“Not really,” Charlotte replies without actually meeting my eyes. “We just had breakfast and we’vebeen in the garden ever since. Actually, I’m glad you came out here. Mrs. Van Stanton called to inviteEvie over today.”
“She just told me,” I reply. “Van Stanton, huh?”
“Right,” I say, though the name barely rings a bell. “Okay, Evie. Go get changed.”
“I can go?” Evie exclaims, her eyes going wide as saucers.
She jumps up and down joyously and runs into the house without so much as a backward glance ateither one of us. Which is exactly what I was hoping for.
I sit down next to Charlotte. One deep breath, and then I say the three little words that’ve beenworming a whole in my chest for God knows how long now.
She swivels in my direction abruptly. “What did you just say?”
