Page 98 of The Souls of Lost Lake

Dread seeped into Wren’s gut. “Hear what?”

“They found a few bones. Human. Part of a skull, a hip bone. Definitely not anything related to Jasmine, but they’re speculating it may actually be part of one of the Coons family members who was killed years ago.”

The idea sickened Wren. Everything sickened Wren. Ava Coons’s family had never been found, but if these remains were theirs, then that part of the story would actually be true. The Coons familyhadbeen buried at the bottom of Lost Lake.

“I’ll catch you later.” Kyle waved and carried on his way. He was too happy. The search team had found bones.Bones.

Wren shuddered and hurried toward Troy’s office, which was more of a closet than anything else. She drew to a stop outside his door. Her stomach rolled. Her breathing grew shallow. She had come here knowing nothing other than she needed to see Troy. But now? This was only going to initiate more pain. Leave her—and Troy—more displaced.

“Wren!” Troy opened his door, his backpack slung over his shoulder. His grin brightened his face, but he must have read something on hers because it dissipated just as fast. “What’s wrong?”

“Can we talk?” Wren mustered up the will to at least ask that.

Troy’s teeth clenched for a moment before he ducked his head. “Yeah. Yeah, sure. Come in.”

She sidled past him. The office had a small desk with a chair, and one extra chair just under an open window. There wasn’t room for any other furniture.

Troy let his backpack drop to the floor.

Wren sat down on the extra chair and twisted her fingers together.

Troy reached out and rested his hand over hers. “Hey.”

She looked up.

His eyes were understanding—too understanding.

“Troy, I—”

“It’s okay, Wren.” He gave a small laugh. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know what’s on your mind.”

“It doesn’t?”

“Wren, you’ve gone through a lifetime’s worth of crud in the last week and a half. Anyone helping with the search for Jasmine has been affected. It’s unnerving, not to mention—you probably shouldn’t have gone to watch them search Lost Lake when you’d just lost Patty.”

It made it all so much worse. Troy’s understanding.

“Troy—”

“I know.” There was gravity in his voice. He drummed his fingers on his desk, the palm of his other hand scraping against his three days’ worth of whiskers.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” Wren bit her lip, sucking back the wateriness in her voice.

“Nothing’s wrong with you.” Troy’s eyes darkened with understanding. “You’ve been through a lot here in a short period of time, and I’m—not your rock.”

Wren lifted her eyes.

Troy continued, his expression pained. “Eddie is. He always has been. I can’t compete with that.”

“I didn’t realize,” she admitted. Wren picked at a fingernail. It was hard to look at Troy. She despised causing anyone pain.

“No. You didn’t. Neither did I when we first started dating a few months ago. But it’s clear. Neither of you have acted on it because—well, I think ’cause you’ve just always been in each other’s lives. You took each other for granted.”

“Eddie never said anything.”

Troy gave a small laugh. “Oh, he did. In his way. He doesn’tsaythings, but ... it was pretty clear to me. Eddie gave you space. He’s not going to risk losing your friendship, and once we were dating, he’s too good of a guy.”

Wren brushed a tear from her cheek. “Patty knew.”