“Um, no,” Marcus said. “It’s nothing.”
His mom gave him a long look before focusing her eyes back on the road. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’ve seemed so distracted recently. Is this because of Lena? I thought things were going well with you two.”
“They were,” he said. “It’s complicated.”
To his surprise, his mom laughed. “Oh yes, relationships are the definition of complicated. Look at your father and me.”
“How can you…stand him sometimes?” He’d never dared say something like that to his mom before, but he’d often wondered it. His dad could be okay, but he was so stubborn and demanding. It made Marcus crazy.
“He’s always been a little rough around the edges,” his mom said. “To be honest, sometimes we drive each other batty. But he’s also the man I fell in love with, even if we don’t always see eye to eye on things.” She laughed again. “On most things.”
“But wouldn’t it be so much easier if you had things in common? I mean, you don’t know anything about sports, and Dad never understands any of your sculptures. How can that even work?”
“You and Lena don’t need to do all the same things, do you? You can have your own interests and still have plenty to talk about.”
Marcus thought back to how much of his own life he’d cast aside recently to spend more time doing what Lena wanted, not because she’d expected him to but because he’d thought that’s what he was supposed to do.
“So you mean I didn’t have to read all that stuff about quilting and watch all those boring recordings of plays?” he asked.
His mom chuckled. “The last time you sat through a whole play, I think you were about three years old, and it was a five-minute-long puppet show. You were always more interested in building things than in watching them.”
“I want me and Lena to be like Grandpa Joe and Grandma Lily. They were made for each other. When they first started dating, everything was perfect.”
His mom gave him a strange look. “Marcus, how much do you remember about your grandmother?”
“Bits and pieces, I guess.” Most of his memories of Grandma Lily were from Grandpa’s stories about her.
“My mother was a lovely woman, but she could also be a nightmare.” His mom laughed, remembering. “She would boss your grandpa around like he was a hired hand.”
“She did?”
His mom pitched her voice up an octave. “‘Joe, hold my purse. Joe, go to the store and pick up some of that cheese I like. Joe, stop breathing so loud. I’m trying to watch the news.’” She laughed again, her voice going back to normal. “It drove the rest of us insane, but he shrugged it off. He said their relationship had been like that since they’d met, and he wasn’t going to change a thing.”
“But…but Grandpa always said they were perfect for each other.”
“They were,” his mom said. “But that didn’t make them perfect people.”
Marcus gazed out the car window as blurs of houses flew by. He thought about how things with Lena had been going wrong for days. Despite all that, he knew she was the one he was supposed to be with. Maybe Grandpa had felt the same way, even if it meant putting up with some of Grandma Lily’s orders. Grandpa hadn’t cruised through his relationship. He’d made it work.
“Mom, can we stop somewhere so I can get flowers for Lena?” he asked. This time he’d be sure to get the non-allergy-inducing kind.
His mom gave him a warm smile. “Of course.”
They pulled over at the next exit and stopped at a small grocery store. The instant Marcus opened his car door—zoom!—the ghost cat leaped over his lap and darted out of the car.
“No!” Marcus cried. He instinctively tried to grab it—even though his fingers would have gone right through anyway—but the cat was already disappearing among the other cars parked in the lot.
“Are you okay?” his mom asked as he jumped out of the car and started to hurry after the cat. “Marcus!”
“I’ll be right back, Mom!” he yelled over his shoulder. He chased the ball of light across the pavement, but it was nearly impossible to see it in the bright sun. Finally, he reached the doors of the supermarket and stood there, not sure where to go.
Then he heard a “meow” nearby. He tiptoed to the side of the building and peered down an alley lined with trash bins. “Meow,” he heard again, but this time it was a much deeper sound. A second later, he saw a big, fluffy cat—a live one—strutting down the alley. And trotting behind it, glowing as brightly as ever, was the ghost cat.
Marcus stared as the two of them circled around each other and then intertwined tails. If his powers worked on ghost animals, he was sure he’d see love sparks dancing between them. It was the most unlikely pair he could have imagined, but the two cats seemed perfectly content together as they let out a joyful “mrow!” in unison and scampered down the alley.
He thought he saw the ghost cat give him one last glance, and then it was gone. Marcus stood there for a long minute, listening, but he didn’t hear anything else.
He sighed and headed back toward the store entrance. Clearly, this was where the ghost cat wanted to be. Marcus had never thought he’d become so attached to the creature, but as he walked away, he had to swallow the tightness in his throat. He was going to miss that little ball of light, but he was glad it had found its match. Now it was time for Marcus to track down his.
Chapter 32
Lena stared at Eddie. “My mom?” she repeated. That couldn’t be right. What did her mom have to do with this? But then she remembered what her mom had said about knowing Eddie in college and about something nearly ending their friendship. “If you’re doing all this because of stuff that happened with my mom, I think I have a right to know about it!”
Eddie scratched at his beard. Then he glanced down the hall, and a strange expression passed over his face. “I suppose we can ask her.”
