“I played baseball with brothers who lived out this way.”

  “It was a nice place to grow up.”

  As we pull up to the two-story tan stucco house, we notice a car parked at the curb.

  “Who’s that?” Gianna asks.

  If she has to ask, at least it isn’t Jared.

  We get out of the car while a woman alights from the car at the curb.

  “Julia? Is that you?”

  “It’s me.”

  Gianna meets her in the driveway and gives her a hug.

  “I knew you were due back today, so I decided to come by rather than texting.”

  “Why? What’s going on?”

  “Can we talk inside for a minute?”

  “Sure. Um, this is Milo. Milo, Julia, my friend from college.”

  “Nice to meet you,” she says.

  “You, too.”

  We leave the bags in the car and go inside.

  Gianna disengages the alarm and offers Julia a glass of water. “That’s about all I have.”

  “I’m fine, and I’m sorry to drop by like this, but I wanted to tell you in person that Scott’s been arrested.”

  Only because I’m watching her so closely do I see all the color leach from Gianna’s expression.

  “What?” she asks on a whisper.

  I have so many questions, but I keep my mouth shut because this news has clearly flattened her. She sits next to Julia on a barstool in the kitchen.

  “We’re all shocked,” Julia says tearfully.

  Feeling like I’m intruding, I lean against the counter, hoping one of them will say something that clues me in to what’s going on.

  “When did this happen?”

  “Two days ago. I heard it on the news this morning. The report only said he was arrested in connection to the disappearance of his college girlfriend, Skylar Jones, who’s been missing for seven years.”

  Oh shit.

  “I… I can’t believe it. He’s done so much to try to find her. All this time, we’ve stood by him…”

  I can’t help myself. I go to her and rest my hands on her shoulders, wanting to offer comfort since she’s clearly in distress. I’m shocked when her muscles go rigid under my hands, as if a stranger just touched her. I immediately back away.

  “I spoke with Allison this morning,” Julia says. “We agree that it must be a mistake. If he did it…”

  “Then none of us can trust our judgment when it comes to men.”

  I want to wail in objection and remind her that she can trust me, even if she can’t trust anyone else.

  “I’m so sorry to do this to you when you’re just back from your trip and after everything else that’s happened.”

  “No, you were right to tell me. Of course I want to know, and I’d much rather hear it from you than on the news.”

  Julia leans in to hug her.

  They hold each other for a long time, and when they finally pull back, they’re both in tears.

  “Brings it all back, doesn’t it?” Julia asks her softly.

  “Yeah.” Gianna wipes away tears.

  “I need to get going,” Julia says. “Call me later?”

  “I will. Let me know if you hear anything.”

  “For sure.”

  “Nice to meet you, Milo.”

  “You, too.”

  Gianna walks her out and comes back with tears on her cheeks.

  “What can I do for you?”

  “I… um… I don’t know. I just… I don’t know.”

  Everything about her is different than it was before she saw Julia. It’s like she’s someone else.

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  The look she directs my way is so full of pain and agony that it nearly takes my breath away.

  “Gianna…” I step toward her.

  “I can’t, Milo.”

  I stop in my tracks. “What can’t you do?”

  “Any of this. I just can’t.”

  “Wait. What?” I keep my voice calm when I’m anything but. “I understand the news Julia delivered was devastating, even if I don’t know the details. But please don’t push me away because of something that has nothing to do with me or us.”

  I ache for her when she breaks down into sobs. I need to comfort her, so I move carefully to put my arms around her. When she leans her head against my chest, I release a sigh of relief. Even though I’m exhausted and my legs are still a bit wobbly beneath me, I’m glad to be the one helping her through this latest crisis.

  I’m not sure how long we stand there like that, but I’m thankful she’s allowing me to comfort her. “Please don’t push me away, sweetheart. I want to help.”

  Chapter 18

  MILO

  After a long while, she steps back from me and then leads the way to the living room. We sit on the tan sofa in the tastefully decorated room, which is probably just as her mother left it. I look forward to the opportunity to take a closer look at the photos of little Gianna on the walls.

  “I was a freshman in college,” she says softy, “when one of my suitemates disappeared. Her boyfriend, Scott, lived downstairs and was so distraught that we all supported him through the investigation, the accusations, the never-ending nightmare. They’d been together since high school, and our hearts were broken for him. For all the years since, we’ve stood by him even as the cloud of suspicion never lifted from him. He was the last to see her alive, but he insisted he had nothing to do with it.”

  “That must’ve been so difficult.”

  “It was. Julia was much closer to Skylar than I was, but it was the worst thing I ever went through until my parents’ accident. And now… after all these years… that Scott has been arrested. It’s just… I’m so shaken. He’s been like a brother to me. That he could’ve been lying to us all this time…”

  I have no idea what to say, so I just keep an arm around her and listen.

