“Jarett.”
“Tell you what, honey?” Mom gives me a perplexed look. “What’s this about?”
“Nothing. Just… curious. You know.”
She’s still staring at me.
“Look.” I move the spatula around on the plate, making patterns with the icing. “We used to be friends, but we lost contact when we moved, and I met him recently, and I’ve always wondered about him.” Bracing breath. “I know he was adopted, okay? I just wanted to know about his family before that, and… well, anything else about him.”
Her face softens. “You were friends, weren’t you? I remember now, you used to walk home from school with him. Such a nice boy.”
“Nice?” My ears perk. Clues, clues. That’s the first time anyone has referred to Jarett that way. “Why you say that?”
“Why do you look so shocked? Goodness.” Mom shakes her head and starts packing one of the cakes in a cardboard box. “You liked him, back then.”
“Yeah, but…”
But now I’m not sure I ever really knew him.
“Well, I don’t know what he’s doing now,” Mom says, wiping her hands on her apron. “But I remember that boy. He helped me carry the groceries sometimes from the car, especially if it was something heavy. And helped poor Becky so much after her husband died.”
My heart is thumping madly. “Mr. Lowe died? I don’t remember that.”
“It was after we moved. My friend Alice told me all about it, and that was about the time Becky was diagnosed with the Alzheimer’s. Progressed pretty fast, too.”
Oh God. “What about Jarett? Is there anything else you can tell me?”
“Not much, honey, sorry.”
“Oh come on, Mom… Anything at all.”
She tsks. “Help me pack the cakes, and I will think about it.”
Pouting, I put down the spatula and help her place the finished cakes into boxes. “Are you thinking hard?”
She lifts a brow at me. “I just don’t know much about him. Becky said she had to take him in when she met him. Such a good boy, she said. And so unlucky in life. He deserved another chance.”
“Why unlucky?” I put the last packaged cake inside a bag. “What did she mean?”
“Lost his parents early, then got adopted, and that family got rid of him for some reason, or so she said. Can’t remember very well.” She sighs. “That poor boy. And now Becky is fading, too. Such a pity.”
I nod, dumbstruck, her words spinning inside my mind like small hurricanes.
That poor boy.
A nice boy.
Wait a sec. I decided it was over, right? This crush, this infatuation, this conviction he’s more than he shows to the world. That he’s a good guy, and even more… that he feels anything at all for me. Anything like what I feel for him.
Which I shouldn’t feel. And in any case, what does it all mean? That’s Jarett’s past, not his present. What do I do now?
“Let me take the cake to Mrs. Lowe,” I tell Mom. “Please?”
It’s a split-second decision. I’m good at those, it seems—like asking Jarett to watch out for Sydney. Like having sex with him whenever I see him.
Mom gives me a suspicious look. “Why the sudden burning desire to run my errands?”
“Just want to help. You said you have no ride today. I’ll just Uber over and deliver them all.”