“Haddie”—she turned to her daughter who’d stopped beside her—“did you do that?” Scarlett nodded down to the widely spaced line of green Skittles.
Haddie paused but then nodded slowly, her expression blank. “Yes, Mommy,” she said. “I was trying to . . . catch something.”
“What? Like a bunny? With candy?”
Haddie swallowed and Scarlett got that internal buzz she felt when Haddie was having trouble communicating something or leaving information out. “Yes, Mommy.” She looked behind them and then ahead. “I left a trail of all the colors.”
Scarlett frowned in confusion. Something had eaten most of the candy. It couldn’t have been a bunny, could it? More likely a scavenger such as a raccoon. Those things would eat anything. A small nervous laugh emerged. “Well, whatever it was that ate your trail, decided it didn’t like the green ones.” Odd. Scarlett took a step forward, heading for the front of the house and their car as Haddie walked beside her. “I guess I can’t blame it.” She smiled down at her daughter. “Everyone knows the green ones aren’t any good.”
Haddie’s expression remained mostly blank, though her eyes were alight with interest. Or . . . wonder. A curiosity that stayed burning in her gaze even as they got in the car and pulled away from Lilith House. A curiosity that Scarlett could see had stolen her away, at least temporarily as she pondered things available only to her own mystifying mind. “It doesn’t like green,” Scarlett thought she heard Haddie murmur under her breath.
Scarlett pulled her eyes away from where she’d watched Haddie for a moment in the rearview mirror, focusing on the windy, single-lane road that weaved through the forest toward town. The drive to Farrow took about thirty minutes, but to Scarlett, who was from Los Angeles where it could literally take two hours to go twenty miles, the drive was nothing. If anything, it was relaxing, a chance to think, to get lost in the quiet of her own head as the road disappeared beneath her tires. Haddie, similarly, seemed happy to quietly stare at the woods outside her window, caught up in her secret thoughts.
As she drove, Scarlett’s mind turned to Camden West and the moment she’d thought he was going to kiss her two nights before. At the memory, a kaleidoscope of unwanted butterflies stirred to life in her stomach. Speaking of curiosity. It seemed she and her daughter were alike in that they both were in possession of far too much of it.
She was slightly embarrassed that she’d been so forthcoming with him, but then again, he’d made her feel like he was deeply interested in her, like he was almost . . . hanging on her every word, and it’d felt good. He’d made her feel interesting, and God, it’d been a long time since she’d thought of herself as such.
Is anything forever, Scarlett? His words reverberated through her mind. She wondered what sort of life he’d lived to make him ask such a cynical question.
She followed the directions the girl named Amelia Schmidt had given her when they’d spoken on the phone. The girl had been peppy and engaging and Scarlett had liked her immediately. She’d seemed enthusiastic about the idea of looking after Haddie, so she’d set up a meeting for the three of them that morning.
The house where Amelia lived with her parents was in a quaint residential neighborhood in Farrow. Scarlett admired the vining pink bougainvillea that grew up the columns of the front porch. Other than the lush, bright blooms, the house was small and somewhat plain, though it was obviously well-maintained, the paint fresh, the porch swept clean.
Haddie held the bird in his “nest” in one hand, and gripped Scarlett’s with the other as she rapped twice on the door. A moment later, a woman who looked to be in her mid to late fifties pulled it open, offering Scarlett and Haddie a pleasant smile. “You must be Ms. Lattimore.”
“Yes, but please call me Scarlett. And you’re Amelia’s mom?” She hesitated in asking the question. The woman seemed a tad older than she’d expect Amelia’s mother to be, but she certainly wasn’t going to ask if she was her grandmother and find herself with her foot in her mouth. Better to err on the side of youth when making assumptions.
The woman pulled the door open so they could enter and as they stepped over the threshold, she smiled and said, “Yes. Victoria Schmidt. Call me Vicky.”
She closed the door behind them and said, “You must be Haddie.”
Haddie nodded shyly. Vicky glanced at the container in Haddie’s hand, but didn’t ask about it.
Scarlett glanced around, noting the large painting of Jesus’s crucifixion on the wall to their left, and a wooden crucifix on the portion of wall next to the staircase. It made her think of the crucifix she’d found in the closet at Lilith House and a slight shiver of unease moved through her, for what reason she had no idea.
When Scarlett looked back at Vicky, the woman gave them a tepid smile, twisting her hands together as though she was nervous. Or perhaps just shy with strangers. “Welcome to town. Amelia can’t wait to meet you. She’s just out back watering. She loves gardening. She planted everything in our yard. Um, let me go get her.” She nodded to a living room to the right of the hall. “Please make yourselves at home.” She twisted her hands nervously again. “I do hope this works out. I’ve been encouraging Millie to become more independent. That’s important.” Her features twisted slightly and then her expression became placid again. “Millie has always been wonderful with children. I can’t imagine that she won’t be a teacher someday.”
“That’s so great to hear,” Scarlett said, trying to put the obviously socially awkward woman at ease. “We can’t wait to meet her.”
Vicky bobbed her head. “I’ll tell her you’re here. She’ll be in in a minute.”
Scarlett led Haddie to a green couch in the living room with another picture of Jesus—this image of him walking on water—hanging over it. Scarlett appreciated Jesus as much as the next semi-religious girl, but really, this seemed excessive.
Then again, perhaps the world would be a much better place if more people loved Jesus with the same devotion Victoria Schmidt obviously did.
“She’s sad,” she thought she heard Haddie whisper, glancing over to see her daughter peeking under the fabric at the bird.
The sound of the back door opening and then slamming closed broke Scarlett from her thoughts and a moment later, a pretty, blonde teenage girl appeared around the corner, offering them a large smile, her braces glinting in the light streaming in through the front window. “Hi. Scarlett?” She reached out her hand as Scarlett stood to greet her, shaking her hand exuberantly. “I’m Amelia.”
The girl was all legs, her limbs long and slender like a baby colt still growing into its form, and her smile was sweet and infectious. She was bright-eyed and happy, and Scarlett found herself grinning back. Amelia threw herself onto the couch in that way teenagers do, across from where she and Haddie sat. Amelia leaned forward. “Haddie, right? I love that name. As soon as I heard it, I thought you and I might make a good team. Millie and Haddie. We sound like a matching pair, don’t we? Like we just go together?” Amelia’s metal grin widened again, a dimple appearing in her left cheek.
Haddie’s return smile was instantaneous, one of those open, child-like ones that were so rare. She nodded at Millie, her smile morphing into an expression of bashful delight.