They hadn’t ever been there.
Scarlett got out of the car at the base of the driveway and left it running, her door open. She took large, confident strides up the main path, casting her own shadows on the glow, and in a minute she was standing at the top plateau—where the final stone was supposed to go. She spun around, taking a full rotation, making Lucas think of sacrificial virgins on altars and ceremonial dances. She said, “This is amazing,” like a prayer. “I saw it mentioned in some old clippings I looked through . . . but wasn’t really sure what it was.”
Kristen wasn’t even interested enough to get out of the car. She’d lit a cigarette that glowed the same color as the solar lights.
She was far enough away not to hear.
The wind blew Scarlett’s hair into her face and she pushed it away.
Lucas said, “Do you have the feeling that you and I were . . . together?”
He had no better way to phrase it.
Then, for a long moment, he stared at her, waiting.
CAROUSEL FIRE
CLICK HISS
She said, “I think so, yes.”
AVERY
There would be no break in spring break—no sleeping in, no time-wasting.
She had set an alarm and was waiting for her dad when he came down into the kitchen. She’d heard him on the stairs and had abandoned the maze on the back of the cereal box to pour coffee for him. Black, two sugars.
“You’re up early,” he said when he entered the room, a tie draped around his neck.
“We need to offer a reward for information leading to Max being found.” She delivered his mug to him. “A big one.”
“I’m not really sure—”
“Dad.” She perched on a stool by the center island. “It looks bad, you not really doing anything. There is someone out there who did this and who maybe has Max, and right now they think they are going to get away with it. But someone out there knows something—they have to—and money talks. I mean, if the note’s real, and he’s really out there? We have to act. Now.”
Her dad took a long sip of coffee, then put the mug down and adjusted his watch. “How much are we talking?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “Ten grand? Twenty? Twenty-five?”
“That’s a lot, Avery.”
“You can’t put a price tag on Max, can you?”
“That’s not fair.” Another sip and a minute of silence. “And the note probably isn’t real. You get that, right?”
She nodded. “Still.”
“I’ll think about it.” He put the mug down but didn’t let go of it.
She said, “While you’re thinking, time is being wasted.”
“If I do this, you need to not go on the news again.”
“Deal.” This was almost too easy.
“It is weird, though, isn’t it?” he said.
“What’s weird?”
“The carousel, the hot air balloon, horseback riding.” He let go of his coffee to sort through a stack of mail.
“Hot air balloon?”
“It’s on this morning’s news.” He opened a bill. “They each have one unique memory.”
“I hadn’t seen.” She turned the TV on. They were doing the weather, but it would cycle back soon; if not, she could look for the story on her phone. “So you’ll do it?”
He tossed the bill back onto the pile. “I’ll do it. I just need to, you know, figure out how one even goes about doing that, talk to my lawyer, speak with the police, the FBI. And you realize it’s going to bring out some crazy people.”
She went and kissed him on the cheek. “Thanks, Dad. You’ll see. It’s the right thing to do. The right message to send.”
He went to finish getting ready for work, and she just sat at the kitchen island and waited for the segment to air again, which it did. She watched as Lucas and Scarlett and Kristen stood together in a playground—looked like the one over by the Publix—and stated their memories one by one.
Sam would have more theories, for sure, but Avery could now think of nothing other than Scarlett. She remembered looking up to her as a kid, remembered chasing her around the playground, playing games about fairies, and hunting for treasure.
Now she was back, alive, gorgeous, and she was standing next to Lucas. She was standing so very close to Lucas that it annoyed Avery, and then she was annoyed that it annoyed her. She needed to find Max—or his body, Sam!—and move on. She did not need to be daydreaming about Lucas or any of them. She did not need to be replaying her conversation with him at Opus 6, rewriting it so that it ended with her in his arms. So that it ended with an embrace, a kiss.
This was why she’d distanced herself from Ryan in the first place. So that she could go forward, pass Go. Lucas would be a backward move.