He pulled out a paper grocery discount card with Joan Watts printed on the front.
“Walk with me,” he said, taking her hand and leading her to the bonfire.
He felt the softness of her skin, the warm wetness of her palm against his.
They stopped at the fire and he handed her the card.
“I hereby release Joan Watts from her life of tragedy. With the destruction of this card, Kim Phillips is born.”
Kim grinned and crumpled the card up before throwing it high. It disappeared into the flames.
29
Max watched Kim’s profile, the curve of her pale cheek, the narrow slope of her nose, the small mound of pink lips that stretched into a smile. The flames brought out the red in her hair, and as the fire echoed in her blue eyes, he saw a flash of glee, as if she truly had liberated herself from tragic Joan’s life.
“How do you feel, Kim?”
She turned and gazed at him, her eyes searching his. “Hungry,” she replied, laughing.
Max gestured to a table of food. “As you should be on the day of your birth. Plus, Annie Kohl brought her famous stuffed mushrooms. They’re unmatched.”
They filled their plates and walked to a picnic table. Max watched Ashley and Sid arrive at the Shindig, their heads dipped close together as they talked. He tried to catch their eyes and wave, but they pushed on toward the bonfire, oblivious to him.
“Do you know them? Kim asked, following his gaze.
Max nodded. “Both were in my seventh grade English class this year. They’re as thick as thieves, those two.”
“Nicholas has two friends like that. Fred and Marty. They called me every day for two weeks after he went missing. Fred’s dad drives a semi-truck and he passed out fliers in more than thirty states.”
“That’s good,” Max said. “It just takes one person who knows something.”
“Yeah. I pray every night that tomorrow’s the day someone picks up the flier and recognizes Nicholas. That I’ll wake up to Martha knocking on my door with the news someone found him. He fell and hit his head and got amnesia, but someone saw the flier and took him to the police.”
She tried to smile, but it slipped off her face. “I’ve resorted to fairytales.” She shook her head. “Worse, soap operas. That’s something that happens in soap operas, not real life.”
“Don’t question anything that gives you hope,” he told her. “Keep believing for Nicholas’s sake and your own.”
He heard his advice and considered his own tendency to question extraordinary events. The book for instance, the Fruit Loops, the reflection in the boutique’s window. He was a fine one to give advice about believing.
Kim dropped her eyes to her plate and picked up a mushroom, slipping it into her mouth. “Yum,” she said, eating another.
“What did I tell ya?” he asked.
Kim’s eyes flitted back to the bonfire, where a kid drew a stick topped with a flaming marshmallow from the fire. He laughed and hopped up and down as his dad tried to steady the stick so he could blow it out.
Her chewing slowed, and Max watched the joy from eating the mushroom drain from her face.
He tried to imagine her feelings, but knew he’d never understand. Every pleasant experience was strangled by the unknown. Every thought was followed by where is my son.
They could erase everything that defined Joan Watts, but it wouldn’t change that a part of her, the most critical part perhaps, had been stolen. She lived and breathed, but with only half a heart.
“Max. Hi, how are you?”
He stiffened at the sound of Sheila’s voice behind him.
When he turned, she stood, scanning Kim distastefully.
“Oh, hey, Sheila. How’s it going?”
“Grand. I was promoted to Head of Marketing last month, so life is good.”
“Congratulations,” Max told her, withholding his comment that she couldn’t have chosen a more suitable career.
“Still teaching middle school?” she asked, wrinkling her nose as if she’d smelled something rotten. She shifted her attention to Kim. “I told him a thousand times he should teach at a big university. I mean middle school? What a waste of those gorgeous brains.”
She reached forward and wiped a manicured finger across Max’s cheek.
He recoiled, and she laughed.
“You had a bit of mushroom there,” she said and then looked pointedly at Kim.
“My son’s in middle school,” Kim said. “I’d give my right arm for him to have a teacher as wonderful as Max.”
Sheila wrinkled her brow. “Well, that’s fine and good for your son, but that’s not looking out for Max’s best interest is it?”
“Looking out for my best interests is no one’s jobs but my own. Well Maria Wolfenstein gets a say now and then.” He winked at Kim.
Sheila feigned a smile and adjusted a single diamond earring in that coy way she’d done many times during their courtship. Swivel earrings, examine nylons, drop her head so her hair fell over her face.
He’d seen it all and, unfortunately, had taken the bait more times than not in those first weeks. Now he recognized the clever ruse and wanted no part in it.
“Sheila, this is my friend, Kim,” he said, reaching out and resting a hand on Kim’s lower back, a gesture far more intimate than he’d intended. Her warmth seeped through the t-shirt and into his fingertips.
“A pleasure,” Sheila said, though she offered Kim a dismissive glance. “I thought I’d see you here.” Sheila directed her gaze back to Max. “I hoped we could talk.”
He stood quickly, his paper plate catching on his shirt and plummeting to the grass.
Kim leaned down to pick it up, but he touched her shoulder.
“I’ve got it,” he told her. “Yeah, listen, Sheila now’s not great. I have to umm…-”
“Loan me that book,” Kim jumped in, standing. “You said we could swing by your house to grab it, and I really need it tonight so…”
Sheila glared at Kim, but when she shifted her attention to Max, she smiled coolly. “Some other time. You have my number, Max.”
She turned and walked away, her heels disappearing into the grass. Max wondered how she stayed upright.
“We don’t have to go,” Max said. “I should have just said no, but-”
“We can go,” Kim offered. “Watching all the kids makes me sad.”
“It’s early, though. I hate to take you back to Ellie’s House. I have a couple bottles of red wine at home if you’re interested? I hope that doesn’t sound presumptuous.”
Kim smiled and nodded. “That sounds like something Kim Phillips would enjoy.”
“HEY, ASH!”
Ashley looked up from where she sat with Sid, who was on his second helping of potato salad.
Brenda Dean waved at them. “You guys in for capture the flag?”
Sid looked at Ashley and gave a short shake of his head.
Ashley bit her lip and looked toward the woods. “There are twinkle lights all over the place, Sid,” she said.
Sid snorted. “And you think twinkle lights will stop it?”
“There're kids too, in groups. Unless it’s trying to get caught, it’s not in there,” she insisted. “Yeah,” she called back to Brenda.
“Awesome!” Brenda gave her a thumbs up. “You’re with us. Sid, you’ll be on Norm’s team.”
“Noooo,” Sid whined, flicking his eyes to Norm, a tall freckled boy who was so competitive he’d pushed a special-ed girl the year before after she’d bested him in a drawing contest. “Norm is a total show-off. I don’t want to be on Norm’s team.”
“Oh, come on, Sid. You wanted to do something fun, right? Here’s your chance.”