crazy how one second can change everything,” I say, remembering when Mom told Dad that, and later, Iris told me. “It’s like my seventeenth birthday triggered something. Like it set some monstrous wheel in motion that I can’t stop.”
Wyatt’s expression spills worry and affection.
“Mom knows I went through that toolbox in Dad’s shop,” I say, then go on to explain that I forgot to take off the flannel shirt and how strange she acted when she noticed me wearing it.
He frowns. “Why do you think it bothered her?”
I shrug. “I wish I knew.”
Wyatt reaches into his jacket pocket, retrieving Dad’s workshop keys and an extra set. “Here. I had these spares made for you like you asked.”
“Thanks.” I put them into my pocket.
“What else did your mom say?”
“She told me I should cut my hair short, that long hair doesn’t suit me.”
“What’s that all about?” Wyatt asks.
“Who knows? You should’ve seen her expression. It was so weird.”
Hoping he’ll have an open mind, I tell him about my return visit to the workshop last night and what happened. That is, everything other than Iris’s insistence that Mom is hiding something. I’ve never told Wyatt about Iris.
“Winterhaven and Jake must have something to do with what Dad was planning to tell me,” I say. “I’m going to ask Mom and see how she reacts. I want to ask her about the violin and other stuff, too. I’m just waiting for the right time. I don’t want to freak her out again.”
Wyatt blinks and shifts uneasily. Stooping, he scoops a rock off the ground and tosses it down the road.
“What?” I say. “You think Winterhaven’s just some random place I scribbled down on paper for no reason? Why wouldn’t I remember doing it?”
“I don’t know, Lil.” He stands. “It is kind of freaky. I mean, you really think something led you to write that down?”
“Do you have a better explanation?”
“Not really. But I’m creeped out by that one, aren’t you?”
A burst of cool wind rattles the treetops. Iris’s shiver is like a ripple on a lake. Creepy is my normal, I think, wondering what he’d say if I told him about her. “Yes, I’m creeped out,” I say instead. “It was completely eerie, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”
Looking down, he pokes a tree root with the toe of his boot, muttering, “I wish you wouldn’t go out there alone.”
“I’m not having some kind of wigged-out emotional response to Dad’s death,” I say softly. “You don’t have to worry about me.”
“I didn’t say I was.”
“But you are, and it’s okay.” I duck my head to capture his attention, and smile. “It’s nice that you care. I know this all sounds crazy, but I can show you the note. I’ve never even heard of Winterhaven, Massachusetts. Why would I just pull it out of thin air? And what about how I reacted to the music box song?”
“I can’t explain the music, but maybe you heard your parents talking about Winterhaven sometime in the past. Or you might’ve heard it mentioned in a movie or something.”
“Maybe. But why did I write it down? Don’t you think that’s sort of random? I’m thinking maybe I’ve been there before.” I cross my arms, my head about to explode from all the questions running through it. “It’ll be easy to find out if Winterhaven’s a real place, but I don’t know how I can prove that it has anything to do with my parents’ secret. Or Jake, for that matter. Right now that’s just a feeling I have.” Because of Iris, I think.
“You don’t have to prove anything to me,” says Wyatt, but he fails to hide his concern.
Humiliated that he thinks I’m losing my grip, I say, “I know you don’t believe any of this. But you have to admit that it’s a pretty big coincidence that I zoned out twice when the music box played.”
“Twice?”
“You were there the first time,” I remind him.
He holds my stare. “Wait. When we kissed?”
I’ve never noticed how green his eyes are. “Yes,” I whisper.
“And you think the music had something to do with that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. I mean, you have to admit it was bizarre.”
He shrugs.
I don’t want to embarrass him, but I will if I tell him it was as if I was kissing the guy with black hair and blue eyes in the vision. “I just don’t understand how it happened,” I say.
“Maybe we both wanted it to,” Wyatt replies, his voice tender and warm.
Suddenly, all