“When was her accident?” I ask.
Susan shakes her head as though she’s not going to entertain my questions.
“A little over three months ago,” Lucy says. “First time ever on a horse, or so I’m told, and I got bucked off.”
Susan sighs.
“Let the kids talk,” my dad pleads with Susan.
She runs her hand over her face and inhales deeply. Glancing back, she looks at Lucy, then she steps closer to us, lowering her voice. “We were planning on staying in Anchorage, but I’ll head over to Mandi’s and get a room there for the night, assuming one is available. Lucy’s really upset right now. I never expected her to have a breakthrough so fast, and it took us both by surprise. All the other memories she’s gained have come in bits and pieces, slowly over days. Come by tomorrow morning and we’ll talk once she’s calmed down.”
She can’t be serious, but as I step to go around her again, my dad’s hand lands on my arm to stop me.
“That’s a good plan,” Dad says.
I huff because I want to do this now.
“Let’s say nine,” Susan says, and my dad agrees. She turns around to join Lucy.
I clasp Susan’s arm. “When you say breakthrough…?”
She pats Lucy’s hand and Lucy’s tears fall down her cheeks again.
“She didn’t remember you until she saw you.”
My dad sighs and I’m pretty sure my heart stops for a moment. I tried to strip Lucy out of my mind this past year. To erase her from my memory because it all hurt too much. But I can’t imagine not remembering our history and all the good memories we shared. At the same time, I’m jealous that she doesn’t have to bear the weight of what happened to us.
“We’ll see you tomorrow,” my dad says.
They walk away. My eyes lock with Lucy’s as she looks over her shoulder until the crowd swallows them up.
Mom shuttles me away through the crowd. All I want to do is break free and run back to Adam—wrap my arms around his neck and allow him to pull me in, whisper to me that everything will be okay, that whatever happened to us isn’t an issue anymore. Instead, I hide my tears as the townspeople we pass look and whisper about me. My mom huddles me into her chest as we make the short walk to the inn.
Suddenly, a memory flickers to life as if it was hidden in a dark room and Adam had the key to unlock the door and flip on the light for me.
* * *
We were thirteen and it was his birthday.
Marla, his stepmom, threw him a huge party with balloons and streamers decorating the pergola outside by their pool. His dad was newly remarried, and the whole group of them had moved into the Greene family house on the hill about a year earlier.
I arrived with my best friend, Cora, while Adam was doing cannonball competitions with his friends, not paying any attention to the girls at the party. Then his brothers, Fisher and Xavier, and Fisher’s friend, Cam, came out of the house. Most of the girls’ mouths were ajar as they stripped off their shirts and did cannonballs that soaked everyone, including the bowls of chips near the pool.
Adam sat on the edge of the pool while his brothers razzed him and all the other boys about how the party was split down the middle with girls on one side and boys on the other. Then we played games I think Marla might have spurred. We did swimming contests and tag, and slowly all the girls and boys started interacting.
All the girls thought Adam was good-looking, and he was funny and sweet. Though I knew a lot of the girls liked him because he was a Greene. Every boy in his family had been a quarterback of the Sunrise Bay High School football team. Fisher was the captain and quarterback at the time, but rumor was Xavier would take over as the starting quarterback in his junior year because he was that good. It was expected that Adam would also play that position when he hit high school.
But I liked Adam because when Toby Turner depantsed me two years ago, earning me the nickname rainbow since my underwear had rainbows on them, Adam depantsed him back during the Christmas play in front of everyone. As Adam was being pulled away by Mrs. Fields, he winked at me. He got himself in a lot of trouble for getting payback for me.
“Chicken fights,” Cam yelled, drawing me from remembering when I started to like Adam.
A lot had changed in two years. We’d all grown, and Adam’s voice cracked from time to time. My breasts filled out my bikini, and my hips had become wider after I got my period. I’d grown up with all those boys, yet we were all starting to see one another in a different light.
“Go be Adam’s partner.” Cora elbowed me from the side of the pool.
I shook my head, kicking the water. “No.”
“Stop playing from the sidelines. I know you like him.”
Amara was already swimming toward Adam. I was jealous of the way she put herself out there. I pulled out my ponytail and repositioned it as though I couldn’t be bothered.
Cora elbowed me again. “Luce, I know he likes you.”
“No, you don’t,” I said, shaking my head.
“Everyone’s known it since the depantsing of Toby Turner.”
I loved Cora, but it’d been two years. Plus, Adam had been going through a rough time with his dad and Marla getting together. A lot had changed since then, so his attitude toward me probably had changed too.
Cam came over to us, pointing. “What about you two?”
Cameron Baker, heartthrob of Sunrise Bay, was standing in front of Cora and me. He was the starting running back and Fisher’s right-hand man. If it wasn’t for Hank Greene marrying his cousin’s ex-wife, the Baker family might’ve taken the cake as the family everyone in Sunrise Bay respected most.
The Baker family ran the fishing piers. They were responsible for the livelihood of a lot of people in this town. But Cameron held a certain charismatic appeal. He was a natural flirt if you asked me. But he was no Adam Greene.
“You’re Lucy Davis, right?” he asked.
Cora guffawed that he knew my name.
“Adam!” He snapped his finger and waved him over.
Adam swam over and I noticed how much wider his frame was than last summer.
“What?” he asked, never making eye contact with Cora or me.
“You and Lucy are gonna be partners,” Cam said. “Come on and slide down in the water,” he instructed me, as if I’d never done that before.
“You want me to get on his shoulders?” I asked, both praying Cameron wouldn’t make me do this and at the same time wanting to.
“Cam.” Adam shook his head, which kept my ass on the cement edge.
“Stop it. Come on. I’m doing you a huge favor.”
“What?” Adam screeched and his voice turned high right at the end.
Cam patted him on the shoulder. “One day he won’t sound like a frog anymore.”
I think the reason people envied the Greenes was their big family. To an outsider, they all appeared to be close. Cameron Baker had been pulled into them, being Fisher’s best friend. Having only a three-year-old brother, I would love to have siblings who had your back.
“Now stop playing games, let’s go.” He pointed at Cora. “You can be my partner.”
“This is hardly fair. You’re taller than me,” Adam complained.