“Mom, please say something!”
My mind was already running through impossible lists. Nobody at the party would have known to call her that. Nobody I’d invited had ever known Luke that way. And nobody, nobody, would have written those words as a prank.
“I promised I’d be here.”
Whose promise was that?
Before I could calm Hannah down, the doorbell rang.
Nobody I’d invited had ever known Luke that way.
Ailani jumped a little. Skylar looked toward the hall. Hannah wiped her cheeks quickly.
“Stay with her,” I told the girls. I set the towel down on the coffee table and started toward the door, my legs suddenly not quite my own.
“Ailani, Skylar, stay with her a minute,” I called over my shoulder. “Probably just late guests.”
Ailani jumped a little.
My hands wouldn’t stop shaking as I crossed the hallway. I passed Luke’s photos on the wall, the ones I dusted every Sunday, and tried to steady my breath.
