Gabe went first, and my steps were filled with lead as I followed him. As we descended the stairs, I heard the click-clack of high heels on the hardwood floor, so I heard his mom before I saw her.
Then she walked into the entryway, her head down as she looked at the mail in her perfectly manicured hands. Her hair was a blond mass of curls, adding much-needed height to her petite frame, and she wore a pencil skirt made of red satin with a matching blazer.
Without her even looking up, I already recognized her. Gabe’s mom was Della Jane, the woman who had helped Gideon and me at the police station four days ago.
“Gabe, honey, have you been reapplying to NYU, because you’ve gotten another—” Della Jane had been looking down at the mail, but her words died on her lips the second she looked up and saw me coming down the stairs behind her son.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you had a guest,” Della Jane said, smiling thinly.
Making matters worse, Gabe’s father walked in from another room, presumably the kitchen based on the freshly opened bottle of beer in his hand. It was just as I’d expected when I met him at the Blue Moon Bar & Grill—Gabe’s dad was Julian Alvarado. His salt-and-pepper hair was still damp after coming in from the rain, and the top two buttons of his dark shirt had been left undone.
Julian narrowed his eyes when he saw me, probably wondering how the girl he’d met a few days ago had turned up in his house, and Della Jane held the letters in her hand so tightly, they’d begun to crumple.
Since we’d reached the main floor and the situation felt increasingly awkward, Gabe decided to make introductions.
“This is Mara, the girl I’ve been seeing.” Gabe gestured toward me, and for a moment—for one second so quick I’m not even completely certain that I saw it—Della Jane looked horrified. But then it was gone, and she was smiling at me, looking like an ordinary, friendly but caught-off-guard mom.
“Yes, we’ve already met, actually,” Della Jane replied in her warm Southern accent. “A few days back at the sheriff’s department.”
“I’ve met her too,” Julian added, looking at me quizzically.
“You have?” Della Jane asked, her smile faltering a bit.
“She came into the bar with other folks from the carnival, looking for her friend that rents the apartment upstairs,” Julian explained, and now Gabe was giving me a bewildered look that matched his father’s.
Seeing them all so close together, the resemblance between them was uncanny. Gabe had his dad’s height and broad shoulders, but he had his mom’s cheekbones and wide smile.
“Caudry’s a small town, so I guess I get around a lot,” I said sheepishly, since everyone was looking at me like I was a puzzle they were trying to solve. The air was bubbling over with unasked questions.
“I guess you do,” Gabe agreed, but there was a tightness to his tone that made me realize that this was something we’d talk about later.
Della Jane cleared her throat and tugged at her ruby earring. “What, um, were the two of you planning to do tonight?”
“Mara walked over in the rain, and I was just getting her something dry to wear,” Gabe explained, as if it wasn’t obvious that the outfit I was swimming in didn’t belong to me.
“Gabe, where are your manners?” Della Jane scolded him. “Why didn’t you pick the young lady up?”
“I just wanted to go for a walk and get some air,” I said quickly. “I didn’t realize how hard it was raining until it was too late.”
“Well, if the two of you wanted to stay in tonight and avoid the weather, we could all watch a movie.” Della Jane pointed to a gaudy big-screen TV that took up a huge chunk of floor space in the sitting room adjacent to the entryway. “Selena just rented Top Gun and Weird Science from the video store.”
“Actually, I think I should probably get going home,” I said, and Gabe looked at me sharply.
Della Jane clicked her tongue. “Oh, that’s a shame,” she said in such a way that I couldn’t tell for sure if she meant it or not.
“You sure?” Julian asked. “You’re more than welcome to stay for supper, and I make a mean steak.”
“Sorry, but I’m sure,” I said. “I have to work tonight.”
“I’ll pull the car around,” Gabe offered, and he wouldn’t look at me as he went over and slipped on his tennis shoes.
While he went out to get his Mustang, he left me waiting inside with his parents, and it was feeling increasingly claustrophobic. Julian put his arm around his wife’s waist and told me about the restaurants he’d owned in New York, and Della Jane just kept a strained smile plastered on her face.
Gabe had this life that was solid and real, with a house that had been in the family for generations and married parents that loved each other and applications to NYU. He had a past, and more important, he had a future.