Chapter 16: Tea for Two

Lacey's text came in on Monday morning, an hour after Zach left for Tulsa.

"Just us, sweetheart. No cameras, no lawyers. I'm hurting too. Can we be friends?"

I read it to Lyle at the kitchen table.

"Pick the place," he said.

"The place has to be somewhere with no walls, no staff and no phones."

"My car," Lyle said.

I wrote back: *Ten o'clock. The parking lot of the Gretna Dairy Dip. Come alone. Wear something you don't mind sitting in.*

Gus stayed with Zach's mother, who had met me at her door with her purse already on her arm and said, "Go. I have a casserole and a grudge."

Lacey arrived in a white coat and a pair of cream boots.

She stood at the curb looking at the Corolla.

Every seat was still wrapped in clear plastic, and the gap between the front headrests had a label that said GUS-GRADE.

"Is that a real car?" she said.

"It's a Corolla," Lyle said.

She got into the back seat with me anyway.

The plastic crackled as she sat down, and she froze, and it crackled again as she settled.

"Ma'am," Lyle said, without turning, "please don't scratch the seat."

"It's plastic."

"It's a covering," he said. "There's a difference."

She smiled at the back of his head, the same warm smile as always.

She did not look at the little red light on his dashboard, because she had never in her life looked at the driver.

"Janie," she said. "I want to start with an apology."

"Go ahead."

"I should have told you about Chase. I couldn't. He's so complicated, and I thought, if I'm her friend, she'll never feel the sting."

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