Page 33 of Find Me in California

“He’s probably not home. He was going to go to Yale. He might not even live here anymore. It should be okay.” She smiles weakly at him and jogs across the street.

Matt follows at a slower pace. He stops at his car and waits in case she needs him. She knocks, and a middle-aged man of average build answers. He’s wearing joggers and a worn shirt. She asks for Mrs. Stromski. The man tells her nobody by that name lives there. She asks after her parents. He says no one with the last name of Hope lives in the house across the street.

Magnolia looks back at Matt, troubled. She tells the man he’s lying. Matt’s about to go over and help when the man shuts the door in her face. She gapes in shock, then returns to Matt.

“He said the strangest things.” Magnolia rubs her hands. “He accusedmeof lying. But I grew up in that house.” She points at her parents’ place.

“Is it possible they’ve moved?”

“They’d never leave without telling me.” Her face shadows with doubt. Matt refrains from saying the obvious: Her parents probably didn’t know how to reach her. They might not have wanted to. “I don’t know what to do. I can’t go back.”

He assumes she means going back to Sam, or to whomever she was with in California. “Is there someplace else I can take you? A hotel? Starbucks?”

Her brows pull together at the center. “What’s Starbucks?”

A bark of laughter. “Seriously?” She’s pulling his leg. Who doesn’t know what Starbucks is? “It’s a coffee shop. They’re all over the place.”

She shakes her head, nervously rubbing her hands. “No, I’ll wait here.”

“I’m not sure ...” He looks back at the neighbor’s house. A curtain flutters closed.

“Don’t worry about him. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. My parents will be back. They’re probably just out to dinner or something. Help me with my suitcases?” She gets the small case, and Matt grabs the larger one. He leaves it on the sidewalk when she declines his offer to carry her luggage to the porch.

He doesn’t feel right leaving her without access to a car or a phone. He scribbles his number on the airport parking receipt. “In case you need to reach me.” She can borrow a phone from another neighbor or use her parents’ once she gets inside the house.

“I’ll be fine.” She refuses the slip of paper and shoos him away. “Go see your grandmother.”

He grimaces, opening the car door.

“Matty.”

“Don’t call me that.”

She gives her hand a dismissive flip. “Word of advice? Make peace with your past or you’ll be lonely for the rest of your life. Nobody wants that.”

He just smiles, shaking his head at her strangeness, and gets in his car. He heads straight for the highway to make up for lost time.

CHAPTER 16

JULIA

Julia hurries as fast as one can go lugging a folded massage table through Rosemont’s wide hallways toward her last appointment. She passes the common room and notices Liza sitting in her usual chair facing one of the garden windows. Mama Rose’s diary is a weight in Julia’s bag.

She veers in the elderly woman’s direction, her rubber-soled shoes whisper light across the luxury vinyl planks. Liza jerks when Julia appears beside her, and she drops the book she’s reading in her lap.

“I’m sorry,” Julia apologizes. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“But you did.” Liza picks up the book and searches for the page she was on.

Julia sets down her bag and table and rolls her shoulders to soothe the ache.

Dressed in pressed wool slacks and a dusty-rose blouse, Liza peers up at her over her wire-framed readers. “I didn’t book a massage today.” As if triggered by the thought of one, she rubs her arthritic hands.

“I know.” Julia looks around for an empty chair, spotting one at the table behind them. She drags it over. “May I sit?”

“Will you leave if I say no?”

“I just need a moment.” Julia smiles pleasantly and drops into the chair, exhausted from being on her feet all day. Sitting down is probablya bad decision. She might not be able to get back up. She certainly doesn’t want to.

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