I gave her a look. “She’s busy. She’s having a good time with Neil. I’m happy for her.”

“She didn’t look busy a minute ago…” she mumbled.

I didn’t get to reply. Justin pulled up.

We watched him get out and go around the back of the car. He got a large potted plant from the trunk and started lugging it to the porch.

“Is that a rosebush?” Maddy asked, squinting.

He came up the walk and greeted Maddy, then he looked at me. “I brought you flowers,” he said, around the leaves.

I laughed. “You brought me an entire rosebush?”

He set it down. “You said the ones Amber got you were dead. I wanted to get you some that wouldn’t die.”

I smiled at it. “Awww. But this needs to be planted.”

“Then plant it,” he said, grinning. “What’s wrong with putting down roots?”

“Absolutely nothing,” Maddy said from behind me.

He hugged me hello and kissed me on the cheek. My stomach did a flip.

“I’ll put it in the pontoon,” he said, letting me go and picking it back up.

“Thank you.” I watched him round the corner of the garage.

As soon as he had his back to us, Maddy gave me an Are You Kidding Me look. “If he wanted to he would,” she said the second he was out of earshot. “Also, if Amber wanted to, she would too. I’m just saying.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Where you gonna plant that?” she asked.

“I don’t know.”

I’d be leaving it behind. So somewhere it could thrive without me.

CHAPTER 19 JUSTIN

Found it!” Emma said.

I put down the antique beer stein I was looking at and came over to the display case she was waiting by. “You definitely did find it. That is the ugliest baby I’ve ever seen.”

She beamed proudly.

We’d just gotten out of dinner. We were on our third antique store and in each one we looked for the creepy baby doll. This one had a half-closed eye, the tufts of what was left of some blond stringy hair, and it was slightly green for some reason.

“I think I love it,” Emma said, cocking her head.

I looked back and forth between her and the case. “This. You love this.”

“I do.”

“It’s missing an arm.”

She peered around the case. “There it is.”

I leaned to see what she was pointing at, and she was right, the severed arm was next to the doll on the shelf.

“The arm is missing fingers,” I said.

She shrugged. “It gives it character.”

I squinted at the tag hanging off the hideous baby. “Eighty-five dollars? For that?”

She tried to give me a disapproving look, but she was fighting a smile.

“You think it comes with the arm or is that extra?” I asked.

“That doll was someone’s favorite thing once, Justin. Some child probably took it everywhere, slept holding it, cried when it was lost.”

“I thought you weren’t sentimental about things.”

She looked back into the case. “I am about things like that.”

I watched her gazing at the doll, and I thought about Stuffie, her decrepit, limp unicorn, and I wondered if her ability to be sentimental got shut off when she was a kid. It stalled out at ancient hideous dolls.

I nudged her with my elbow. “Do you want me to buy it for you?”

“Do you want me to buy it for you?”

“Uh, no. I don’t need anything that ugly. I already have my dog.”

She laughed.

I peered into the glass case. Mom would have thought this was hilarious. She would have really liked Emma.

Emma must have noticed the change in my body language.

“What are you thinking?” she asked.

I breathed out deeply. “I’m thinking that I wish you knew my mom.”

Her face went soft. “She goes away tomorrow, right?”

I nodded.

“Should we go back? Do you want to spend time with her?”