  “They were so in love. We were all envious of her, that she’d found ‘the one’ so early in her life and that they were making it work in college. He was a great boyfriend. Super supportive of her and nice to us and her other friends. Some of the guys would get upset if we wanted to do a girls’ night, but Scott would offer to drive us and pick us up after.”

  She drops her face into her hands as she begins to cry again. “After my parents died, he stayed here for a week. He did everything for me. He even went with me to pick out the caskets and plan the funeral. For a time, before I met Jared, I considered taking him up on his offer to go to dinner sometime. If he killed her… I don’t know what I’ll do.”

  “I know this is shocking news, but you should wait to hear more before you think the worst.”

  “They wouldn’t have arrested him and made that public if they didn’t have evidence of some kind.”

  “Probably not, but I still say you should wait until you know more.”

  “I trusted him, Milo. We all did. Our group of friends from the freshman dorm are still very close because of what we went through. Julia and Ali were supposed to be in my wedding. He slept in this house with me and my brothers. What if he did kill her and I let him stay here with us?”

  “You let a trusted friend stay with you. Anyone would’ve done what you did, based on what you knew at the time.”

  “God, I feel sick. Heartsick and every other kind of sick.”

  “I’m sorry, Gianna. I hate this for you.”

  She takes a deep breath and makes a visible effort to rally. “I need to grocery shop and do the laundry…”

  “We’ll use Instacart.” I call up the app on my phone. “Do your order and type in the address. I’ll get the suitcases and do the laundry.”

  “You don’t have to do that.”

  “I want to. Let me help.”

  “Thank you, but you’re not lifting the suitcases. I’ll do that.”

  “Fine, but I’m doing the laundry.”

  For the first time in an hour, the right side of her face lifts ever so slightly into a smile. “I’m sorry to mess up our good time.”

  “You didn’t.” I kiss her forehead and then her lips. “And I can only imagine how you must be feeling, that if you can’t trust your friend of so many years, how can you ever trust anyone, especially a man, but please don’t do that. I promise you can trust me with your life and in your life, and I’ll never do anything but love and protect you and care for you with everything I have to give.”

  She starts to cry again, and I hold her close while her sobs break my heart. I’m relieved that she’s leaning on me rather than pushing me away, but I’m still worried that the news about her friend is going to cause a rift between us. How could it not, coming so soon after Jared broke her heart? I’m determined to remain steadily by her side until she believes that she can count on me.

  I start by overseeing her order on Instacart while she sits listlessly on the sofa, reciting the groceries she needs. I add a couple of extra things so I can make dinner for us and place the order. Next, I go out to her car and retrieve the suitcases, which happens before she can register an objection to me carrying them. I still feel shitty, but I power through because she feels worse than I do, and I want to be there for her.

  I find the laundry room right off the garage entrance to the house and toss in clothes from both our suitcases and start the wash.

  Gianna takes a call from her friend Ali, and I hear her commiserating about how devastating the news about Scott is to them. “What do we do?” she asks at one point.

  I wish I could hear Ali’s answer.

  “Yes, I know,” Gianna says. “Keep me posted? Okay, talk soon. Love you, too.”

  I take a seat on the sofa next to her. “What did she have to say?”

  “The same stuff as me and Julia—disbelief and despair over how we could’ve been supporting the guy who killed our friend for all these years. She said Skylar’s parents are beside themselves. They’ve treated Scott like a son.”

  “Wow, I can’t imagine how they must feel.”

  “It’s just inconceivable to all of us that he might be responsible for years of heartache.” She seems to try to shake off the despair. “I’d understand if you didn’t feel like hanging out. This is a lot.”

  “I’m not going anywhere, unless you want me to leave.”

  “I don’t.”

  “Then no more worries about me. We need to take care of you. What can I do for you?”

  “I don’t even know.”

  “How about a bubble bath and a glass of wine?”

  “That actually sounds good.”

  “Where will I find a tub?”

  * * *

  GIANNA

  I direct Milo to the main bedroom, which belonged to my parents. I haven’t done anything with their room and rarely go in there, but there’s a soaking tub in the attached bathroom, and a relaxing bath does sound good to me right now. I’m so incredibly shaken by the news about Scott that I can’t imagine anything will calm my nerves, but I appreciate Milo’s efforts.

  “Leave it to me,” he says, getting up to make it happen.

  I should be tending to him after what he’s been through in the last few days, but I can’t seem to do anything other than sit in complete disbelief. I think about Scott running to me when my parents died, how he was such a huge help to me and my brothers as we walked through the unfathomable steps of planning a wake and funeral for them. He did everything he could to make it easier on us. I remember thinking at the time that he was the best person to help me, having been through something similar himself.

  And to think now that he might’ve been responsible for Skylar’s disappearance and presumed death…

  I just can’t believe it.

  My brain refuses to process this information. It’s simply inconceivable.

  Milo returns and holds out a hand to help me up.

  “You shouldn’t be doing any of this.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “I’ll be the judge of that.”

  “I love when you nurse me,” he says, grinning.

