Page 6 of The Lookback

“No,” I say. “He thinks I went to all those places, and then. . .” I sigh. “Look, I can’t ask you to lie for me, so I think it’s better if you just don’t meet him. He’s only coming into town to sell me his old family land. He’s hung onto it all this time, but he’s ready to sell, finally.”

“I think there’s something else,” Amanda says. “I think you told him something worse than the lie about the traveling, something so bad that you don’t even want to tell us what it is.” She leans toward me, bracing her hands on her knees. “Spill it, Mandy, or we’ll be sure to stalk your house like, well, liketigersuntil we figure it out.” She holds up her hands like they’re paws next to her face and says, “Rawr.”

I wouldn’t put the stalking past her. It’s not much worse than sneaking through the back door when I’d already kicked them out. My nostrils flare, and I ball my hands into fists, but that bothers my arthritis. The problem is, if they figure out my bigger lie by coming here and visiting with Tommy, he’ll probably realize it’s not true as well.

I’m stuck, really.

I’ve already been caught.

Now all I can do is mitigate the damage.

“How about I go ahead and make you a deal?” I ask. “I’ll create a college fund for both Emery and Maren, and in exchange, you guys never ask me about this again?”

“Like you’re not going to do that already.” Amanda frowns. “Out with it. What horrible lie did you tell him?”

“I think I already know,” Emery says.

Everyone stares at her. “You can’t possibly,” I say.

She frowns. “You lived with him when you faked your death. You’ve known him for a long time. You told him you were traveling around the world. You wrote him letters every week. He was looking at you just like Jed was in that photo. . .” She shrugs. “I think he liked you a great deal, and I think he left because it was too hard to watch you pining after Jed.”

“That’s ridiculous,” I say. “First of all, he left when his father died, and secondly, there’s no way that Tommy?—”

“He told you he’d come out here and tell Jedediah how you felt if you didn’t do it, right?” Emery arches one eyebrow.

“I said that already.” I fold my arms.

“So you told him that you did tell Jed, and the obvious next step is to tell him that you’re getting married—you and Jed, I mean.”

I can’t help my gasp. “You must have snuck in here and read my letters.” I want to throw them out. I want to break something. “There’s no way you could have guessed that without?—”

Emery shakes her head. “Tommy Collins was in love with you, but you didn’t know it. The only thing that kept him from coming out and telling you that. . .was your lie about Jed.”

She’s right about my lie, but not about Tommy. He was just being a good friend, and in his mind, it worked. “I did tell him Jed and I were together,” I say. “But you’re wrong about the other part. I’m absolutely sure that Tommy Collins never liked me.”

Amanda sits down again, slowly. Then she pops her feet up on the coffee table. “I’m going to need you to sit down.”

I drop my hands on my hips. “Why?”

“Because you have some explaining to do if you want to convince us that you’re right, and that much pacing might overload your heart.”

3

HELEN

My own mother has come to visit me exactly three times in my forty plus years of life. She emailed me about the visit several times—once to get permission—before each of her trips. I did convince her to ambush Abigail in an attempt to stave off the Steve blunder, but otherwise, the Fosters aren’t big on surprises.

“Helen!” David’s mother opens her arms wide like she thinks we’re going tohug.

I was led to believe Koreans were a little more reserved, especially the wealthy ones. Did K-dramas lie to me? “Mrs. Park,” I say. “What a wonderful surprise.”

Mr. Park steps toward me, one hand extended. “We like to surprise David sometimes, and now that means you as well.”

I shake his hand, happy to see that at least they know the normal American etiquette for someone you’ve never met. “Like an unplanned audit.”

Mr. Park’s laughter is loud and booming, an exaggerated version of his son’s, honestly. And he has aged well—really well, since he has an older daughter too.

“We wanted to check over the business, of course, because you mentioned an acquisition on the phone, but then we never heard anything more about it.” Mrs. Park gestures toward the conference room table.

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