“The geeks,” I clarify for Kevin and Addie. “Let’s call it what it was.”

“I can’t imagine either of you as geeks,” Addie says with a shake of the head and smiles at Kevin as he offers her a glass of wine.

“We have the yearbooks to prove it,” he says with a smile. “They’ve come a long way.”

“So you grew up in Minnesota too?” Addie asks Christina.

“Yep. It’s damn cold there.”

“Is your family still there?”

All humor leaves C’s face, and Kevin simply slips his arm around her.

“No,” she replies, and I expect her to leave it at that. Christina doesn’t ever discuss this part of her childhood.

But instead, she shrugs and passes me napkins to add to the table.

“My parents were killed when I was young,” she says. “My family is here.”

Addie nods politely, but then mumbles under her breath and pulls Christina in for a hug, surprising all of us, most of all Christina. “That fucking sucks and I’m sorry.”

“It was a long time ago,” Christina reassures her. “But thank you.”

“Who’s hungry?” Kevin asks.

“Me,” we all reply, then laugh and sit down to dig in.

“What about you, Addie?” Kevin asks. “Did you grow up around here?”

“I did,” she replies. “My parents live in Hawaii now.”

She looks down at her plate, but not before I catch a bit of the sadness I saw in her eyes last week, and I can’t help but wonder if that’s part of what had her upset.

“Any siblings?” Christina asks.

“Nope, just me,” Addie says. “Which was fine. I was a handful.”

“Jake must have been a handful too,” Kevin says before taking a sip of his wine.

“That’s a given,” Christina replies.

“Why are you guys giving me so much shit tonight?”

“Because it’s fun,” Kevin says.

“What he said,” Chris adds, but her smile is soft and sweet as she watches me reach for Addie’s hand.

When dinner is finished and the dishes have been cleared and the kitchen tidied, Christina catches me by the arm.

“Can you help me out in the garage?”

“In the garage?” I ask.

“Yes, the garage,” she repeats between her teeth, as if that’s supposed to make me understand better.

It doesn’t.

“I think she wants to talk to you alone,” Addie says with a laugh. “Go ahead. I’ll help Kevin load the dishwasher.”

I follow Christina into the garage and smile at her. “You could have just said that you wanted to talk to me.”

“I didn’t want to sound rude.”

“She’s not stupid,” I reply and feel my face sober. “She’s so fucking smart, C.”

“I can tell.” Her limp is hardly noticeable tonight as she paces back and forth by her Volvo. “And I like her.”

“I like her too—”

“I like her,” she interrupts me, “but I love her for you.”

I stop talking and watch my best friend as she tries to find her words. “She’s so great for you, J. She doesn’t take any crap from you, but she laughs with you. She doesn’t hero-worship you.”

“Hero-worship me?”

“You know what I mean. She’s not all starry-eyed because you’re Jake Knox.”

“No,” I agree, “she isn’t.”

“But the best part?”

“There’s a best part?”

“Oh yes, friend, there is. The best part is, you’re you again. You’re smiling and teasing and you’re happy.” She has tears in her eyes as she wraps her arms around my middle and hugs me close. “And that makes me happy.”

“I like her a lot, C.”

“Good. Don’t fuck it up.”

I laugh and hug her back. “I’ll do my best.”

“I WAS SO sorry to hear about Christina’s parents,” Addie says beside me in the car on the way back to her place.

“Yeah, it happened before I met her,” I reply.

“How were they killed?”

“Serial killer,” I say softly.

“What?” Addie gasps and grips my arm. “Are you serious?”

“I am.” I swallow. “She only told me about it once, but then I went and looked up old newspaper articles to get the full story. A man broke into their house late one night after they’d all gone to bed. He’d been terrorizing small towns around ours for months, but they couldn’t catch him.”

“Oh my God.”

Just wait.

“He started in her baby brother’s room.”

“No.” She’s shaking her head next to me in horror.

“Yeah, he suffocated the baby in his crib, then went into Chris’s room and did the same, but didn’t kill her; she passed out, thank God. When she woke up and went looking for her parents, she found them, in their bed, shot to death.”

I glance over to see Addie staring at me with her mouth dropped open, one hand covering it, and the other holding tight to my arm.

“She went to live with her grandparents.”

“That’s the most horrific thing I’ve ever heard in my life.”

I nod in agreement, then unfasten her fingers from my flesh and kiss her hand gently. “She’s been through a lot, but she’s happy now.” She’s been through hell and back, most of it because of me, and God, how I wish I could make that right.