Chapter 12: My Daughter

The Haldane Boathouse had a ribbon across its doors as wide as a road.

Red, of course.

My father liked red ribbons.

He cut one at every hotel he opened, and I'd stood beside him at nine of them in a velvet dress.

This time I stood at the back of the crowd on the lakeshore, in jeans and my mother's bracelet.

Trudy had stuck a little orange flag from the nursing lab in the grass beside my feet.

"Nobody moves you off this flag," she'd said.

Now she stood on one side of it with her arms folded.

Four of the Lake Road girls stood on the other side, wearing the rowing team's spare sweatshirts.

Homecoming week started today.

Banners hung from every lamppost on the lake road.

Ridgefield Homecoming, Coming Home Together.

There were three news vans, the marching band's drumline, and maybe six hundred people.

The athletic director was on the stage in a team scarf.

So was Brielle.

She wore a cream dress, a gold sash that said Homecoming Court, and a smile that hadn't moved in twenty minutes.

Down at the water, the men's team sat in a brand-new white boat, holding it steady against the dock.

Brodie was in the front seat.

He'd found me in the crowd once and lifted his chin.

That was all.

That was enough.

My phone buzzed in my pocket.

I'd texted my father an hour ago.

"I'm here. Back of the crowd. Wearing Mom's bracelet."

The screen showed it as read at 9:14.

No answer.

At ten o'clock, a black car came down the lake road.

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