Page 39 of Call Off the Dark

“Who’s the other girl?” Helen asked.

“I don’t know.” Tyler looked at Leo for the answer.

“That’s Gracie’s girlfriend, Adaline.”

Adaline was striking—tall with spindly legs and straight black hair falling toward her waist. Helen watched her reach out a long, thin arm and intertwine her fingers with Gracie’s. The two women angled their bodies toward each other.

“Wait,” Helen said. “You mean her girlfriend-girlfriend?”

“Yeah,” Leo said. “Oh, you didn’t know?” Leo studied Tyler curiously.

Tyler’s face changed. “What? Girlfriend?”

“They’ve been dating for a few months.” Leo shrugged and walked across the yard to greet them.

Tyler turned to Helen, his shoulders dropping slightly. “A few months? She didn’t tell me she was gay. Or bi. Or . . . ”

Helen understood why Tyler was upset. It had nothing to do with him discovering that Gracie had a girlfriend and everything to do with Gracie not sharing something so essential with him when the others knew.

“It’s okay, Tyler.”

He looked over and saw Evelyn talking with Adaline. “Jesus, did Evelyn know before me? Fucking Evelyn?”

Helen reached out and clasped his hand. “I’m sorry you didn’t know.”

Tyler responded with a “Yeah” that was so soft it was barely audible. He was still watching everyone across the yard, a quiet shadow in his eyes.

“Tyler, this isn’t about you.”

“What?” He dropped her hand.

“Listen to me,” she said. “Weeks from now or months from now, you can address the issue of why the two of you aren’t as close as you want. You can ask her then why she didn’t share something important with you when she’d told the others. But that’s not what this moment is about. This may be her way of coming out to you. That only happens once.”

The weight of it all took hold of Tyler, and he said, “You’re right.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” He nodded slowly. “Yeah, I am.”

“All you show her today is love. End of story. Got it?”

“Got it.” Tyler looked at Helen for a long beat, then his face melted and he pulled her into a hug. “You’re too smart. Just like the wolf in ‘Little Red Riding Hood.’” Her laugh muffled into his shirt. “Except for the eating people part,” he added.

When Tyler went over to Gracie, Helen hung back at first. From the oak tree, she watched him meet Adaline. She watched him give both girls big hugs, and she watched Gracie’s beaming smile.

Then Tyler gave Helen a little nod to join them. When he introduced her to Gracie, Helen put her hand out to shake. After the awkward hug with Evelyn, it seemed like the better option. Instantly, though, she wondered if she was being too formal, but Gracie radiated immediate friendliness, and Adaline followed suit.

Much later, as the sun began to set, Helen, Tyler, Leo, Gracie, and Adaline ended up down at the beach. Helen stared out at the water, thinking the day couldn’t have gone better. She felt the magic all around her, and she felt she’d created some of it.

Helen was no magician though; she was no puppet master. She could not day in, day out, run around casting spells and pulling strings. Over the following years, Evelyn would say cruel things from time to time, Tyler and Leo would argue when Leo got too drunk and broke something or made a scene in public, and Gracie would alternate between disappearing and reappearing. But on that day at the barbecue, Helen sprinkled goodwill throughout that storybook house, weaving the fairy-tale day she wanted for Tyler, and her tiny maneuvers made a difference.

On the drive home, Tyler said, “That’s the most fun I’ve had with my family in a long time. Did you like them?”

Helen said, “I love them.”

Chapter Fifteen

Present day