Page 47 of This Time Around
“I—um, I’m not sure. His mom is a secretary at an elementary school, I think. His dad isn’t around.”
“And this boy?—”
“Jack.”
“Jack,” her mother had repeated, pronouncing the word like a disease. “Where’s he going to college?”
“Um, he’s not sure yet. Maybe community college for a couple years to save money, and then?—”
“So it’s not serious, then.”
The words had been a statement, not a question. Allie remembered the flare of anger in her belly, but she’d tamped it down. “I want you to meet him.”
And so he’d met her parents. Her father had been guarded, but charming. Her mother had been chilly, and remained chilly for the next two years, through family dinners and Jack’s surprise scholarship and the two of them moving in together and the engagement and?—
“Turn a little to your right,” Skye said, jarring Allie back to the present. “Perfect. I just want to make sure I’ve got the other side even.”
“I really appreciate you doing this.”
Skye smiled at her in the mirror. “Every woman should look gorgeous for a reunion, even if it’s not her own. Will you know people there?”
“Maybe a few. I’m really just going for Jack.”
“Jack.” Skye grinned and wrapped another lock of hair around the curling iron. “Was he that hot in high school?”
“No. I mean—he was hot, yes. Really hot. But it was more of a youthful hot. Less edgy, you know what I mean?”
Skye nodded. “I know exactly what you mean. His eyes—they look old, but not in a bad way. Sorta soulful. Like he’s seen things.”
“Yes,” Allie mused. “That’s it exactly.”
She fingered the edge of the sheet Skye had draped around her to keep any wayward hair products off her dress. She thought about what Jack’s eyes might’ve seen, things she hadn’t been a part of. A life that had unfolded completely without her.
“Tell me about the guy you were dating,” Allie said. “The one who was living here with you when my grandma hired you. Brody?”
She watched Skye’s expression turn solemn in the mirror, but she didn’t look heartbroken. Just a little wistful.
“There’s not much to tell,” Skye said. “He just woke up one day and said he didn’t love me anymore.”
“I’m sorry,” Allie said. “Sometimes it happens that way.”
“Yeah. I didn’t take it very well at first. I emptied his underwear drawer on the front lawn, sent him pleading text messages at all hours of the night. That sort of thing.”
Allie smiled. “Pretty sure we’ve all done things we’re not proud of at the tail end of a relationship.”
“True.” Skye bit her lip. “Actually, can I confess something?”
“Go right ahead.”
She curled another lock of Allie’s hair around the barrel of the curling iron, then twisted it slowly toward the crown of her head. “Brody came from this really wealthy family. Tons of money, tons of nice things. After he took off, he just left a bunch of stuff here. And, uh—I might have hidden some of it in the attic.”
Allie’s arms prickled. She took a deep breath, unsure exactly what Skye was telling her. “Here? In this house?”
Skye nodded, but didn’t meet Allie’s eyes. “I was a little worried when I saw you up there the other day. I thought you might have found it and since we didn’t know each other well yet, I guess—” she shrugged. “I didn’t want you to jump to the wrong conclusion about me.”
Allie’s heart thudded in her ears, but she kept her voice even. “What conclusion would that be?”
“I don’t know. That I’m the sort of person who’d steal.”
