“Well, he’s right,” Olivia said. “You don’t have to, but I’d like it if you did so I don’t worry about you.”

“Okay,” Lacey said, easily. “I will.”

Alec had called her a couple of times since the night they’d argued about the watch. He’d apologized for blowing up, and she’d allowed the subject to die. Still, it had soured the air between them, just a little, just enough to keep her from feeling too close to him again. And that, she thought, was fine.

On the fifth night after Lacey started calling her, Olivia woke up automatically at midnight, reaching for the phone before she realized it hadn’t rung. Maybe Lacey had stayed home. Probably she had fallen asleep, safe and sound in her own bed. Olivia watched the neon-green numbers change on her night table clock. Finally, at twelve-thirty, the phone rang. She picked it up to hear Lacey sobbing on the other end, speaking unintelligibly. Olivia sat up in bed to give the girl her full attention.

“I think you’ve had too much to drink, Lacey.”

Lacey cried for a moment into the phone. There was a ripple of laughter in the background. “I’m scared,” she said finally.

“Of what?”

There was another pause while Lacey struggled for control. “I haven’t gotten my period.”

“Oh. How late are you?”

“I’m not sure. I lost track.”

“Where are you, Lacey? I’m coming to pick you up.”

Lacey didn’t resist. She gave Olivia a muddled set of directions to a house near Kiss River and said she would wait for her out front.

The road was nearly deserted, and Olivia was relieved when she finally spotted the beacon ahead of her in the darkness. She drove on slowly, knowing the horses were out here somewhere. She found the intersection Lacey had told her about and turned onto a road of packed sand, praying her car would not get stuck. She could just imagine being stranded out here in the middle of the night.

Lacey’s directions had been poor, but after a few hundred yards on the sand road, Olivia heard music. She followed the sound to a small white house, where Lacey sat alone on the concrete front stoop. She looked up as Olivia pulled into the grassy driveway, then started walking toward the car.

Olivia opened the door for her. She was clearly drunk, and her clothes smelled of beer and tobacco. It took her three attempts to get into the car, where she closed her eyes and rested her head back against the seat.

Olivia leaned over to snap Lacey’s seat belt in place. “Have you had anything besides beer?” she asked.

“Uh uh.”

“Have you gotten sick?”

Lacey nodded, her eyes opening to half mast. “Three times,” she whispered.

“Let me know if you’re going to get sick again so I can pull over.”

“Mmm.” Lacey closed her eyes again. She slept for most of the drive to Olivia’s house. Olivia set her up in the guest room, deciding there would be time in the morning to pursue Lacey’s concern about her late period. She went back to her own bedroom and called Alec.

“It’s Olivia, Alec. I’m sorry to wake you.”

“No problem,” he said, his voice thick with sleep. “What’s up?”

“I have Lacey here with me.”

“Why?”

“She was at a party and had too much to drink and she called me, very upset. So I picked her up and brought her here.”

She heard the heaviness of his breathing. She pictured him sitting bare-chested on the edge of his bed, rubbing his face, trying to wake himself up.

“I’ll come get her,” he said.

“No, don’t. She’s asleep. I’ll bring her home in the morning.”

“I don’t want you to have to go to all that trouble.”

“It’s all right. I’m off tomorrow. Go back to sleep, Alec. We’ll talk more about this in the morning.”

Lacey was pale and red-eyed the next morning. She sat at the table in her foul-smelling jeans and T-shirt, dumping spoonfuls of sugar into her coffee. She was sober and very quiet. Olivia put a plate of toast in front of her and sat down on the other side of the table.

“When you called last night, you said you were concerned that your period was late.”

Lacey looked up, startled. “I said that?”

Olivia nodded.

Lacey groaned and leaned back in the chair. “I can’t believe I told you that.”

“Do you know when you were due?”

Lacey shook her head back and forth against the chair, her eyes closed.

“Have you had sex since your last period?”

Lacey made a face, her cheeks reddening. “I can’t talk to you about that,” she said.

“Well, just tell me if there’s a possibility you could be pregnant.”

She nodded.

“We’ll go into the ER this morning and get a test done.”

Lacey opened her eyes and looked directly at Olivia. “Oh, God, Olivia, what if I am? I’d have to have it. I don’t think I could ever have an abortion. My mother would have killed me. She hated abortions. She said they were murder.”

