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Teddy turns to Lenna and gives her the same suspicious look he gave her in the Suburban on the drive here.
Teddy points and grunts at Rhiannon’s insulated lunch bag. “You want something?” Teddy nods. “You want some cheese?” Teddy nods again. Rhiannon unzips the lunch bag, and looks at him again. “Okay, what’s the sign for cheese?”
Teddy thinks a moment, then flutters his hands. The sign for cheese, presumably, because Rhiannon grins. “Good!”
She hands Teddy a slice. Lenna lets out an impressed murmur.
“What?” Rhiannon asks.
“Sorry. It’s just—I’m really glad for you.”
Rhiannon squints. “What do you mean?”
“I’m glad you have Teddy. I know you…struggled. Because of your mom. Remember how you used to say that?”
Rhiannon’s smile dims. She looks down. “Yeah. Well. I’m glad to have him, too.”
She turns and starts up the path, Jacob bouncing. Lenna gnaws on the inside of her cheek. Surely Rhiannon must know that Lenna is wondering how Teddy came to be. Howanyof this came to be. Is she withholding the information because of the years they’ve spent apart…or to punish Lenna somehow?Doesshe know more than she’s letting on? She thinks of what Naomi said, in the house:What did you do to her?
How odd it had been to receive a text from Rhiannon completely out of the blue last week. Lenna hadn’t heard from her friend in years. Considering all that had happened, she figured she’d never hear from Rhiannon again.
Passing through LA, the text said.Wanna meet up?
Just that. Easy breezy. Lenna was baffled. Also, how did Rhiannon even know Lenna was still in California? Lenna was careful not to be findable online. She didn’t have any social media accounts, and she’d asked Daniel never to tag her—she claimed it was for the baby’s privacy. Even the freelance work she still did for magazines was all behind the scenes, just copy editing and proofreading, stuff that didn’t lead to a byline.
Rhiannon had also used Lenna’s new phone number. Lenna’s old phone, the one she used to communicate with Rhiannon back when they were friends, was cracked and ruined at the bottom of the canyon. After what happened there, Lenna contacted Rhiannon with the new number, but Rhiannon never responded. Not that Lenna blamed her. She figured Rhiannon had worked out what Lenna did to her and never wanted to talk to her again. And yet, she must have received the message after all, carefully saving Lenna’s information.
Lenna had waffled about meeting Rhiannon. The confrontationscared her. Conflict was never her strong suit, and what if this was an ambush? When she mentioned it to Daniel, she’d had to explain who Rhiannon even was. She minimized Rhiannon’s importance. “I mean, it would be nice to catch up with her,” she’d said casually. “Relive old times.”
“I didn’t realize there were old times to relive,” Daniel said.
Something inside Lenna felt spiky and hot. She had a lot of love for Rhiannon, still. She knew she would regret it if she let the opportunity pass. Gillian was right, after all. Something drew her to her old friend. Something still made her feel like she couldn’t say no.
On her way to meet Rhiannon, Lenna gave herself a bunch of boundaries: She would only go for twenty minutes. She wouldn’t eat anything. Every three and a half minutes, she would squeeze her fist. She would not bring up the past and only discuss things if Rhiannon asked. As she entered the café, she tried to breathe. She searched for something yellow. The room smelled like espresso beans, pungent cheese, and oiled wood. Someone called Lenna’s name from the corner, and when she looked over, it was Rhiannon, the same Rhiannon, more or less, waving her arms back and forth exuberantly.
“Hey!” Rhiannon stepped around the diners and came toward Lenna with her arms outstretched. “Howareyou?” she breathed, grabbing her hands and swinging them.
“Uh…” Lenna’s stomach flipped. She’d expected Rhiannon to be way more tentative. Testy. Something to indicate she was holding a grudge. She felt herself softening toward her.
Rhiannon peered at Jacob in the stroller. “Hi, pumpkin!” she whispered. “He’s beautiful. Congratulations!”
Lenna had no idea what to say. She must have been standing still for a few beats too long, not speaking, because eventually Rhiannon turned back to the table. “Let’s sit!”
Lenna wheeled the stroller awkwardly next to the table and adjusted the pillow under Jacob’s little head. Rhiannon watched the whole time, a vague smile on her lips. “How’s motherhood?”
“It’s…okay.”
“You’re married?” Rhiannon asked. Lenna nodded. “How’d you and your husband meet?”
“A crazy coincidence. There was this car accident right in front of us—we were witnesses. He drove me home, and, I don’t know, we just started dating. Easy as that.”
“That’s strange…but romantic?” Rhiannon chuckled. “It’s going well?” She looked at the baby. “Kids can throw a wrench into things.”
Squeeze, squeeze. Yellow lemons in a bowl.“Daniel works a lot. But…it’s fine. Really…” She trailed off. Why was she even getting into this? She owed Rhiannon nothing. “I’m just tired, is all. He cries a lot. Alot.”
“Tiredness is the worst,” Rhiannon said, clucking her tongue. And then she leaned forward and took a breath. “I felt like it was too much to mention in a text, but I have a kid now, too.”
Lenna’s eyes boggled.“What?”
