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I give her a hard stare. “Leave it, Madison. Nothing is going to happen between me and Samantha. We are in two different places right now.”
“Actually, she lives in Chicago just like you,” she speaks over me smugly.
I ignore her bait.
“Come on, Asher,” Knox joins in, folding his arms and clearly just waiting for something gossip-worthy to come of this. “You can’t still be holding a grudge from high school. That was like ten years ago, man.”
I shake my head at him. “No one’s holding a grudge. We’re different people now—things have changed.”
Madison looks at me skeptically as she loads her arms with another pile of magazines, and dumps them into the box near her.
“Full disclosure, man,” Knox says, shaking his head in disappointment. “She’s your ‘one that got away.’ I think you still have a chance though, if you want it.”
I expected the meddling from Madison, not Knox. “I’m not interested in Samantha, so nothing is going to happen.”
He shrugs nonchalantly, and pulls a vinyl player out from the entertainment cabinet. He gives me a meaningful sideward glance as he passes it to me. I go over to the trash pile with it.
“Test it first, numbnuts!” Madison says, not even looking up from the book she’s reading. “People go crazy for that shit in online auctions. I’m talking about full-on bidding wars.”
Her interest is thoroughly stuck in the book, her usual carefree expression replaced with a look of severe concentration. I move closer. Anything interesting enough to keep her preoccupied is worth a look.
“What do you have there, Madison?” I ask while contemplating whether to stick around or escape while her attention is somewhere else.
“Oh nothing, just found the old lady’s porn,” she answers, her eyes still scanning the page before her.
“Jesus, a little respect, Madison.”
She gives me a sour look. “This from the guy who was talking about old people and their junky shit not five seconds ago.”
Knox laughs. “She’s got you there, Asher.”
“Joking aside, it’s Mrs. Kendall’s diary,” she says finally, looking up. “I think we should all read this. It's something we need to discuss.”
Knox and I look at each other.
* * *
Afew hours later, we all gather in the living room, the same way we did for the will reading two days ago, waiting for some mystery news that concerns us all.
I don’t know if it is Knox or Madison’s orchestration, or if our chance meeting at the school yesterday loosened the tension between us, but Samantha comes to sit closer—just Knox separates us now, rather than half of the room.
I actually make an effort to acknowledge her this time, and she gives me a small tight-lipped smile. It’s something, at least.
Kylie with her soft voice sits forward on the edge of the sofa. “Madison, come on, the suspense is killing us all. What did you find?”
Madison stands by the entertainment cabinet and opens the book she found. Knox and I are more eager than the rest, as we knew before them about it, and had to wait for them all to get here.
“Okay guys, this is Mrs. Kendall’s diary, and in it, I found a letter addressed to her late husband. I just have to read it to you all. I think this will impact any decision we make,” she tells us.
She reads aloud from the book.
My Dear Pete,
It was extra quiet here this morning. I don’t enjoy the quiet because I always end up thinking about you, and it makes me miss you so dearly.
But then, something wonderful happened, all the kids came over after school to play in the treehouse. And the quiet ceased to exist.
I know I’ve told you this hundreds of times before, but thank you, my love. Thank you for bringing me the children of the neighborhood when we couldn’t have any of our own. Thank you for building a sanctuary where they can play and have fun while allowing me to get a small glimpse into the joys of childhood.
