My blood is pumping through my veins at record speed, and the complication of August actually liking this girl makes me feel like there’s an anvil on my shoulders.
“This is the dock where Holden and I swam every summer growing up,” I tell Ella, trying to keep her distracted. “We always liked it better than the ocean for some reason. Felt like our own private swimming hole.”
“I can totally see that,” Ella says as we walk along the wooden planks decorated with white twinkle lights. The party has expanded closer to the water, and we have to step around people. “It’s charming here. Quaint. Did you guys spend a lot of time here as kids?” There’s something in her voice that I can’t place, something unsure.
I nod, hoping my enthusiasm will dispel her doubts. “Kinda, yeah. Holden’s mom was always on some excursion or other, and my parents basically work nonstop.”
“But now you live near me,” Ella continues, like she’s trying to understand. “What street was it again?”
“Uh, Spring Street,” I say, feeling distinctly uneasy about this line of questioning.
“Funny,” she says. “I have a friend who lives on that street. Which house is it?”
While I always prepare for questions like this before every case, her timing is making me feel sick. “Blue one with the white trim. You’re welcome anytime,” I say, replying with confidence I don’t feel.
But she doesn’t respond. She just chews her cheek and stares at the water.
“So, who should I introduce you to first?” I say.
She looks at me and her forehead scrunches. “Valentine,” she says, and all the blood drains from my face. “I’d love to meet Valentine.”
“Valentine?” I repeat, my real name sticking in my throat.
“Prem and Piper. They have a daughter named Valentine,” she says, and my stomach seizes. “I remember reading it in a gossip blog.”
I swallow. There was one article last year that mentioned me, and while I was delighted, my parents weren’t. They had my name retracted. It was up for less than forty-eight hours. “How do you remember that?” I ask, shocked.
“I told you; my friends and I were obsessed with coming to this party,” she says, and everything in me sinks. They probably saw me as their in—if they could find me and befriend me, that is.
“Ella—” I start, but she cuts me off.
“You look a lot like Piper,” she says.
“That’s kinda true of all our family,” I say in a Hail Mary effort at keeping up our story. “Well, except Holden. No one knows where he gets—”
“You mean Jonah,” she says, and I freeze.