Page 67 of The Last Thing You Said

He’ll leave for the summer before my sentence is up. There won’t be any more mini-golf. I can’t say that I’ll miss it. Him.

One afternoon, my parents both at work, I take a chance and walk into town for a few books at the used bookstore.

Mom and I used to love coming to the Broken Spine. “We’ll just pop in for a minute,” she’d say, “to see if there’s anything we can’t live without.”

We couldn’t live without a complete set of the Little House books, which she read to me the winter of second grade, or the Betsy-Tacy books, set in a town in southern Minnesota. We couldn’t live without Kneeknock Rise and The Search for Delicious. Of course we couldn’t live without Harry Potter.

After I buy a few books, I step through the open doorway between the Broken Spine and Sweet Pea’s. I love the combination of the musty bookstore and the sugary sweetness of the candy shop.

I stand at the fudge display for a long time. They’ve added new flavors since I was here last—maple bacon and white-chocolate cake batter and salted caramel.

“Hey, Lucy,” Mrs. Stewart says when she sees me at the counter. “What can I get for you?”

I ask for my family’s favorites: peanut butter, rocky road, mint chocolate chip, maple.

I think about the last time I bought fudge for Ben, the week before Trixie died.

“It’s a sign, you know,” she’d said as we left the store to walk back to her house. “That you and Ben both love maple fudge.”

A sign. I laughed and Trixie swatted me on the arm.

“You laugh now,” she said, “but just you wait and see.”

“Sorry,” I tell Mrs. Stewart now, “can you make that two maples instead of the mint chocolate chip?”

I furrow my brow. I think I just bought fudge for Ben. I don’t know why I would buy fudge for someone who’s hurt me. But I do it.

My phone buzzes with a text as I pay. It’s from Simon: Break out of prison today?

How did he know?

What do you mean? I send back.

Why r u at Sweet P’s?;) I’m across the street.

I step outside into the sunshine with my bag of used paperbacks and box of fudge. Simon meets me on the sidewalk and reaches for the bag from the bookstore. His tan is deeper, dark against his Dr Pepper T-shirt, the one he was wearing the first day we met. He smiles, a slow, lazy grin that’s become so familiar the last few weeks. It’s the first time I’ve seen him since South Dakota. He’s still my boyfriend.

I can’t help but think of the extra piece of maple fudge, wrapped in light green tissue.

He reaches out and touches the brim of my Twins baseball cap, pulled low on my forehead. “Your clever disguise isn’t working. I’d recognize you anywhere.”

“What are you doing here?” I try to smile.

“I should ask you that! Sneaking off to buy—what’s in this bag?”

“From the bookstore? Books.”

He opens the bag and pulls out the books. “Wuthering Heights. The House of Mirth. The Awakening. Light summer reading or what?” He slips them back into the bag.

“Well, I have a lot of extra time on my hands now.”

“Yeah,” he says, “sorry about that. What did you buy at Sweet Pea’s?”

“Fudge.”

“Ooh.” He takes the box and sniffs. “Maple? Do I smell maple?”

I grab the box back.