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Will glared at me. “Forty. Just forty.”

Laughter bubbled up inside of me. This was better. Safer than whatever it was that had just passed between us.

“How old are you anyway?” he asked, turning back to the hitch. He was hooking up the lights now.

“Isn’t that something you’re not supposed to ask?”

“Hardly seems fair,” he said. “Unless you’re old-fashioned or something.”

“Not in the least.”

“Well?”

“Thirty-two.”

Will grimaced.

“What, you think I’m young? I guess so—I was probably still in middle school when you had Hannah.” I grinned, despite myself.

“That’s… no. You really know how to make things weird, Franco.”

No weirder than they already were.

“Let’s go,” Will grumbled, tromping around to his side of the truck.

* * *

The womanat the garage was very tall—maybe even taller than Will, who was definitely north of six feet. Her arms were made of pure muscle.

She introduced herself as Luciana.

“Just because you’re William’s friend, I’m going to bump my lunch for this job. But you better get back here by one because I get hangry. Just ask Jimmy.”

Luciana threw a thumb at the kid working on a pick-up in the other bay. “She’s not lying,” he said.

“We will,” I said. “I really appreciate it.”

“I take it that’s not your sister?” I asked Will, deeply confused as we walked out of the garage.

“Luciana’s taking over the business while Stella’s in Michigan,” Will said. He shoved his hands in his coat pocket as we stood on the sidewalk. “She said it was for the year, but I’d be shocked if she came back.”

“Why would anyone leave Jewel Lakes?” I asked. I was joking, but he responded anyway.

“She’s in love,” Will said.

What was that in his voice? I looked at his face, trying to read something into him saying that word, but he wasn’t looking at me. In fact, he looked as if he was decidedly not looking at me.

A man’s voice cut through the suddenly tense silence.

“Archer!”

A man’s voice hollered from somewhere above. I couldn’t tell where.

“Shit,” Will muttered under his breath. “Hey Fred,” he called up.

I spotted him then, a red-faced man in a suit and tie, leaning out a window from the building across the street.

“Is that...”