  I appreciate the moment of lightness in the cloud of darkness that’s descended over the last hour. The last thing in the world I expected was anything like this waiting for me when I got home.

  Milo helps me out of my clothes and holds my hand as I get into the tub, which is surrounded by lit candles that belonged to my mom.

  “Feels good. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. Be right back.”

  While I soak, he goes to find me a glass of wine that he delivers to me in the tub.

  “A girl could get used to this level of service.”

  “That’d be fine with me.”

  He sits on the chaise lounge my father wrestled into the bathroom after my mom bought it on a whim. The memory makes me smile. “That chair… My mom bought it without measuring anything, and my dad had to take the door off the hinges to get it in here. He wasn’t happy, but she was thrilled.”

  “That’s a sweet memory.”

  “They were funny together.”

  “My parents are, too. I want what they have.”

  “I’ve always wanted what my parents had.”

  “Maybe we can have that together.”

  “That’d be nice.” I wish I could focus only on him, but the pit in my stomach is a reminder that I’ve suffered yet another serious shock. My cell phone rings.

  “It’s Leo,” Milo says as he hands me the phone I left on the vanity.

  “Hey,” I say when I take the call.

  “I’m at Greg’s for the weekend. We heard the news about Scott, and we’re in shock.”

  “Me, too.”

  “God, Gi… We can only imagine how you must feel.” This is the first time my brothers have ever called to check on me, and the swell of emotion only adds to the turmoil swirling inside me.

  “I’m devastated.”

  “Do you want us to come home?”

  The offer brings tears to my eyes. “No, that’s okay. My friends here are taking good care of me,” I say with a meaningful look at Milo. “But it means a lot to me that you called.”

  “We wish there was something we could do,” Greg says.

  “This call was all I needed. Are you guys doing all right?”

  They ask about the cruise, and we talk for a few more minutes about school and their jobs and when they might get home again.

  “Keep us posted?” Leo asks.

  “I will.”

  “Take care, Gianna,” Greg says. “Let us know if you need anything.”

  “Thanks again for calling, guys.”

  I hand the phone to Milo. “Wow, that was a first. They sound really worried about me.”

  “It was nice of them to call.”

  “It was.”

  Milo sits back in the chair. “Tell me about Skylar.”

  As always, he surprises me in the best possible way by asking about my friend. “Oh, well… She was all lightness and joy, bubbly, funny, sweet. She had wildly curly blonde hair that she refused to straighten because, as she said, she didn’t want to look like everyone else. The humidity in Gainesville made her hair huge, and she just laughed and referred to herself as the chia head.”

  “That’s funny. She sounds like a great girl.”

  “She was, and she was madly in love with Scott. They’d been together since high school in the Tampa area. We used to call them Mom and Dad because they were like the parents of our group, always telling us to be safe and not drink too much and get some sleep and asking, ‘Did you eat?’ That kind of thing… The night she went missing, we looked for her everywhere we thought she might be. We called everyone, and then around five in the morning, we called the campus police.”

  “You must’ve been so scared.”

  “We were, and Scott… He was just inconsolable. From the first second she went missing, we were on Team Scott because we’d seen how much he loved her. The police questioned him a million times, or so it seemed, but his story never changed. He’d walked her to the library to study with a friend from her zoology class, and campus security had them kissing goodbye on video. She went into the library and was never seen again. No one recalls seeing her inside, the friend she was supposed to meet said she never showed up, and that was that. It was all so surreal.

  “Like, how could a perfectly healthy young woman just disappear? And the kicker was that she’d left her phone in Scott’s backpack by accident, so tracking her wasn’t an option. We all attested to the police that she was always leaving her phone somewhere, so it wasn’t unusual for her to have left it with him. Every one of us had been on searches for Skylar’s lost phone at one time or another.”

  I swirl my fingers around in the bubbles, lost in the memories of another traumatic time in my life. “The worst was when her parents and siblings came to campus. They were just…” I shake my head. It’s too much to even think about. “We searched for her for weeks. We missed classes. We were barely functioning. All our professors passed us, but that semester was a total wash. I thought about not going back for my sophomore year, but Julia, Ali and the rest of our friends… We all decided that Skylar wouldn’t want us to leave. She’d want us to finish together, so that’s what we planned to do. Over time, we started to get our groove back a bit, but there were always two important people missing. Scott never came back to school.”

  “I’m so sorry you’ve been through so much heartache in your life.”

  “It’s been a lot, for sure. When Jared canceled the wedding, Julia reminded me that things happen in threes, and that was my third. She said I was good to go now.” I glance at him, propped up on his arms as he sits by the tub. “I believed her.”

  “From everything you’ve told me about Scott, I find it hard to believe he could’ve had anything to do with it.”

  “I know. I feel like I really know him, and I can’t for the life of me imagine him hurting her.”

  “Maybe you need to trust your gut where he’s concerned. If you had something to fear from him, if any of you did, you’d know it.”

  “I’d like to think so, but they must have something on him if they arrested him after all this time.”