“Not usually. I got bit by my dad’s horse when I was a kid and thought it was best if I admired them from afar.”
“Make sense.”
“Hmm,” was all he said. Evie was quiet again, but luckily the storage facility wasn’t too far from their house. They parked and Jesse rolled down his window a little bit before he hopped out. Evie followed him to a side entrance, glancing back at Clementine’s face in the back seat.
“Will she be okay?”
“She’ll be fine,” Jesse said.
They stopped at a sliding glass door, where Jesse took out his phone and apparently pulled up a code that he entered into a keypad on the wall. There was a beeping sound and the doors opened and they walked into a large lobby area with dollies and hand trucks lining one wall. There was an elevator with a keypad and a door markedSTAIRSwith an identical keypad, but Jesse pointed to the right, down a long, dark hall.
“You got a first-floor unit.”
Evie followed, relieved when Jesse found a light switch. She felt only slightly less terrified now that she could see down the corridor. About halfway down they stopped at unit 110. Jesse pulled a smaller key ring out of his pocket and opened the padlock on the door. It made a loud grinding noise when it opened. Evie was surprised to see that everything inside was in order. Jesse found the light switch inside and Evie could see how all the stacked boxes were neatly labelled.
Evie remembered then that these things had been sitting there packed away, for almost ten years.
“Jesse, who pays for this?”
“I do. We do. You had our Realtor sell Nana Buck’s house, and then Miss Leona hired a crew to go through everything. You decided what you wanted to keep and what you wanted to sell.”
“That’s—your family is too kind to me.”
“No such thing. You’re family to us. The bed of my truck is still wet. We can fit at least two of these boxes in the back seat with Clementine.”
“Okay. I’ll pick two and then we’ll come back.”
“Good plan. Take your time.” Jesse stepped back out into the hallway. Evie thought he was going to leave her alone and go back out to the truck, but he just pulled out his phone again and leaned against the wall.
She turned back around and surveyed the storage unit again. There were dozens of boxes stacked on shelves all the way to the ceiling. In one corner, by the door, there were a few pieces of furniture: a couple rocking chairs and a sideboard. Obviously those would stay put. She walked over to the wall of boxes and was suddenly overwhelmed as she read the labels. They were typed up, laminated, and taped to each box. They made this a lot easier than having to open each box to figure out what was inside, but she realized the labels didn’t really mean anything to her. She wouldn’t have any memories ofAMELIA’S PERSONALSorEVIE’S STUFFED ANIMALS, but maybe they could trigger something. She had no idea where to start.
“I want to see pictures of my parents,” she said to herself, her eyes darting along the wall.
“Here.” Jesse came up behind her and pulled down a box from the top shelf.FAMILY PHOTOSwas printed on the front. He placed the box on the floor. “It’s heavy.”
“What’s bothering you?” Evie asked.
Jesse reached for another box markedFAMILY PHOTOSbefore he responded. He sighed first too. “Zach and I got into it back at the office.”
“You got into fight?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m sorry.” She was just about to ask what they were fighting about, but Jesse kept right on going.
“Did you kiss Zach last night? Or did he come on to you?”
Heat rushed over Evie’s face and the side of her head suddenly started to ache. Kissing Zach wasn’t a secret. She’d already told Blaire and Vega. She just didn’t expect Jesse to know about it or to make it sound like it was the worst thing Evie had ever done. She swallowed and waited a few seconds for the aching to stop. It took a few deep breaths, but she found her voice. “He told you about that?”
“He didn’t brag about it, but he said something happened when he knew damn well he should leave you alone.”
“Why does the idea of Zach and me being together bother everyone so much? Everyone but your parents, apparently,” she asked, more to herself. Then she looked up at Jesse. “Was I bad for him? IsZacha bad guy? I know he’s your brother, but you should tell me if he is.”
“Wait, what about my parents? What did they say?”
“Nothing exactly. They just seemed very happy to hear that Zach and I were spending time together again. Then Miss Leona mentioned that your dad thought Zach and I would have made a good match once upon a time, but this sounds like more than that. What’s going on?”
Jesse looked at her for almost a full minute and Evie waited. It was dead silent in the storage unit, but she refused to fill the silence this time. She’d rather wait for the truth than rush a lie. Jesse took off his hat and scratched the back of his bald head.