“Your grandmother will freak,” Em answered. “She’ll freak, cause me bodily harm, and she’ll never make me another Cubano. She’s made it very clear that you aren’t allowed to look for people.”
“You are my best friend. That makes it different.” For the first time, I noticed Lily’s slight Spanish accent. It probably became more pronounced when she was angry or upset, like she was now.
I peered around the house to find that the ferocity of Lily’s emotions matched her expression.
“I said no.” Em’s denial almost outmatched Lily’s insistence. “You’re loyal, and your loyalties to Abi should outweigh any you have for me. She’s your family.”
Lily grabbed Em’s hands. “So are you. This time, what Abi doesn’t know won’t hurt her. I’m not going to break her rule. Not exactly.”
“How are you going to get around it?” Em’s green eyes were full of pleading. “Finding a megalomaniac who can time travel isn’t like knowing a bank bag is back in a building. You can occasionally find things, but never people, right?”
“That’s the rule.” Lily let go of Em. “Abi’s never explained why I can’t use it—just that I can’t.”
“She wouldn’t have been so adamant about it for so many years if she didn’t have a good reason.”
“Ugh, this is so frustrating.” Lily dropped her hands. “What’s the point in being a human radar detector if I can’t detect?”
A human radar detector?
I thought back to the conversation I’d overheard between Em and Michael at the coffeehouse.
Disbelief exploded like a bomb in my chest. I took off down the back steps and across the short stretch of lawn.
I crashed through a pile of crunchy leaves, causing them both to jump.
I moved into Em’s personal space, so close she had to tilt her chin all the way up to meet my eyes. “Lily can find people. That’s why you wanted us to meet at Murphy’s Law. You thought Lily was our answer to finding Jack.”
“I am the answer,” Lily growled, and stepped between Em and me. “Maybe you need to learn to mind your own business.”
“But”—I looked at Em and then at Lily in confusion—“you said you couldn’t look for a person. Just things.”
“I’m working it out. It’ll be fine,” Lily said. “I’m helping. But I have to do it on my terms.”
“Your terms? There’s no room for terms, sweetheart.”
“Listen, jack hole, I wasn’t aware until recently that Ivy Springs is some kind of …” Lily waved her hands around, searching for the right word. “I don’t know … freak magnet.”
“Freak is my word, not hers,” Em contributed, her gaze bouncing back and forth between us.
“Whose word is jack hole?” I asked.
Lily kept going. “You might be comfortable with whatever your abnormality is, but mine’s not something I usually talk about, and it’s definitely not something I’d choose to discuss with you.”
“Did Em tell you the consequences if we don’t find Jack?”
“No.” Bewilderment.
“The people who want Jack claim to have a way to rewind time,” I informed her. “If we don’t find him and turn him over, they’ll rewind it. My dad will be dead, and Em will be a vegetable in a mental hospital.”
Frustration and anger, moving quickly into fear.
Lily shook her head as if she didn’t believe she’d heard me properly. “A vegetable in a mental hospital?”
“Okay, enough.” Emerson pushed her way between Lily and me. “I don’t want guilt to be Lily’s motivation for breaking a promise to her grandmother.”
“Breaking a promise or jeopardizing lives,” I said. “Which is more important?”
“Why didn’t you tell me about the consequences?” Lily asked Em.