something that she would never be able to get back again.
“Grace?”
Her head jerked up. “What?”
Maya gestured toward her, holding a sleeve of Ritz crackers. “You want some, Spacey Lady?”
“Of course,” she said, sitting down on the stool at the kitchen island. Joaquin was digging around in the refrigerator, looking for something, and Grace took the crackers from Maya and started to arrange them on a plate.
“New necklace?” Maya asked her, digging out the cutting board from a kitchen cabinet. “Where’d you get it?”
Grace’s hand immediately flew to her neck. She had bought the chain long enough so that she could hide it down the front of her shirt, but it had apparently escaped.
She had found the delicate charms online, a tiny gold M and a tiny gold peach, and used the money from her old clothing boutique job to pay for them. Grace had wondered if they were stupid, sentimental things to buy, but when she put the necklace around her neck and looked in the mirror, it felt right.
“Oh, it’s just this old necklace from my grandma,” she said, slipping it down her shirt again. “My mom found a bunch of her old jewelry.”
“What’s the M stand for?”
Grace just shook her head. “No idea. I guess my grandma had her secrets, too.”
The peach thunked against her heart before settling onto her skin.
Her phone buzzed just then, and Grace glanced over at it.
Hey, are you around next week? I found some straws that need to be disemboweled.
It was Rafe, of course, and Grace tried to swallow back the butterflies she felt when she saw it. “Who’s that?” Joaquin asked.
“Yeah, Grace, who is that?” Maya asked. “You look a little . . .”
“You’re blushing,” Joaquin said.
“I am not,” Grace told them. “He’s just a friend.”
Maya’s eyes lit up. “Oh, he is not just a friend,” she said. “No one ever says he’s just a friend when he’s just a friend. Joaquin, back me up here.”
Joaquin put three wedges of cheese down on the countertop. “She’s right.”
“Is she?” Grace asked him. “Is she, really?”
“I have no idea. I’m just scared to disagree with her.”
“She’s your little sister,” Grace said. “You have seniority over her.”
Maya just preened a little as Grace’s phone buzzed again. “Ooh, is it him? Is it him? What’s his name?”
“None of your business.”
“Well, that’s unorthodox,” Maya said, “but hey, I don’t judge. Let me see!”
“No!” Grace cried. “Oh my God, go away. I thought you wanted cheese and crackers.”
“I can eat cheese and crackers and help you talk to a boy! I’m really good at multitasking!”
“Get away!” Grace said, using an unopened sleeve of crackers to defend herself. “Oh my God, you’re the worst!”
“Get her phone, Joaquin!” Maya screamed, chasing a giggling Grace around the island.
“No way,” Joaquin said, calmly slicing up pieces of cheese. “I touched my old foster sister’s phone once. Big mistake.”
“Listen to him!” Grace said. “Maya!”
“Victory!” Maya said as Grace felt the phone slip out of her grasp.
“If you text him, I’ll kill you.”
“Oh, you will not.”
“I’ll maim you.”
“I can live with that.” Maya, a little out of breath, started to read the message. “‘Dear Grace,’” she read, “‘it’s been another month and Milly is changing so much, so fast.’”
Grace felt all of the breath leave her body.
“‘She continues to be the precious light of our lives, and we think of you every day, of course.’”
“Stop,” Grace said, but she couldn’t make her voice louder than a whisper.
Maya had frozen in place, her face going from gleeful to confused. “There’s a picture of a baby,” she said. “Grace, what is—”
Grace forced her legs to move forward, and she swiped the phone from Maya so fast that it clattered to the floor. “Stop it,” she hissed. “I told you to leave it the fuck alone, Maya.”
Next to her, Joaquin was standing still, the cheese slicer still in his hand, watching both of them.
The silence was horrible.
“Who’s Milly?” Maya finally asked. “Is that your baby, Grace?”
Grace closed her eyes, praying that it was a dream, that she could go back in time and wake up in her bed a year ago and have everything go back to normal. “Shut up,” she whispered.
“Did you have a baby?” Maya asked again, and she sounded genuinely confused. “Grace, answer me.”
“It’s none of your business!” Grace screamed at her, reaching down with shaking hands to pick up her phone.
“You had a baby and you didn’t tell us?” Maya shouted. “Are you serious? I told you about my mom and her drinking