“Okay, but how are you feeling about work? You know what Dr. Nesbit said, about how important it is to be in touch with—”
“I’m feeling great,” Kate said. Only after she said it did she realize it was true. She had been so weary when she had arrived in Callinas, so drained. Limp, like overkneaded dough. Now there was a little crackle of energy inside her. A flicker of yeast, starting to rise.
“I think you were right,” she continued. “All I needed was some sun.”
“I didn’t say that was all you needed,” her mother said. Her voice had taken on that frayed tone she got sometimes, and Kate could picture her fidgeting with the sleeve of her cardigan, the way she did when she felt like a conversation was swooping out of control.
“No, I know.” Kate tried to sound soothing. “I’m trying to say I’m doing well.”
“Okay, but let me read you this article I saw in Psychology Today—wait, let me find it … here, I’m looking in the dining room, I think it was on the table…”
As Darcy continued narrating her movements, Kate’s phone pinged with a message. It was from Nikhil.
Hey Kate, breaking the BARTENDER’S CODE OF SILENCE to tell u Kid just walked into PPs. If u still want to talk to him.
God bless Nikhil. Kate had still been checking at Esme’s store from time to time, hoping to find Kid again, with no luck. The surly old man seemed to have vanished into thin air.
“It’s not on the console,” her mother was saying.
“Mom, I have to go,” Kate said, reaching out to hang up the call.
She checked the time. She didn’t get off work for three and a half hours, which was a lot of hourly pay. But she had been trying to find Kid for days, and if she waited until she normally left work, he would be long gone. She flipped her phone over and over in her hand, thinking hard. Then she sighed and got to her feet. She went down the hall, through the living room, to the base of the stairs.
“Theo?” she called out.
The squeak of his desk chair being rolled back. “Yeah?”
“I’m not feeling so well. I think I’m going to go home early.”
There was a pause, then footsteps. Kate tried to look sick just as Theo appeared at the bend in the stairs.
“Are you okay?” He looked concerned. “Do you want me to drive you home? You shouldn’t hike alone if you’re not feeling well.”
“I might throw up,” she said. “I’d be embarrassed.”
“If that’s all…” Theo started down the stairs. “I have two kids. One of them likes getting the other to eat crayons. I’ve seen a lot of vomit.”
“Theo!” Kate held up her hand. Now she felt like she might actually be sick. “Thank you. But I really just want to walk home on my own.”
Theo stopped and rested his hand on the rail. His brows knit together. “Okay. But can you at least text me when you get to your aunt and uncle’s?”
“As soon as I get there,” she promised.
* * *
When Kate walked into Pawpaw’s, the place looked empty, except for the same rotating group of barely legal surf bros who were always parked in the biggest booth, and of course Nikhil, who had contorted himself halfway across the counter to watch the soccer match playing on the bar’s only TV. Kate thought Kid might have already left. Only when Nikhil—not taking his eyes off the screen—pointed to the corner did she see the skinny, cargo-pants leg sticking out from behind the nonfunctional jukebox. She gave Nikhil a mock salute and wove through the tables.
Kid was alone, doing a newspaper crossword and nursing a dark beer. He had brought in some Chinese takeout, and the gluey brown sauce dripped from the takeout container onto the plastic bag. His scarecrow body barely fit into the tiny nook he had chosen. It should have looked ridiculous. Yet there was something defiant about the way he sat there, his knees scrunched almost to his chest, his pen scratching across the pale gray paper.
“I used to know someone who wrote those,” Kate said brightly.
Kid looked up and frowned. He didn’t look especially surprised to see her.
“Big whoop,” he said, returning to the crossword.
She tried to look kind and nonthreatening. “Do you have a moment to talk? I’ve been trying to find you.”
“I know.” He started filling in a blank square. “Esme told me.”