face fell, and she looked from Jess to Hayley and back again. “Jess?”
When Jess didn’t answer, she looked at Hayley. “Hayls?” She took a tentative step forward. “What in the world?”
Jess closed her eyes, took a deep breath. Hayley saved her by putting a hand on each shoulder and steering her toward the bathroom. “Go take a moment, okay?”
Gratefully, Jess moved toward the bathroom, almost on autopilot. But though her back was turned, she could practically feel the silent signals passing between Hayley and Kyla. And as she closed the door and sat down on the cool tile floor, she heard their voices as a low, low hum.
As her tears dried and she finally got to a point where she could draw a breath without a hitch in it, she was filled with something that edged out the fear a little bit. It had taken every bit of courage she possessed to tell Hayley what she had, to lift the edge of her shirt and give a glimpse of her childhood, but although the letters still sat on that coffee table and the threat of Roxie and Luanne finding her was very, very real, she felt a small seed of hope.
Tiny, barely formed, but there in a minuscule pinprick of light.
She had her girls. Kyla and Hayley would help her. She had come to Whisper Creek in fear, and maybe that had been unfair to everyone here, but in the end, she knew they’d help her. If she dared to ask, they would help her.
The chill of the tile seeped through her jeans, but as it did, she felt warmer than she’d felt in a long, long time. Maybe her own family was completely for shit, but maybe—just maybe—she’d found a new family she could actually rely on to act like one.
Maybe at Whisper Creek…she’d finally discovered a home.
She opened the bathroom door, but hadn’t taken three steps before Kyla’s arms were firmly around her. “We’ve got you, Jessie. It’s all going to be okay. We’re going to open this envelope together, and whatever’s in it, it’s okay. We’ll figure it out together.”
Kyla kept an arm around her as they walked to the couch, and for the first time she could remember, Jess let herself lean on her friends. She let Kyla’s arm squeeze her tight, let Hayley huddle close as they sat down. She fingered the envelope with Roxie’s writing on the front, paused her thumb before she ripped it open.
“It’s okay,” Hayley said. “We’re right here.”
Jess took a deep breath, slid open the envelope, and pulled out a piece of notebook paper. She unfolded it, dread filling her stomach as she saw more of that scrawling penmanship. Kyla’s hand squeezed on her knee as all three of them read the shaking words on Jess’s lap.
Star, it’s me, Luanne. Your aunt, in case you forgot. Ha. I’ve been trying to call you, but you don’t seem to want to get back to me. That’s frustrating, I gotta be honest. Because we have a lot to talk about, don’t we? Specifically a night called July 25. You remember that night? I think you do. Mack sure does. And I bet the police would be real interested in what you know about that night. Because I think you know a shit-lot about it. Course, for the right price, maybe we won’t feel like we need to make that call. You get me? I think you get me. You always were too smart for your britches. You call us. Otherwise we call the police. Or maybe we call Billy. Bet he’d sure like to know where you are these days, wouldn’t he?
—
Cole balanced a two-by-four with his knee as he fished a nail out of his tool belt. Two more of these and he’d have the back wall framed. He whistled as he hammered, some country song stuck in his head from Ma’s kitchen radio this morning. He should probably be using this precious free hour to work on the downstairs, but all he’d wanted to do was get going on making this space into a—well, home.
“Cole? You still up there?” Decker called from the first floor.
He stopped hammering. “No, moron. It’s the meadow trolls banging around.”
“Wow. Not wasting any time getting Jess moved in, are you?” Decker clomped up the stairs.
“It’s not for J—”
“I know, I know.” Decker waved a dismissive hand. “Keep telling yourself that.”
“You just here to harass me? Shouldn’t you be getting ready for the afternoon ride?”