Map of the Heart. Сьюзен Виггс

kid had gotten himself expelled for bringing a Colt .45 to school. Boom—he was gone in a matter of minutes.

      Julie didn’t have a firearm to bring to school. She wouldn’t dream of it, even if she did have one. But if she could find a way to never go back to that school again she would grab on to it.

      There was homework. She flipped open her binder. She looked at the top page of the binder and recoiled. Someone had drawn a caricature of her, making her look like a hippo in a tutu. The caption read Hungry Hungry Julie.

      Julie ripped the page from the binder and crumpled it into a tiny hard ball.

      “Screw homework,” she muttered. “Screw everything.”

      She had to get away from school. Away from the living hell she endured every single day. She hated school. And school hated her. She had to do something.

      “I blew it,” Camille said to Billy Church, stopping on the porch to pick up her mail. She stepped back, holding the door open to let him in. Professor Finnemore’s film lay neglected on the counter. Her head was still spinning from his visit.

      “Let me guess,” Billy said, his open, friendly face verging on a smile. “You fixed me a soufflé for dinner and it fell.”

      “I only wish it were that simple.”

      She poured two glasses of wine—a dry rosé that was the perfect pairing for a summer evening and the end of a rotten day.

      “The negatives I was working on are ruined,” she told Billy. “I’m sorry.”

      “It happens,” he said. “I told the client not to expect a miracle.”

      “No. You don’t understand. I blew it. The film was salvageable. But I dropped everything when the hospital called. I didn’t even think of it.”

      “No one’s going to blame you for dropping everything when you get a call to say your kid’s in the ER.”

      She smiled. It might have been her first smile of the day. And it was already evening. “He didn’t seem too interested in an explanation.”

      “Oh. So he was a dick.”

      “Pretty much, yeah. I still feel terrible,” she said.

      Billy picked up a handmade holder with sunglasses in it. “You’ve taken up arts and crafts?”

      “No. The guy left that behind.” She’d found it after he’d gone, and now she was trying to figure out what to do about it. Offer to mail it, probably. Which meant she’d have to get in touch with him again. Great.

      Billy checked the tag on the glasses holder. “Says ‘handmade by Mom.’ Very cute. His mommy still makes him presents.”

      “Don’t be mean.”

      “Come here, you.” Billy folded her into a hug.

      “Thanks,” she said, her words muffled against his shoulder. “I needed this.”

      “You need more than a hug, my friend,” said Billy.

      “Are you hitting on my mother again?” Julie asked, coming into the kitchen. She put a cereal bowl and spoon into the dishwasher.

      Billy stepped back, palms up and out. “Guilty as charged. She’s been rejecting me ever since she turned me down for the eighth-grade dance.”

      “Did not,” Camille said. “You were too scared to ask me.”

      “Because I knew you’d turn me down. And I did ask you in ninth, tenth, and eleventh grades. Guess I’m a slow learner.”

      “I’m sure I had my reasons.” Camille caught his eye, and he winked at her. She knew what he was up to. He had a knack for lightening the mood, not just for her, but for Julie. After the rotten day they’d both had, he was a ray of sunshine. He was the best kind of friend, even when he was teasing her.

      “Yes. They were Aaron Twisp, Mike Hurley, and Cat Palumbo.”

      “You dated a guy named Cat?” Julie asked.

      “I did,” said Camille. “And yes, he was that cool. He was so cool he couldn’t have a normal name. He had long hair, skinny jeans, combat boots, played the bass like a rock god. Whatever happened to him, anyway?”

      “Easy enough to find out.” Billy took out his phone and tapped the screen. “Here’s your rock god now.” He showed them a picture of a pale-faced, slightly pudgy man in an ill-fitting shirt and tie. “He works in D.C. for the bread lobby. And his actual name is Caspar.”

      That drew a giggle from Julie.

      “See?” said Billy. “Somebody in this family likes me.”

      “For what it’s worth,” Julie said, “I think she’s crazy to reject you. You’re funny, smart, and you know all the words to ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’”

      “Keep going.”

      “You’re totally Hemsworthy.”

      Billy frowned. “Is that a good thing?”

      “As in the Hemsworth brothers. So, yeah.”

      He took a sip of wine. “Cool. Now, how about you today? Getting yourself swept out to sea was quite a feat.”

      She shrugged. “It happens.”

      “Well, just make sure it doesn’t happen again. Except maybe to the douche bag who was rude to your mom today.”

      “You got it.”

      “Seriously, Jules, you scared the crap out of everyone.” He indicated the picture of Jace and Julie on the mantel. Taken on the beach about five years before, it depicted the two of them posed with their surfboards, squinting into the sun and laughing. “That guy—I bet he’d ground you for life if he knew you got caught in a riptide and let yourself float out to sea.”

      “Maybe then I’d finally get to see him again,” Julie stated.

      Camille’s blood turned to ice. “Don’t ever say that, Julie. Oh my God, do you hear yourself?”

      Julie’s chin came up. “According to you, he’s the greatest thing that ever walked the earth. But he seems so far away, like I never really knew the guy.”

      The comment worried Camille. How could she keep his memory alive for her daughter? Julie had been so young when she’d lost her dad.

      “Well, I knew him,” Billy said, going to the bar cart and taking out a bottle of Don Julio, “and even though I begged your mom to wait for me during college, do you think she listened? No. She had to go and meet Dr. Dreamboat, and boom. Nobody else had a chance.”

      “That’s because he was the love of her life, and when she lost him, the world came to an end,” Julie recited, all too familiar with the story.’

      Billy measured out two generous shots. “I was jealous as hell of him, but I never resented the guy, because he gave you to the world, Jules.”

      Camille’s heart ached as it always did when the subject of her late husband came up. She’d met him when she’d gone to the ER with a dislocated shoulder from a rock-climbing mishap. A few months later, she was married to the doctor who had helped her that day. She had every expectation of a lifetime of adventure with Jace. No one had counted on the spectacular manner of his demise, or its far-reaching effects. Since the accident, she wanted nothing to do with adventure. She wanted—she needed a safe, predictable existence.

      “Lecture over?” Julie asked.

      “Sure, why not?” Billy said. “Who’s your mom seeing these days?”

      Camille was in the middle of swigging down the tequila, and she nearly choked on it. “Hey,” she objected.

      “Mom never talks about the guys she dates,” Julie said.

      “That’s