Page 100 of No More Words

“Sorry about that. She’s picky with her coffee. She’s also embarrassed.”

“How so?” He turns on the kettle.

“She can hardly look at you.”

He makes a face. “She shouldn’t be. That was a lifetime ago.”

“I still can’t believe she slept with your dad.”

“I can hear you,” Charlotte says.

Josh snorts. Olivia cringes.

“Eggs.” Blaze points at the pan she should have been watching.

“Shit.” Smoke billows. The acrid smell of burnt eggs fills the room. Transferring the pan to another burner, she turns on the vent.

“Where is that?” Olivia hears her mom ask Josh. She glances over her shoulder. Charlotte flips Josh’s sketch around to get a better look.

Josh scratches his scar with the pencil’s eraser. “Um ... place ... log.” He points at the mossy green shape that takes up most of the page. “Lake. It’s a lake.” He smiles, pleased to have found the word he wanted.

Charlotte’s lips purse. “I know that, but where is it?”

Josh looks at Olivia for help. She approaches the table. “I asked Josh to sketch places his mom might be.”

“It looks like the Whitmans’ cabin.”

“The what?” Olivia and Blaze say at once. They exchange a look. Blaze joins her at the table. Sure enough, Josh’s drawing looks exactly like the view of the cabin from the lake. Excitement pours into her faster than Lucas used to dunk her into that lake. Could this be it?

“She’s right,” Blaze says. “It’s the lake house. How would he know about it?”

“Because he’s been there?” She watches Josh for an answer.

He shakes his head. “Never been. Ball ... horn ...” His face scrunches. “Picture. It was on the ... bucket ... fridge.” He gasps like he’s exhausted.

Olivia exchanges another look with Blaze. Josh sketched the lake house from a photo he remembers, is that what he means?

“We need to go, like right now. Today.” The lake house was a refuge for Lily as much if not more than for Olivia. Those summers gave Lily a respite from Dwight.

Charlotte’s phone buzzes with an incoming text. Her complexion pales. Moisture pools in her eyes. She clutches her phone, her knuckles bone white.

“What is it?” Olivia touches her shoulder, sensing her mounting panic.

“It’s Lucas. He needs help.”

“Is he okay?” she asks, remembering how she left him yesterday. His smile was strained, but he promised her he wouldn’t do anything stupid.

“I don’t know.” Charlotte grasps her hand. “Take me home to Lucas, then go get my baby. Bring her back.”

Torn between chasing down Lily and helping Lucas, Olivia agrees. “Promise you’ll call if you need me.”

Charlotte nods tightly. “I will,” she whispers, on the brink of falling apart.

It must be bad, whatever Lucas has done.Please, God, Olivia whispers in her head. Keep her brother safe. She’s as anxious as Charlotte to have her siblings together again.

CHAPTER 35

“This place hasn’t changed at all.” Olivia watches the scenery pass outside her window. Green Valley Lake, the best-kept secret high in the San Bernardino Mountains. Other kids went to sleepaway summer camps. The Whitmans’ cabin was summer camp without counselors and KP duty. Campfires without corny songs. Canoe races without rules. While Lily and Tyler kept close to the cabin because they were younger, she, Blaze, and Lucas ran amok six weeks straight, year after year. She could hike the trails with her eyes closed. Bike the roads without Google Maps. Recite every flavor of Popsicle in the icebox at Decker’s Market: Firecracker, Missile, Pop Ups, Orange Creamsicle. Looking back, she’s surprised there weren’t more trips to the clinic given all the trees they climbed and fell from or trips around the lake without life vests. They were stupid kids. But those summers held her best memories.

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