“Busy.Super busy.Big buildings.Hot dog stands.Trash.”
“Wyn.Be serious.”
“I am being serious,” I said.“And to be honest, no, I don’t think I miss it.Not yet anyway.I haven’t been gone very long.Besides, all my friends are here.So what’s to miss?”
She placed her hands underneath her thighs, no doubt to give them a little heat.
“Where do your parents live?”she asked.
I pulled away from the curb.“Upstate New York.”
“Do you miss them?”
“Yes.”
“Are you going to spend Christmas with them?”she asked.
“They’re going to Norway for Christmas,” I explained.“And Hadley’s due date is Christmas day.My plan was to be here for the Christmas holiday.”
She was quiet for a moment and then she asked, “Do you think we’ll get snow here for Christmas?”
“There’s a very good chance we will,” I said.“It’s gloomy right now, but hopefully that means snow soon.”
She looked out the window and didn’t say anything for a long time.“We were going to go to New York for Christmas.See the Rockettes and then go ice skating in Rockefeller Center.Take pictures of the tree ...”
I reached over and tugged on one of her braids.“Well, I can’t promise you the Rockettes, but wewillgo ice skating on Lavender Lake when it gets cold enough.And we’ll get a big tree and put it in the house.How’s that?”
I thought that would at least pull a smile from Lenni but instead, it only made her face screw up into an expression of pain.And then she started crying.
Her shoulders heaved with the force of emotion and a lump of pain swelled in my throat.
“Lenni,” I murmured.“I’m sorry.I’m so sorry.”
She shook her head and hastily wiped her cheeks.“No.It’s just—I don’t have any of my Christmas decorations.I don’t have the stocking Mom made for me.I don’t have anything of hers except ...”
“Except?”
“The sweater I’m wearing.”
No wonder it was so big on her.
“What happened to your mom’s things?”I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye, my hands on the wheel.
“When I moved in with Nancy ...there wasn’t room.I have no idea where anything is.She probably donated everything.”
A pit of anger boiled in my stomach.
I didn’t know what it was like to lose a parent.And I certainly didn’t know what it was like to lose a parent as a child.
But I suddenly wanted to take a swing at the woman who’d dropped Lenni off with a father she didn’t know and then sped off without so much as a backward glance.
I turned onto the private road that led up to Elk Ridge and we drove the rest of the way in silence.
Mr.Powell was coming out of the house when I pulled up and parked.He had on his signature cowboy hat and a worn sheepskin jacket.He’d been rocking a mustache for the last couple of months, and it looked good on him.The blue mug in his hand was steaming as he brought it to his mouth.
Lenni unclipped her seatbelt but didn’t bolt out of the truck.Her tears had cleared, but she still looked sad.
“Ready?”I asked, wishing my voice hadn’t sounded croaky as though I’d been trying not to cry.