Lena turned to see her mom standing at the end of the hall. “Hello, Eddie,” she said in little more than a whisper.
“Jessica.” He looked like he wanted to rush over and give her a hug, but he held back. Clearly, it had been a long time since they’d seen each other.
“Mom, what are you doing here?” Lena asked.
“When your father told me you were missing, I started listing the places you could be, and this old theater popped into my head. I thought it was worth a try.”
Wow. Her mom knew her better than Lena had thought. “What is Eddie talking about? What happened to put him on probation?”
Lena’s mom sighed. “I suppose there’s no point in trying to hide the truth any longer. It was years ago, Lena, before you were even born. Eddie was only trying to help me.” She smoothed her short hair behind her ears, like she was trying to compose herself for whatever truth she was about to spill. “When your father and I met, he was so focused on his research and on his career that he didn’t even notice me. But there was something about him. I knew I had to have him. So…I asked Eddie to help me.”
Lena stared at her boss. “You zapped a couple even though they weren’t a match?”
Eddie nodded solemnly. “I was new to this country, and Jessica was the only friend I had.” The way he talked about her mom made Lena wonder if he’d once thought of her as more than a friend. “When she asked me to help her, I could not say no, even though it was against the rules. After I matched her with Ken, at first everything seemed all right. But then…”
“Other people’s assignments started going wrong,” Lena’s mom explained. “We had no idea it was our fault. But eventually they traced it back to what Eddie had done, and he got in trouble for it. I…I’d like to say that I told them the truth, about how I’d begged him to help me, but I didn’t. He was stripped of his role as matchmaker and given a desk job, and I got to marry the man I’d tricked into loving me. After that, I wasn’t sure Eddie could eve
r forgive me.”
“It took me a long time,” he admitted. “I blamed you for what happened, but the truth is it was my decision to make.”
“So you and Dad…” Lena shook her head in disbelief. “You were never meant to be together?”
Her mom smiled sadly. “Your father is a good man. Even after the spark between us faded, he stayed with me. I think he even grew to care about me. And then you came along, Lena, and we were so happy. But I couldn’t forget the fact that I’d deceived him. Eventually, it was too much. I thought he would be happier—you both would be—if I wasn’t there.”
Lena thought about how her dad had already been forced into love twice. Once by Eddie and again when Lena had tried to make him fall in love with Marguerite. It seemed so unfair that other people kept controlling his emotions. Was it different this time with Viv?
“Do you see now why I had to do something before the link between your powers became too dangerous?” Eddie asked. “That link had already started affecting other people’s abilities, and the more emotional you became, the worse it got.”
“And now?” Lena asked. “My powers seem to be working better again, and we stopped shooting sparks at each other.”
Eddie sighed. “Then perhaps our plan is finally working,” he said, but he didn’t sound convinced.
As Lena got her bag, knowing it was time to head home, her entire body felt heavy. The problem was fixed, wasn’t it? She and Marcus had broken up, and everything was going to go back to normal again. But it didn’t feel like a solution. It felt like some kind of cruel joke.
• • •
When Marcus’s mom finally pulled up in front of the Blue Hills Theater, Marcus threw open the car door and hurried inside. The place was deserted except for a bored-looking woman at the box office.
“Can I help you?” she droned, barely glancing up from a thick book of one-act plays.
“I’m looking for my, um, girlfriend.” He didn’t need to get into his complicated relationship status with a total stranger.
The woman shook her head. “No shows today, so no one’s here. If you come back tomorrow—”
“Tomorrow will be too late!” he cried, waving his bouquet of daisies around.
“Go look around if you don’t believe me,” the woman said flatly. “But I told you. There’s no one here.”
Marcus dashed into the theater, but the stage was empty. He poked around every room and hallway he could find, but the woman was right. There was no one there.
Finally, he had to admit that it was hopeless. On his way out of the theater, he deposited the bouquet at the box office. “Enjoy,” he told the woman, and her face brightened a little at the gesture. At least the flowers had done someone some good.
As Marcus slunk back to his mom’s car, he was furious at himself for being so wrong. Maybe he didn’t know Lena as well as he’d thought.
Chapter 33
“Do you want to stop and get some lunch on the way back?” Lena’s mom asked as they got into the car. Lena hadn’t wanted a ride home, but her mom wouldn’t take no for an answer.
“That’s okay.”
They sat in silence for nearly half an hour, listening to a radio station that played one overly cheerful pop song after another. Lena tried to process everything she’d learned about her parents and about Natalie, but it hurt her brain to even think about it. Eventually, all she could manage was staring blankly out the window.
Finally, her mom turned down the music. “Are we going to talk about what happened?”
“If you want,” Lena said, pretending to be interested in the buttons on the car door.
“I have to go back to Arizona in a couple of days, and I want us to work things out before I go. I wish I didn’t have to leave, but my boss is threatening to fire me if I take any more time off.”
Lena didn’t answer. Of course her mom was leaving again. That’s what she did after all.
