Patty didn’t move her head. Instead, her eyes kept shifting back and forth between us. “Seems like it’s a good day for me to stop by. I was just going to let you know that my niece will be helping out this summer.” She turned to me. “I saw Julianne the other day, and she mentioned hoping you’d spend a little more time at home. Did she talk to you about it?”
I nodded.
Patty winked. “We’ve got you covered, sunshine.” She jerked her head to the side. “Beat it.”
My head moved forward, and my eyes bulged. “What? Now?”
“Yep! I have your shift today.”
“Oh no, Patty. Thank you, but I would give you more notice than that.”
She giggled. “No problem, as long as you’re okay with it. I’d already discussed it with Julianne, and we’re prepared. And she’s right. You’ve worked your little tail off. Now go be a kid while you still have a little time left.”
I looked to Frankie, who looked lost. “She’s right,” she said. “Go, kiddo. I’ll text your new hours after Patty and I talk.”
The urge to move didn’t come. I just stood there, dumbfounded.
Patty’s expression turned apologetic. “You don’t have to leave. I’m not kicking you out. Julianne only suggested it, and I assumed since Frankie said you had something to talk to me about, that was it. Was it?”
I nodded.
She grinned. “Okay then. What are you waiting for? Go get a pop at Sonic, or take Weston a dip cone. They’re still practicing, aren’t they?”
“Just a little longer. They have their last game the week after next.”
Patty looked to Frankie. “Make sure we take her off the schedule for that day. Weekends off too.”
Frankie agreed.
“I didn’t know,” I said to Frankie.
“I know,” she said. “It wasn’t fair for me to get all Medusa on you. I told you before that you should ease back on your hours. I don’t know. I guess I didn’t think you actually would. I’m just going to miss you.”
Patty held out her hand. “I need your apron, Erin. Have a good rest of the day!”
I untied the black strings at the small of my back and pulled the strap over my head, handing my apron to Patty.
“You’re still going to keep me on the schedule, right? I’m not fired?”
“Of course not, silly!” she said, playfully swatting me on the backside with the apron.
A car pulled into the parking lot, and Patty turned her back to me, opening the window and greeting the family walking toward her.
Frankie smiled at me. “I’ll see you next week. I’m okay,” she said with a forced smile. “I’m sorry. That was stupid.”
“Okay. See you in a few days.”
For some reason, I took a detour home to pass by Gina’s house. It looked the same. The windows were still dirty, the screen door was still hanging off-kilter, the porch still needed paint, the backyard fence was still broken. I wondered if she’d left my room the way it was, or if she’d sold everything. Nothing ever seemed to change there. I wondered if she cared enough about me that she didn’t want to look at my things, or if she was so relieved to get rid of me that she wanted to be rid of any reminder of me too.
The garage door slowly closed behind the BMW, and I pressed the ignition button to turn off the engine. Silence. Absolute silence. Just me, the garage, and the new car smell.
Julianne opened the back door with a big grin. “You’re home early! Did you talk with Patty?”
I grabbed my backpack and shut the driver’s side door behind me, nodding as I passed her, heading straight for my usual stool at the kitchen island. She followed me and leaned against the stove with her arms crossed.
“What’s up, buttercup?” she asked. “Patty wasn’t upset, was she?”
I shook my head. “She said you already talked to her about it.”
Julianne cringed. “Oh gosh, Erin, I hope that’s okay. I didn’t mean that she had to cut your hours. I just told her I was hoping you would want to, and that I was going to talk to you about it.”
“It’s okay. I was going to…She just beat me to it.”
“Oh. So…you’re not upset with me?”
“No. But I need to tell you something. I think you’re going to be upset with me.”
“Oh?” she said, suddenly worried.
“I was going to wait until Sam got home, so I could tell you both.”
“He has a late case.”
“Then I’ll tell you, and maybe you can tell him?”
She nodded and took a few steps until she could lay her palms flat on the granite of the island.
“I, um…I went into Alder’s room. I was curious, not that it’s an excuse. But I saw her tub full of journals.”
Julianne didn’t react. She just listened.
“I read one. Not all of it. But I read a few entries.”
Julianne dipped her head, and after several seconds, she wiped her eye with her wrist.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. I won’t go into her room again. The worst part is that I knew it was wrong, but I did it anyway.”
Julianne looked up at me with wet eyes. “You’re not the only one.”
“Pardon?”
“I’ve always known that she kept journals. I’ve been reading them too, since she died. Curiosity is an awful trap, isn’t it?” she said, sheepish. “But, Erin…You shouldn’t read any more. You won’t like it.”
“You sound like Weston,” I said, looking away.
“What do you mean?”
“He said the same thing. That I shouldn’t read any more. He acted really weird about it.”
“Really? What else did he say?”
“Nothing else.”
She fidgeted. “He came by today.”
“He what?”
“He told me you were reading Alder’s journals, and he told me to tell you to stop.”
Weston had left art to tattle on me? There had to be a reason he didn’t want me to read the journals. He wouldn’t just try to get me into trouble with Julianne. Something was in there that would hurt me, and he knew about it.
“Why would he do that?”
She looked down, troubled. “Alder is different than we thought, Erin. Some of the things she wrote are…upsetting. She knew things. Things Sam and I had no idea about. And…” She shook her head. “I haven’t read all of them. It was too hard. I haven’t told Sam. I’m not sure how he would react.”