There were days when I thought Sadie-Grace was the living, breathing embodiment of an exclamation mark. Today was not one of them.
“I’m tired,” she told me, practically wilting in the driver’s seat as we made our way back to the belly of the beast. “Audie is adorable, but he stopped sleeping. At night. Did you know babies can do that? They can stop sleeping. At night.”
All I could think in response was that Audubon Charles Richard Waters might not be the first baby that Lillian’s twin sister had given someone, in exchange for money.
Don’t get ahead of yourself. All you know is that Ana spent some time in a small town near the lake, after which she was baby-free and able to travel the world. You know that Ana says she gave the baby up.
You don’t know anything other than that.
That wasn’t quite accurate, I realized as Sadie-Grace pulled the car off onto the main road in Two Arrows. I also know that Ana has a history of asking people for money. My mom had adapted to life on a budget, more or less. I wasn’t sure that Ana had.
And if she did come to Two Arrows, if she left with no baby and money to travel . . .
I didn’t let myself finish the thought.
“Am I allowed to ask where Lily went?” Sadie-Grace asked me.
I was getting ready to tell her that I didn’t know, and then I saw Lily’s car. I wondered if she’d planned, when she left, to come here, to meet Ellen.
I wondered if Lily had even realized this was where she was coming.
This time, there was no welcoming committee. No guns. Sadie-Grace and I stood on the front porch of the house where we’d met Ellen—the house where Ellen’s granddaughter Beth had given birth to baby Audie.
The bell was cracked and broken, so I lifted my hand to knock.
The girl who answered the door couldn’t have been older than eleven or so. Her hair was tangled, her ponytail lopsided. The dirt on her knees made me think that she’d worked for every tangle and knocked the ponytail off center on purpose.
“We’re looking for . . .” I was going to say that we were looking for Ellen, but before I could get that out, I caught sight of Lily. She was standing just outside what I assumed was the kitchen. After a second or two, she turned toward us.
If she was surprised to see me there, she didn’t show it.
“You followed me?” There was a flicker of discernible emotion in her eyes, like I’d told her she didn’t get to leave me, and she’d responded, As of right now, I get to do whatever the hell I want.
“I had no idea you’d be here,” I said.
Lily didn’t enlighten me as to why she’d come. Instead, she turned back toward the kitchen. “You have guests,” she called.
I heard a harrumph. The sound of a chair scraping against linoleum floor came next, and a few seconds later, my grandmother’s twin stepped into the hallway behind Lily.
“Funny,” she said, in a tone that suggested it really wasn’t. “I don’t remember inviting you.” She swiveled her head pointedly toward Lily. “Any of you.”
“Thank you,” Lily told her, sounding more like herself than she had in an age. “For the conversation.”
What conversation?
Ellen didn’t reply—but she didn’t harrumph again, either.
Lily turned back to us. Wordlessly, she walked down to the doorway to stand beside the little girl. “This is Makayla,” she told us. “She’s our second cousin.”
“That means our mamas are cousins,” Makayla informed me.
Ellen has six children, I thought. Who knows how many children they have.
“It was nice to meet you,” Lily told Makayla, with all the pomp and circumstance of someone thanking the queen for her hospitality. “But I think it’s time for me to go.”
Lily flicked her gaze from me to Sadie-Grace. “Did you hear from the White Gloves?”
As tired as she was, Sadie-Grace still managed a smile as she nodded. “You too?” she asked. “This is going to be so much fun!”
Sadie-Grace was delighted. Lily was not. Not delighted, I thought. But not hurt. Not anymore. I wasn’t sure what exactly to read into that.
“I want you to promise you’ll go to initiation tonight,” Lily told Sadie-Grace, before shifting her gaze to me. “Both of you.”
If you’re leaving, why do you care? I bit back the question, and after Sadie-Grace promised, I offered Lily the barest nod.
“You should try the lemonade,” Lily told Sadie-Grace, falling back on idle chitchat. “It’s not too sweet.” There was a beat of silence, and then Lily turned back to me. “See you around, Sawyer.”
I watched her go. It took me until she made it to the bottom of the drive to remember where I was—and why I’d come here.
“What did Lily want?” I asked Ellen.
“A little family history.” Ellen let her arms dangle loose at her side. “What do you want?”
That wasn’t my great-aunt making conversation. That was a challenge.
“We have some questions.”
“We?” Ellen looked from me to Sadie-Grace, then back again. “I do something on your last trip to make you think I’m the type of person who likes questions?”
Sadie-Grace—even a tired Sadie-Grace—didn’t know when not to be optimistic.
“You gave us Audie,” she pointed out cheerfully. “We named the baby Audubon. Daddy is almost as fond of bird-watching as he is of bugs, and Greer told him no bug names. Would you like to see a pic—”
“No.” Ellen cut her off. “That’s not how this works, girl. You’re not meant to come back here.”
“We’re not here about the baby,” I said. I let that sink in. “Or at least, we’re not here about that baby.”