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I hold back a smirk. I assume that will readings are normally private affairs, but of course Ray would tell Fran about this. Not that I mind, and I don’t think Pops would either. Secrets in Mirror Valley always have a timer on them.
Ray’s lips twitch. “Not yet.”
“What’s the best part?” I ask.
“Pops made one very specific request for this trip.”
My mouth pinches. “Does it involve another bunny costume? No. Not after traumatizing all those kids when I came out of the lake after going to find that rogue egg. I still get messages every once in awhile from that one kid’s mom—”
“No, not that.” Ray files the papers together, taps them on the table. “It’s something else…”
Ray stays silent. While I watch him, Fran is watching me.
The man clearly hasn’t lost his flair for the dramatic.
“He wants you to do this treasure hunt with a close friend of yours. A certain person with whom you grew up…” He whips off his spectacles. “Valentina.”
I sit back in my seat. “You can’t be serious.”
Ray turns the papers towards me, and in the same black and white, formal writing, the will reads: “This final request must be completed with Valentina Brinn Reyes-Murphy.”
Like there could be another Valentina.
My brow furrows. “But why Val? Pops knew that we haven’t spoken in years.”
The only exception being this morning, but I’m not going to mention that.
Ray holds up his hands. “Don’t look at me. This was all Alfie.”
“He must’ve written this years ago. Before everything… happened.”
“Nope. It’s dated only a couple months back.”
I screw up my face. Why, Pops?
I continue to stare at the will, as if looking at it will uncover some hidden code. “Valentina” could be an anagram for “just kidding,” right?
I may not have been great at English, but even I know that’s not likely.
“You should do it,” Fran coaxes, taking my hand again. “Your granddad would’ve loved it.”
Oh, sure he would. Pops was a sucker for drama.
I can’t imagine Val’s reaction if I approached her with this: “Hey, Teeny. Any chance you want to be stuck in a car together for a long weekend doing a road trip to all of our favorite places before I went and broke both our hearts?”
Yeah, no.
I’m not worried for myself, but do I really want to disrupt Val’s life like that? Especially if she’s happy?
And it would be a disruption, if this morning’s interaction is anything to go by.
After everything that’s happened between us, it makes sense that we don’t know how to react to each other. I figured I’d see her again on this visit, I just didn’t expect it to be so soon. Or for it to be so jarring. Not so much because she literally bodychecked me, but because I didn’t expect how strange it would feel to see her.
Adult Val in all her wild-eyed, curly-haired, tiny-nosed glory.
Her nose is part of the reason I call her “Teeny.” Not that I’d ever tell her that. She used to insist that she wanted an “elegant Meryl Streep nose”... whatever that means.
I wish I could say that I don’t remember these things so clearly, but of course I do. Being in Aston Falls didn’t exactly make me forget her, but it might’ve dampened the pain of not being with her.
