The Last of the Moon Girls(36)

“I was just wondering if there might be a reason he doesn’t want me snooping around. Maybe he knows something he doesn’t want me to know.”

“By something, you mean . . .”

“It happens.”

“Lizzy, think about what you’re saying.”

“I have been thinking about it. I thought about it all the way home. He wasn’t just upset, he was hostile. He doesn’t want me anywhere near this.”

Andrew set down his fork, scowling. “What did he say?”

“That Althea got what she deserved, and maybe I would too. It was probably just the anger talking, but there was something, I don’t know, sinister about the way he said it. He also warned me to stay away from his wife, which I thought was odd since they’re not together anymore. Why would he not want me talking to her?”

“Maybe it’s as simple as wanting to protect her. Just because two people are apart doesn’t mean they’ve stopped caring about each other.”

Lizzy nodded, accepting the remark at face value. When it came to marital dynamics, she had little to go on. “I suppose so. That’s why I came over. I needed you to tell me I was imagining things. I just thought after so much time he might be willing to at least listen.”

“What are you going to do now?”

Lizzy pushed her potato salad around her plate. “I have no idea. Talk to Mrs. Gilman, I suppose. If I can track her down. I need something I can take back to Summers, something he can’t ignore.”

“Good luck with that. Cavanaugh just endorsed him as Salem Creek’s next mayor. There’s zero chance of him touching this now.”

“Then I guess I’ll have to force his hand.”

“Lizzy.” Andrew folded his paper napkin and laid it aside. “I get you needing to do this. In fact, I admire the hell out of you for it, but maybe you should slow down, give Roger time to get through his notes. If there’s something to find, he’ll find it. And then he can deal with Summers, and you’re out of it. In the meantime, maybe I could do some poking around, see if anyone knows how to contact her.”

Lizzy managed a smile. She didn’t want to seem ungrateful, but he was doing it again, stepping in to protect her, like he had the night Rhanna went wading in the fountain. Only this time he had more to lose. “Andrew, I’m grateful to you for putting me in touch with Roger, but this is my fight. I’ll be gone in a few weeks, and you’ll still be here. Your business will still be here. The last thing you need is to get mixed up in this.”

“I’m not worried about what this town thinks.”

“You should be,” Lizzy replied, thinking of the men at Mason Electric, of Jake and his buddy, and how they’d bowed up at the mere sight of her. Fred Gilman was right about one thing. No one wanted her here. And if Andrew was seen as choosing the Moons over Salem Creek, no one would want him here either.

“I shouldn’t have involved you,” she said, setting aside her plate. “I knew better.”

“You didn’t involve me, Lizzy. I involved myself.”

“Why?” The word was out of her mouth before she had time to think about where it might lead, but now that it was out, she was curious. “Why did you agree to help me—when you’re clearly not convinced I should be poking around in this? You’re always doing that, you know? Helping me. And it’s not just making the call to Roger. It’s the greenhouse, and the barn, and all the other stuff.”

Andrew arched a brow. “Other stuff?”

“In school. The Twizzlers at the assembly. The ride home the day of the hailstorm. We barely knew each other then. Come to that, we barely know each other now.” She paused, ducking her head. “I always wondered . . . Was it because you felt sorry for me?”

Andrew stared at her, as if genuinely astonished. “That’s what you thought? That I felt sorry for you?”

She responded with a half-hearted shrug. “I wasn’t exactly Miss Popular in school. All I wanted back then was to be invisible. I thought I was doing a good job of it too. Except you kept turning up, being all nice. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why. I still can’t.”

Andrew paused, picking up his napkin again, and slowly wiped his hands. Finally, he looked up. “Why is a boy ever nice to a girl? I wanted you to like me. I still do.”

Lizzy blinked at him, cheeks tingling. There were no dimples this time, no sign that he was teasing. There were only his words hovering between them, and something warm and unfamiliar unfurling beneath her ribs. She’d had her share of adult relationships, but she’d skipped over this part of adolescence, the giddy flutter of first attraction, the breathless tug of young heartstrings. There’d been no point back then. And there was certainly no point now.

She scrambled to her feet, careful to avoid Andrew’s eyes, and headed for the front door. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it was so late. I need to get home before Evvie starts worrying.”

Andrew stood and followed her to the door. “Lizzy . . .”

She turned, her hand already on the knob.

“You could never be invisible to me. Not then, and not now.”

Lizzy nodded, cool and careful as she registered what he was trying to say without actually saying it. “It isn’t about me liking you, Andrew. It never was. But the stakes are higher now. For both of us.”