Page 9 of Sharp Lies

“What do you think, Sil, pizza?” I asked as we climbed into the van.

Her tongue lolled out in an enormous smile at the word, and I nodded. “Pizza sounds good to me, too. The works. And a couple of beers. Come on, let’s go see if we can find a place that’ll accept dogs on their patio.”

Silver and I had specialized in finding places like that, because I didn’t like to eat without her. She’d become my wing dog, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I didn’t know if I wanted life any other way, if I was being honest with myself.

***

WE CLIMBED BACK INTO the van two hours later, having spent far too much time sitting on the patio of the pizza parlor talking to the people around us. A lot of them were in town for the same music festival I was here to work at, so we talked about the lineup and how many days they’d be staying. They’d all promised to come see me at the merch booth before they left, and I’d walked away from the restaurant feeling full of good food and companionship.

This was what it was like out here. I was constantly making new friends and promising to see them for as long as I was in town. And when I left...

Well, I took their numbers with me, in case we were ever in the same area at the same time again.

Still, I was feeling ready to drive to the campsite and park for the night. I had a big day ahead of me tomorrow, and I wanted a good night’s rest before we got there.

When I got back into the van and turned my phone on, though, I saw that I’d missed several calls. Several calls from the same exact number.

My aunt Susan, my father’s sister and one of the people I’d left in charge of looking out for my mother back in town. She didn’t live in Oakville, but on the outskirts of Chicago, though she traveled to see my mother often enough that I’d thought she was worthy of the role of babysitter.

Crap, what was she calling about?

I clicked over to my voicemail, but she hadn’t left a message, damn her, and when I opened up my texts, she hadn’t sent me any messages there, either.

What sort of woman called so many times and didn’t leave a voicemail or at least try to text? Not that it would have mattered. I didn’t have my phone on at the time and wouldn’t have answered her no matter how she’d tried to get in touch with me. But if she’d left a message or sent a text, I would at least have an idea what she’d been calling about.

As it was, my imagination was running rampant, giving me all the most horrible possibilities it could come up with.

Something had happened to my mom. Mr. McCarthy had changed his mind about his offer and had taken it out on my mom, even though I’d left town just like he’d told me to. Or worse, maybe it was Tony. I knew he was still in town because my mom had told me so. Had he gone over to her new house and attacked her? He’d been calling me for months after I left, and I’d never answered him. When he finally stopped, I’d hoped that meant he had gotten it out of his system and moved on.

But what if he hadn’t? What if he’d just been biding his time, waiting for me to stop paying attention so he could attack my mom in revenge for me leaving?

It was ludicrous, a part of my mind told me. It was a stupid idea that didn’t make any sense. Why would he have waited so long, and why would he attack my mom rather than coming after me? She hadn’t had anything to do with what happened between us or me leaving.

But panic doesn’t listen to reason, and as I dialed my aunt’s number, I could see that my hands were shaking in fear and tension over what I was about to hear.

“Please let her be okay, please let her be okay,” I chanted as I listened to the ringing on the other end. “Please let this be about something completely innocent.”

Something innocent that my aunt had called me five times about.

Then the call connected, and I heard my aunt on the other end of the line.

“Lily? Thank goodness you’ve called. Where have you been all night? I’ve been trying to get in touch with you for hours!”

She didn’t sound like this was something casual or innocent, and at the tension in her voice, my stomach dropped right through the bottom of the van and onto the road below it.

Something was wrong with my mother. And I was on the other side of the freaking country.

CHAPTER 5

LILY

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“WHAT HAPPENED?” I GASPED.

There was a pause long enough that it made me want to scream on the other end of the line, and then she finally started talking. “It’s your mom. She’s been in a car accident, Lil. I don’t know anything more than that, so don’t ask. She’s alive, but she’s in the hospital. They have her stabilized, or at least that’s the last thing I heard. But she’s in bad shape. I’m on my way there now. Where are you?”