thom and Sharon Richards. He was running for governor. His signs were everywhere.
“Isn’t that Thom Richards?” Carlie whispered.
I nodded, hoping they wouldn’t notice us. No such luck.
“They’re coming over
