Oh God.
I’d fallen asleep on Alec’s shoulder.
“Sorry about that,” I muttered, quickly straightening up and wiping my mouth. Hopefully I hadn’t snored. Or worse, drooled on his shirt.
I felt Alec shrug beside me. “I didn’t mind.” He was in the middle of wrapping his headphone cords around his phone, and when he finished, he met my gaze with a smile. “Sleep well?”
Warmth bloomed on my cheeks, and I nodded. “Where are we?”
“Just outside the city,” Boomer answered. Sure enough, when Iglanced out the window, San Francisco loomed ahead of us, glittering against the dark sky. “I have no clue where I’m going,” he continued. “Could you give me the exact address? Asha can plug it into the GPS.”
“Um…” I hesitated. There was a reason I was always the designated navigator. Asha and Boomer argued like those snippety couples onThe Amazing Racewhenever she was in charge. “Are you sure?” I asked, pulling the most recent of Rose’s letters from my bag.
“Oh, just give it here,” Asha said, snatching the envelope from me.
Twenty minutes later, we arrived in the Haight-Ashbury district of the city, and after taking a few wrong turns, Boomer finally located the correct street. Even at night, the neighborhood was colorful. The homes were all Victorian-styled townhouses painted in crazy color combinations like lime, teal, and magenta, or lavender, yellow, and cyan. Boomer pulled up in front of a light-pink house accented in different shades of red and turned off the car.
“This is the place,” he said.
Everyone was quiet for a moment as we surveyed the house. The tiny patch of grass out front was overgrown, and the potted plant at the top of the steps was well past saving, making it look like nobody had been here for a long time. But the porch light was on.
Please let someone be here.Please letRosebe here.
“Are we going to sit in the car all night or what?” Asha asked. She undid her seat belt and threw open the door. “Let’s go. I’ve had to pee for the past hour.”
My fingers skimmed the handle on the car door with the intentionof following her, but for some reason I couldn’t open it, let alone take my eyes off the building before us. The knowledge that Rose had been here at one time or another was overwhelming. Over the past four years, I’d imagined countless places she could have disappeared to—a tiny, one-room apartment in New York or a shack on some Caribbean beach—but they were always intangible and abstract, like scenes out of a dream.
Here was an actual concrete place where she’d eaten and slept and lived.
A hand brushed my shoulder, and even though the touch was soft, my sunburn stung. “Felicity?” Alec asked. “You okay?”
I nodded, still staring out the window.
“You sure? I know this must be nerve-racking. If you’re not ready…” He stopped for a second, choosing his words carefully. “I’m sure Asha or Boomer would be more than willing to go knock for you.”
“I know,” I said, finally waking from my daze. I shook away the lingering fog and offered him a small smile. “Thanks, but I should do this myself.”
Alec nodded.
After taking a deep breath, I forced my body to move. I climbed out of the car and marched up the porch steps with Asha, Boomer, and Alec at my heels. Before I lost my confidence, I rang the bell. It was quiet for a long time, and as each silent second passed, my heart slammed against my chest a little harder. Just as I was about to give up, a light in the front hall flipped on. Someone fumbled with the lock, and the door opened.
“Duncan, if you’re shit-faced again, I’m not—” The girl stopped midsentence when she realized we weren’t Duncan. “Oh, hi.” Her curly hair was pulled back into a braid, and her face was red and shiny, as if she’d recently scrubbed it clean. She was wearing glasses, a pair of flannel pajama shorts, a camisole, and a silky kimono bathrobe.
She pulled her robe tighter. “Can I help you?”
I knew this girl, but the problem was, I couldn’t remember how. I searched my mind for some kind of connection until I remembered the soccer player Rose was friends with before quitting the team junior year. “Kelsey?” I asked, stepping forward. “Is that you?”
Kelsey adjusted her glasses, eyes squinted at me in concentration, before recognition flickered across her face. “Felicity Lyon? Oh my gosh! I can’t believe it. You’re so grown up.”
Seeing one of my sister’s friends fueled my hope. “Thanks, Kelsey. It’s good to see you. I was wondering… Is Rose here?”
“Your sister?” She frowned. “No. I haven’t seen her since she left.”
My heart plunged into my stomach.
I’m too late. She’s already gone.
“But she was here, right?” Asha asked, stepping forward. “When did she leave?”