“I know you’re angry with me,” her mom went on. “I’ve kept a lot from you and I’m sorry.”
“That’s it?” Lena clicked the locks shut and then unlocked them again, the sound oddly soothing in her ears. “You lie to me for years, and that’s all you can say?”
“I didn’t want to lie to you! You know the rules about our powers. And how could I possibly tell you the truth about what I did to your father? You idolize that man.”
“Because he doesn’t hide things from me. Because he doesn’t abandon me!”
“Lena—”
“I bet the only reason Eddie called you after all these years was to try to get me to move out to Arizona. You were part of his stupid plan and didn’t even know it.”
Her mom started to object, but Lena didn’t want to hear it. “Forget it. I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” She clicked the locks a few more times, but the soothing feeling was gone.
“You can’t shut me out, Lena.”
“Why not? You did it to me when you left!”
“Lena, trust me, I only—”
“Trust you?” Lena cried. “How can I trust you—or anyone—after all the stuff you’ve done?” Then she fell silent, suddenly remembering what Abigail had spat at her the other day: “The only person you trust is yourself.” And then Lena remembered what Marcus had said about her being like her mom. She’d bristled at the thought, but maybe he’d been right. At least a little bit.
She expected her mom to argue, but instead she only said, “I know, honey. And I’m sorry. But I promise that if you give me a chance, I’ll spend every day from now on trying to make it up to you. I know that means trusting me, at least a little, even if I don’t deserve it. Can you do that?”
Lena looked down at her lap. Could she do that? She barely even trusted her dad to make a costume for her, and he was the one person who’d always been there for her. And Marcus…she’d wanted to trust him, but the minute Natalie had told her those lies about him, she’d believed them. No wonder Eddie had said they were on different frequencies. How could she ever really be in sync with someone she didn’t have total faith in?
“I think I screwed up, Mom,” she said softly, surprised to feel tears prickling at the corners of her eyes.
“I did too, honey,” her mom said. “But all we can do is try to make up for the things we did and hope they’ll go better next time.”
Lena looked out the window. When it came to Marcus, she wasn’t sure there would be a next time.
• • •
Marcus pored over the email Lena had sent him, looking for any sign that she missed him. But the email was all business. It described what Lena had found out about Eddie’s past with her mom, and it explained how Natalie and Eddie had been trying to break them up. Funny how Natalie had claimed that you couldn’t change the future, but she’d been trying to do just that. Clearly, she’d lied about lots of things.
Marcus couldn’t believe all of that had happened, and that it had been at the Blue Hills Theater. He’d been right about Lena going there after all, and if the ghost cat hadn’t run out of the car, he might have even made it there in time to see her. But it didn’t seem to matter. Lena had only ended the email with “I thought you should know.” No “I miss you” or even a formal “Sincerely.” That’s how little she cared.
He supposed Eddie had to be pretty relieved right about now. Not only had Marcus and Lena broken up—like Natalie had foreseen—but the emotional connection between them was practically nonexistent. Even if they were on different frequencies, it didn’t matter anymore. The balance of the universe was safe. So why did things feel so awful?
A knock came on his door, and his sister poked her head in. “Can I come in?”
“Since when do you ask first?”
She didn’t answer. Instead, she came to sit on his bed. He expected the ghost cat to scamper away from his sister like it always did, and then he r
emembered that it was gone. Funny how it had only been a part of his life—a very strange part—for a few weeks, and now the house seemed oddly empty without it. But he was also glad it was out there somewhere, living its happy ending. At least someone got to.
“Mom got a call from Lena’s dad,” his sister said. “I guess they found her. She was with her mom.”
“I heard.” He’d been relieved when Hayleigh had told him the news, but he’d also been a little angry that Lena had let them all worry about her.
“And, um, I’m sorry about you and Lena,” she added. “Mom said you broke up? That’s too bad. I liked her.”
Was it possible his sister was actually feeling some sympathy toward him? Maybe she hadn’t had enough water today and was delirious from dehydration.
“Oh and here,” she said. “I found this at a yard sale down the street. They mostly had used toasters and other junk, but I saw this and thought you could…you know.”
She shoved something at him, and it took Marcus a minute to realize it was a model fighter jet. It wasn’t the kind of thing he normally worked on, but the fact that his sister had thought of him at all when she’d seen it was kind of amazing.
“Wow, thanks,” he said, scanning his shelves. It still hurt to see the empty spot where the robot had been, but there was an open space beside it where the jet would fit perfectly.
Ann-Marie hesitated for a moment in his doorway and said, “I know you’re like Grandpa, a total romantic.” He expected her to roll her eyes, but instead she gave him the tiniest smile. “Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll find the perfect person for you some day.”
Marcus knew her words were intended to make him feel better, but they didn’t. He didn’t want to find someone else who was perfect for him. He’d already found her. She just didn’t want him back.
Chapter 34
On the opening night of Alice, instead of getting ready for the show like she would have been doing if she were still in the cast, Lena found herself walking Professor through Marcus’s neighborhood.
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