I knew what she was doing.

She was realizing that it had been a mistake to underestimate me.

She finally started walking again, her feet dragging across the pavement like a convicted felon might to their jail cell.

I pulled open the kitchen door and smiled at them as they reached the bottom step. “Wouldn’t you know, I finished my errands sooner than planned?”

She looked like she wanted to growl at me as she trudged up the stairs. Andy came up behind her, a large backpack slung over his shoulder, his dark brown hair swept to the side.

“Andy, this is my mom,” Em mumbled as she passed me.

He held out his hand. “Hi.”

“Hi, Andy,” I said, shaking his hand. “I’m Daisy.”

“Hi,” he said again. He had blue eyes and a dimple in his chin. He wore a thick red hoodie and jeans with running shoes and I noticed he was slightly taller than me. He smelled like bubblegum and some kind of boy teen body spray.

“Are you coming?” Emily asked from the dining room.

Andy stood there awkwardly, unsure where to head.

Which made me like him because he wasn’t making a direct beeline to my daughter’s bedroom.

“Actually, I need you to do something for me,” I said.

Her shoulders fell and she shoved the backpack off her arm. “What?”

“I need you to run downstairs to the basement and unload the dryer and move the clothes from the washer to the dryer,” I said, smiling. “Please.”

“I’ll do it later.”

“Actually, no, I need you to do it now because it was supposed to be done yesterday,” I said, maintaining the smile. “I’ll keep Andy occupied until you’re done. Oh, and while you’re down there, I also need you to go up in the crawl space and grab the scissors and flashlight that Jake left up there last winter. Okay? Thanks.”

“Mom.”

“Emily, hurry.” I grinned at her. “That way when you’re done, you’ll be able to spend a few minutes with Andy.” I looked at Andy. “Do you like bars?”

“Bars?” He looked confused, like it was a trick question or something.

“Cookie bars,” I corrected and his eyes lit up with relief.

“Oh.” He shrugged. “Sure.”

“Chocolate chip?”

“Sure.”

Emily groaned and stomped past us, through the kitchen and down the stairs to the basement, slamming the door as she went.

Never underestimate your mother.

I gestured at the kitchen table. “Have a seat. I’ll grab the bars.”

He pulled out a chair and sat. I grabbed the plastic container of bars and brought it to the table, then sat down across from him. I pulled off the lid and pushed it toward him.

He pulled one out. “Thanks.”

“Of course,” I said. “So, you and Em are in the same grade?”

He took a bite. “Yeah. I mean, yes.”

“How do you like Prism?”

He shrugged again. “It’s okay, I guess. Kinda small. But it’s fine.”

“You didn’t want to go to Moose River High?”

“Actually, I did, but my parents weren’t crazy about it,” he explained. “They thought it was too big.” He shrugged again and polished off the bar.

I nudged the container toward him. “Have another.”

He hesitated, then pulled out another.

“So I hear you and Amanda Pendleton were friends,” I said.

He shrugged and bit into the second bar. He was very good at shrugging. “Yeah, sorta.”

“And no one’s heard from Amanda yet?” I asked.

Andy hesitated. “Not that I’ve heard.”

“Emily said you and Amanda were...dating?”

He froze in mid-bite. Then he unfroze and swallowed hard. “Yeah. We were.” His cheeks turned red. “We, uh, broke up, though.”

“She told me that, too,” I said, not wanting to intentionally embarrass him. “It’s all just sort of awkward, with her disappearing or whatever people are calling it.”

He finished the second bar and folded his hands on the table. “I guess so. I don’t know. It’s all just weird. I just hope she’s okay. I mean, I don’t like her anymore. Not like that. I mean, we’re friends and stuff. But we’re not together. So I just hope she’s okay.” He paused. “That all probably sounds pretty weird.”

“Not at all,” I assured him. “Sounds pretty normal, actually.”

“I mean, I wouldn’t want anything to happen to anyone,” he said. “But especially not someone I know.” He cleared his throat. “So yeah. It’s all kind of weird, I guess.”

Any thoughts I might have entertained about Andy somehow being involved with Amanda’s disappearance were quickly vanishing. Unless he was the world’s greatest actor, he seemed like a sincere kid who hoped his ex-girlfriend/friend was okay. There was no nervousness, no desire to cover anything up. He seemed flustered talking about it but not because he had anything to do with it; he just seemed weirded out because he was talking about his old girlfriend with his new girlfriend’s mother. I thought about how I’d reacted to questions about Olaf and my connection to him. I’d been a little unnerved, too… and I’d actually had his dead body in my coal chute.

I didn’t think Andy was faking anything or lying to me. Or hiding his ex-girlfriend’s body in a coal chute.

Score another point for Andy.

I heard the washer lid bang shut down in the basement.

“So,” I said. “How do you and Em know one another?”

He squirmed in his chair. “Just school, I guess. We had a class together last year. Think it was math.”

“I think I saw you with a violin.”

He smiled, relaxing a little. “Yeah, I play the violin. Probably at the talent show that you put on. That was you, right?”

I nodded. “That was me and, yes, I think that was it.”

“That was a cool night.”

“Thanks. I’m glad you thought so.”

Feet pounded down the stairs from above and the two younger girls crashed into the living room, their arms full of dolls. They froze when they saw an unfamiliar face at the table.

“Mom, who’s that?” Grace asked, staring at him.

“This is Andy. He’s Emily’s friend.”

Grace broke into a big grin. “Oh. You’re her boyfriend.”

Andy tried to smile but his teeth got stuck on his lips and his cheeks burned an even darker shade of red.

“Grace,” I said, frowning. “He’s her friend. How about if you girls play upstairs?”

“Where’s Emily?” Sophie asked. She peered at Andy through her glasses. “Or did you come by yourself?”

“Uh,” Andy said. “I’m not really sure. I think she’s doing laundry?”

“Oh,” Sophie said, as if it made perfect sense for her older sister to be doing chores while a strange boy sat at the table with her stepmom. “Okay. Come on, Grace. Let’s go.”

She bounded back up the stairs. Grace gave Andy one more hard stare, then scurried after her.

“Sorry about that,” I said. “Grace is a little… nosy.”

“I have a little sister,” he said. “It’s okay.”

Andy was a nice kid and despite my questioning and Grace’s questions, he’d remained mostly unflappable. I was starting to feel a little guilty about sending Emily down to the basement. She and I could have a discussion about bringing boys home later. I didn’t need to make her pay for it while he was there.

“Let me go grab Em,” I said, standing up. “Give me just a minute?”

“Sure.”

I jogged down the basement stairs. Emily was up on the step stool, her eyes shut tight, steeling herself for going into the crawl space.

“Stop,” I said.

Her eyes flew open.

“Go back upstairs. And hang out with your...Andy.”

She turned around, her cheeks flushed, strands of hair flying all over the place. “I didn’t get the scissors yet.”

“It’s fine,” I said, waving her off. “Go.”

She jumped off the stool. “Why did you come home?”

“Because you asked me to stay out of my own house while you brought a boy home,” I said pointedly. “But we can talk about that later. Right now, a very nice, patient young boy is waiting on you upstairs.”

“Do I look terrible?” she asked, running her hands through her hair.