Page 30 of You Met Me There

We all walk out to the back deck where Cam’s flipping burgers and the kids are climbing the steps to take their seats at the table. Cam is naturally taller than he was as a teenager, silhouetted against the oranges of the setting sun, and his brown hair swoops back under a backward baseball cap. His green eyes light up when he sees me.

“Hi, Natalie. I’m Cam.” He extends a hand and I shake it. “I’m not sure if you really remember me. I was friends with Ty in high school.”

I nod, smiling up at him. “I remember. I didn’t think you’d end up with my sister, though.” I laugh.

“Believe me, I didn’t either. But when I moved back to Maple Lake, it just happened naturally, you know?”

“I get that. I really do. Anyway, it’s nice to see you again. It’s been a long time.”

Cam scratches at his neatly trimmed beard, watching me, before his eyes lift to look over my shoulder. Jules steps around me to kiss him on the cheek, and he smiles down at her.

“Are the burgers done?” she asks, her tone smooth and kind and … in love. From that voice alone I know they have a happy marriage. It’s the way I talked with Luke for so many years. It’s the voice that tells the other person you feel safe and happy.

“Yup, everything’s ready,” he replies, moving the burgers from the grill to a plate with metal tongs. Juliet takes the plate and sets it on the table. “Boys, get to the table!”

The two little brown-haired boys scamper away from my parents’ embrace to sit at the long metal-top table. One child is only slightly taller than the other, and if I didn’t know better, I’d think they were twins sitting side-by-side. After a second, I notice the older boy is watching me.

He has eyes like Cam’s—deep green and intelligent, like he knows something’s wrong with me.

Maybe kids have a sixth sense like that.

He tugs on Juliet’s arm and points to me. “Who’s that?” he asks in a loud whisper.

Juliet looks up, then back to the boys, whose eyes are wide, trained on me like I’m a new toy. “This is Natalie. She’s Mommy’s sister.”

“You have a sister?!” both boys shout in unison.

It would be cute if I didn’t feel the sting of the knife carving away at the remains of my heart. She didn’t even tell them about me.

“Yes, I have a sister,” she replies calmly. “She hasn’t lived here for a long time.”

The older boy smiles and waves at me, saying “hi,” while the younger one slumps down in his chair so far that I can only see the tips of his wavy brown hair above the tabletop.

I wave at them, noticing the tension around me as it emanates from my parents, Jules, and Cam. All I can do is smile and try to ignore the pressure. “Hi,” I say. “It’s so nice to meet you. What are your names?”

I sit across from the kids, my back to the sliding screen door that leads inside. Cam sits to my left, at the head of the table, Dad sits on my right, and Juliet sits on the other side with the boys, leaving Mom to sit at the other end. Everyone settles down seamlessly like they have assigned seats. I blush, worried I may have stolen Juliet’s place next to her husband.

The oldest sits up tall and gestures toward himself, then at his little brother. “I’m Herman, and this is Melville.”

Snickers erupt around the table.

“Levi,” Cam says sternly. He has a smile as wide as everyone else’s, though, as he dishes out burgers and buns for the kids. “We’ve been reading Moby Dick,” he says to me, “and Levi thinks it’s funny to give himself and his brother different names.”

I chuckle. “At least he didn’t go with the name of the whale.”

“Oh, goodness,” Juliet says from the other side of the table. “He’s done that one. Got in trouble at school for it too, right?” She eyes Levi, who just shrugs and fills his mouth with chips straight from a large bag on the table. My mom slides the bag away, and I don’t miss Juliet giving her a grateful smile.

“And what’s your name?” I say to the little boy who’s still struggling to sit upright.

Juliet taps his shoulder and he pokes his head up. “Archie,” he barks before hiding again. It’s obvious which kid is shy and which is outspoken.

“Thank you for having me over for dinner, Archie. And Herman, of course.” I smile at Levi conspiratorially, and he scrunches his nose in a laugh, happy that I’m playing along.

Levi goes on to tell me that he’s six and his brother is four, but Archie doesn’t like to talk to strangers much. I tell him that’s very smart, but that I hope I won’t stay a stranger for very long. Archie perks up when he hears us talking about him, and Juliet and Cam work together to convince him to eat his burger rather than just the bun.

I ask about my parents’ travels, and Dad waxes eloquent about his precious RV. He tells me about selling the house to purchase it and all the states they’ve visited, camping in one place for weeks at a time, then moving on to their next exciting destination.

He mentions their trip to Florida, where they stayed only three hours from Miami. I know it will hurt them when they learn I’ve been living in Fort Lauderdale, where they were close enough to visit if they’d known where I was.