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I heard the door open and shut, but I waited until Luci said it was all right to come out.

“Coast is clear,” Luci said.

“What was that all about?” I asked.

“Holly. Brought me a dress for tonight.” She’d laid it over the chair. A blue silky material. Sleeveless.

“You’ll be stunning in it.”

“I think she knows,” Luci said.

“And Beck saw me.” It felt good to say it out loud. “Just now. With the breakfast tray. He was coming out of Blake’s cabin.”

“Okay. Not good. I mean, for us. Good for them.”

“If he suspects anything, he’ll keep it to himself,” I said.

“I think Rhett and Holly are also sharing a cabin,” Luci said as she went to sit by the fire.

I joined her. “You think?”

“There’s so much sneaking around this ranch that hopefully everyone’s worried about their own situation and not paying any attention to us.”

“What did Holly mean about your eighth birthday? Why did she say—‘who could forget that day?’”

“It’s not a big deal. For my eighth birthday, my mom planned a party for me. I invited all the girls in my class. Mom made the blackberry bars I loved and got hats and party favors, none of which were in the budget. Jack and Rhett decorated with these streamers they’d gotten their hands on somehow. Holly brought over a dress that she’d outgrown. It had this poofy skirt and I couldn’t stop twirling.”

“Sounds like a good birthday.”

“Kind of. No one came. I sat at the window, waiting, telling myself the girls were just late, that they would come. Minutes ticked by until finally my mom had to call it. No one was coming.”

“But why?”

“I thought it was because no one liked me.” Luci tried to keep it light but I could hear the pain in her voice, even after all these years.

“What was the real reason?”

“The trailer park where we lived—it was pretty rough. There were some sketchy people living there. Rhett’s dad was one of them. Jack’s theory was that none of the mothers wanted their daughters to visit anyone who lived in that park. In hindsight, I can see their point. I guess. We had some bikers right behind us. My mom was scared of them. Used to tell us to stay away from their trailer and to never make eye contact.”

“Regardless of the reason, it must have hurt.” A lump formed in my throat thinking about eight-year-old Luci watching from the window, telling herself that there was still a chance they would show.

“Jack says I cried, but I don’t remember that part. Instead, I remember that Jack, Rhett, and Holly rallied. Holly had brought these party games from home—Twister, Pin the Tail on the Donkey, Operation. Holly’s mom sent them over, probably thinking my mom wouldn’t have much. Which she was right, of course. Jack started a game of Twister and pretty soon we were all laughing. I forgot all about the girls not showing. Operation was my favorite—maybe a sign that I would be a doctor someday. We had the blackberry bars my mom made, of course.” She stopped for a second, looking up at the ceiling the way people do when they’re conjuring a memory. “We had ice cream too. Holly’s mom dropped that off for us. I’d forgotten that part.”

“Holly’s mom’s good people,” I said.

“The best. Like her daughter.”

She was quiet a moment, a slight smile playing at the corners of her mouth. “It was always the four of us back then. And I was the baby. Which meant they spoiled me. I felt rich, you know. And lucky. A lot of kids wouldn’t have wanted the little sister hanging around, but they weren’t like that. All three of them had old souls.”

“Did any of the girls ever say anything about the party?” I asked. “Like when you went back to school?”

“Not that I recall. I do remember Holly’s mom though—when she picked Holly up—Mrs. Stone said to me, ‘Just wait, Luci, those girls are going nowhere and someday you’ll have an important job and you’ll have to remind yourself to stay humble.”

“Wise advice.”

“It was. I thought about Mrs. Stone sometimes during really rough patches in medical school. I told myself that I couldn’t prove her wrong. She’d believed in me and I didn’t want to let her down.”

“And you haven’t.”