into the mirror as she applied the mascara their neighbor Jean St. John had recommended. She jammed the wand into the bottle and lifted a shoulder. “You know how your sister is.”
Charlotte thought Lily looked up to Olivia. Rather, she looked up to Lucas. Her sister was also a liar, because Olivia asked Dwight about the dress when she didn’t find it in Lily’s closet. Her dad tilted his head toward his home office window that looked out onto the yard, the garage with the overhead apartment visible to the side. “That wasn’t you outside wearing a dress a bit ago?”
“No!”
“I swear I saw you a few hours ago, twirling about. You looked real pretty. You ran upstairs to the apartment. Blue dress, right?”
Olivia about died. “That wasn’t me.”
She ran across the yard and up to the one-bedroom apartment where the furniture left behind by her grandmother Val sat unused under a blanket of dust. Olivia stood in the center of the main room looking for where Lily could have hidden the dress. The sun shifted and light leaked through the blinds, spilling across the floor. A shimmer of blue across the room caught her eye.
“No!” Her sister had crammed her $350 prom dress into grandmother Val’s antique shipping crate.
Olivia stumbled across the room and threw open the lid. She clutched the dress to her chest and inspected every square inch, from the sequined, embroidered bodice to the torn, mud-stained skirt hem. “Nooo. No, no, no.” Fat, ugly tears dripped off her chin. How could Lily be so cruel? Prom was in two nights. There wouldn’t be time to salvage the dress.
Olivia flew down the stairs and ran to Lily’s room, the dress clutched in her arms. She threw open the door. “How could you?” She shoved the dress between them. “It’s ruined!”
“I . . . I . . . ,” Lily stammered. Colored pencils rolled from her hand onto the floor. Her eyes sheened.
“Explain yourself,” Olivia yelled.
“I don’t understand. I didn’t do anything.”
“You did. Daddy saw you.”
“Saw me where?”
“Out back, dancing in the mud. In. My. Dress!”
“Not true. Daddy’s lying. I swear.” Her chin quivered, and for a moment, Olivia wondered if their dad did lie. Then she saw Lily’s hands. She grabbed her wrist and twisted her hand so they could both see the dirt caked under Lily’s fingernails.
“Liar!”
“It’s paint,” she cried.
“I don’t believe you. I’ll never believe anything you say, not when the proof is right there.” She gestured at Lily’s dirty hands and left the room.
Olivia slaps the lid on the pink shoebox. Something about that memory doesn’t sit right with her. It feels different than before, but she can’t pinpoint what. Nudging the box aside, she drags her keyboard forward. She’s about to search the National Crime Information Center website to see if Lily or Josh have been reported as missing when a car door slams, drawing Olivia’s attention away from her computer.
Blaze is back.
The urge to run outside and straight into his arms has her pushing away from her desk. She wants to tell him about Josh. She doesn’t know the first thing about kids. He’ll help her figure what to do. Then memory kicks in and her stomach knots. He’s no longer hers. But he’ll listen. He might even help, though she doesn’t deserve it, not after the scene she made earlier today.
She meets up with him as he’s loading a floor lamp into the bed of his truck.
“I’m surprised you came out,” he says, his back to her.
So is she, but she regrets how she handled herself. It wasn’t fair of her to accuse him of cheating. “I’m not looking to get back together if that’s what you’re thinking.” The snarky comment slips free before she can tell him about Josh.
“Just to ship me off.” His tone has an edge.
She cringes and gives him the shoebox she used to pack his toiletries. He drops the box in the truck bed. It lands with a thud.
She tries again to tell him about Josh. “Blaze—”
His hand is a stop sign between them. Words lodge in her throat. He leans against his truck and rests an elbow on the bed ledge. “You forget how well I know you. You end things before you get too close.”
“I do not,” she says, defensive, even though that’s exactly what she did.
“I should have seen this coming. We were getting close.” His smile is sad. “Not everyone is out to break your heart, Livy.”
She purses her lips and crosses