The Lost Girl of Astor Street(64)

Mariano drags in a breath. “Do I sound too desperate if I ask what your plans are tonight?”

Oh. There’s my open door. “I would love to see you, but I already agreed to see a movie with Emma Crane and her boyfriend tonight.”

“Her name is familiar. Is she a neighbor?”

“Yes. And a Presley’s girl.”

“Her family owns the Daily Chicagoan, right? Her brother is . . . Jeremy?”

“Jeremiah.” I wrap the phone cord around my finger. “I would ask you along, but . . . Well, this sounds silly, but Emma asked me to help her out with something. An investigation of sorts.” My swallow is loud in Father’s office. “And after I said I would, Emma told me that Jeremiah would be there too.”

“Of course he will.” Mariano’s words are dry, but I don’t think he’s angry. Or maybe that’s how he sounds when he’s angry. There hasn’t been time yet to find out. “What kind of investigation is this, Detective Sail?”

I smirk, but Sidekick is the only one who sees. “You’re not asking me to share classified details, are you?”

“Of course I am. And now imagine me batting my eyelashes at you.”

“It’s something about her boyfriend. Emma just wants my opinion, I guess.”

“And a date to distract her brother?”

“It’s not like that. I told Emma about you. She knows we’re . . .”

“We’re what?” Now Mariano sounds amused.

“That we had a date last night.” I release the cord that I’d wrapped around my finger, watch it unravel just like my control of this conversation seems to be. “That we’re seeing each other.”

“Well, I hope it goes well tonight. When you get in, will you call me?”

“Of course.”

Mariano gives me the number to his apartment, and then we hang up.

The scent of Joyce’s pot roast sneaks into Father’s office, drawing out a memory of Lydia staying for dinner. “I think this is what pot roast must taste like in heaven, Joyce,” she had said.

Part of me tries to push away the memory of my friend—her sincere smile, her face lit with the soft glow of the chandelier—and the lonely ache that comes with it. Another part of me wants to lean into the memory, play it again and again, wallow around in the words.

I unclasp my locket and look at Lydia’s face. “I’m going to figure out what happened to you.” My words are an unintentional whisper, as if Father’s ordinary office has turned into a holy place. A place where Lydia might be able to hear me. “I will figure out what happened, and I will make them pay.”





CHAPTER


SEVENTEEN


A toast.” Father raises his glass of red wine high and beams at us all. “To my wonderful children, and to the beautiful woman who in one week will be Mrs. Sail. I’m a lucky man.”

I turn to half-heartedly clink my glass against Tim’s, and then turn to my right to clink with Alana, who somehow snuck her way into our family dinner. She smiles at me, all teeth.

I try to smile back.

“It’s starting to feel so real with most of my belongings moved in.” Jane beams at me from the head of the table. “Piper, you’re such a sweetheart to let me store some of my boxes in your bedroom.”

I don’t recall being given a choice.

That’s no way to talk to your almost stepmother, Lydia admonishes.

I smile and spoon myself a helping of mashed potatoes. “It’s no problem.”

The invasion began this afternoon while I was on the phone with Mariano. I had come out of Father’s office to find thick-armed, sweating men unloading boxes. Of course I knew Jane must have items of her own that she would want at her new residence, and yet it had undone something inside me to find Joyce packing away all of Mother’s china and replacing it with the new pattern Jane had picked out.

“I’ll be sure to wrap this up nicely so it’s ready for you, my dear,” Joyce had said to me in that soft voice of hers.

They’re only dishes, I had told myself. Just plates, cups, and bowls. Nothing more.

Still, I hid myself on the back porch and cried.

“I’m delighted that everyone was able to be here tonight for a family dinner.” Jane slices her green bean into three equal parts. “This next week will be so busy that I imagine this is our last chance to be together before the big day.”

I can only hope.

“It will be so wonderful to have another female in the family,” Gretchen pipes up in her perky voice. I don’t have to look to know she’s wearing her practiced debutante smile. “Piper and I have been rather outnumbered all these years. Haven’t we, Piper?”

“Piper must have been so glad when you joined the family, Gretchen.” Jane smiles and shifts her gaze between the two of us.

It’s clear we’re all waiting for me to agree.

“Extremely.” I put on my sweetest smile. I’ve no intentions of ruffling feathers this evening. Not when I still need to tell my father that I’m going out with Emma this evening.

My thoughts flit to Jeremiah. What, exactly, does he expect tonight? Does he also think we’re two chums seeing a movie with his sister and her boyfriend? Does he believe this is a date? Did Emma tell him I’m seeing Mariano, or will I need to?