“But you and your mother are different people.”

Lacey looked surprised by that thought. “Still,” she said, shaking her head, “I don’t think I could do it.”

“Let’s wait and see what we’re dealing with, Lacey. We don’t need to borrow trouble.”

They waited in Olivia’s office while Kathy Brash ran the test. Lacey did not want to talk. She sat in the chair by the window, playing with the cord from the blinds, and she jumped when the phone rang.

Olivia picked up the receiver.

“Negative,” said Kathy.

Olivia thanked her and got off the phone. She looked across her desk at Lacey.

“You’re not pregnant.”

Lacey covered her face with her hands and started to cry. “I was so scared,” she said. “It was just about all I could think of. I almost told you when I stayed over that night. I wanted to, but I thought you’d think I was a slut or something.”

Olivia shook her head. “I don’t think any less of you, Lacey.” She leaned forward on her desk. “Look at me,” she said.

Lacey lowered her hands to her lap and looked at Olivia.

“You have to tell your father.”

Lacey’s red eyes opened wide. “Tell him what?”

“That you thought you might be pregnant.”

“But I’m not. Why should I get him all upset? There’s absolutely no reason for me to tell him.”

“There’s a very good reason. He’s your father. He needs to know how serious things are with you.”

“What if I don’t tell him?”

“Then I will.”

Lacey jumped from the chair. “I thought I could trust you.”

“You can trust me to do whatever I feel is best for you.”

“Oh, God, you’re a bitch.” Lacey dropped to the chair again. “He’ll kill me, Olivia. He’ll…” She shook her head, fat tears rolling down her cheeks.

Olivia stood up. “He needs to know, Lacey.” She took her car keys from her purse. “Let’s go.”

Lacey followed her with a heavy air of resignation. She stared out the window of Olivia’s car on the drive to Southern Shores, shooting occasional, evil-eyed looks in Olivia’s direction. “But I’m not even pregnant,” she’d growl. “I thought I could trust you.”

Lacey let herself into the house ahead of Olivia and brushed past her father on the way upstairs to her room. Alec looked expectantly at Olivia.

“Could we go in the den?” she asked.

He nodded, leading her into the den and taking his usual seat at the desk. She sat down at the work table.

“She was afraid she was pregnant,” Olivia said.

Alec looked surprised for an instant, then shook his head. “Oh, no,” he said.

“She’s not. I had her tested this morning at the ER. She knows I’m telling you this and she’s not happy about it, but I thought you needed to know.”

He nodded. “Christ.” He looked up at the ceiling, and when he spoke there was anger in his voice. “Okay, Annie,” he said, “so what would you do now?”

Olivia stood up. “Forget what Annie would do or what Annie would think or what Annie would feel. Has it ever occurred to you that maybe Annie was wrong?” Olivia grabbed her purse from the work table and stalked to the door of the den, where she turned back to look at him. “Your barely fourteen-year-old daughter who’s been raising herself all these years thought she was pregnant. Forget about Annie. Lacey needs you right now. She needs Alec.”

She let herself out the front door, nearly knocking Tripod over in her rush to leave. From her car, she looked up at the window she knew was Lacey’s, wondering if in the last hour she had lost both Alec and his daughter.

Alec sat alone in the den for a long time, aware of the stillness in the house. She’s afraid of what it will be like when it’s just the two of you. Wasn’t that what her school counselor had told him? He rose to his feet and started up the stairs.

He knocked on the door and pushed it open. Lacey sat cross-legged on her bed, clutching a dark-haired china doll to her chest. She looked horrid, her two-toned hair uncombed, her cheeks tear-streaked. She smelled like stale beer.

“I’m sorry, Daddy,” she said.

He sat down on the bed and pulled her into his arms, and for the first time in far too long she didn’t struggle to get away from him. She wept against his shoulder, her back shivering beneath his hands. He stroked her hair, afraid to speak, afraid his voice would give out.

Finally he drew away from her. He pulled a tissue from the box on her night table and held it to her nose.

“Blow,” he said, and she did. Then she looked up at him, with Annie’s blue eyes, waiting for him to speak.

“You must have been terrified to think you were pregnant,” he said.

She nodded, lowering her eyes quickly, and her tears flicked from her long lashes onto the back of his hand.