“Is Brendon coming?” my dad asked softly, and I glanced at them in surprise. Why would he need to ask her if his own brother was coming to the lake? Had he and my uncle had an argument?

“He said he’d swing by after work,” Harmony said, and the slight flush to her cheeks said much more than her words had.

“What’s wrong?” Tod asked, snatching a chip from the open bag on the table in front of me.

I pulled him close enough to whisper, though no one else could hear me, anyway. “I think your mom’s going out with my uncle.”

Tod laughed. “Yeah. For a couple of months now. Do not ask me how I know.”

“See something you didn’t want to see?”

“Occupational hazard.”

“Is that why he left Sophie at my house last night?”

“He left at, what, nine?” Tod asked, and I nodded. “Mom doesn’t have to be at work till eleven.” He scowled. “Great. Now I need something more pleasant to purge the unwanted visual. Kittens on fire should do the trick.”

“Does Sophie know?” I asked, and Tod shrugged, but I knew the answer before I’d even finished the question. She didn’t know. Nash didn’t, either. If either of them knew, we’d have heard about it during the sleepover.

While my dad and Harmony talked over the grill, Tod, Em, and I sat at the end of the dock with our feet dangling over the water, staring out at the lake while we waited for the burgers to cook. “This is weird,” Em said. “I can’t believe he’s gone.” She pushed her hair behind her shoulders and pulled her knees up to her chest. “If Alec were here, what do you think he’d be doing?”

“Sitting on the picnic table, eating all the cupcakes,” Tod said.

“Telling us how, in the Netherworld, cupcakes are stuffed with entrails and bile instead of cream,” I added, and I could see him saying that so clearly in my head I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“That’s kinda true, though,” Tod said with a sad smile. “Over there, we are the cupcakes. Human cupcakes.”

And Alec would have been able to make us laugh about even such a horrific truth—if I hadn’t cut him open and spilled his bloody filling all over us both.

Fresh tears filled my eyes and I was trying to wipe them away without looking like I was wiping them away when a dark blue sedan squealed into the parking lot, spitting gravel beneath its wheels before swinging into the space between my car and my dad’s. Em stood and took off down the dock. “Jayson’s here!” she called over her shoulder, and I was glad, because now there was someone to comfort her, too, even though Jayson had never met Alec.

“What do you think the appeal is?” Tod said as we watched Jayson get out of his car, grinning like he’d just ridden his firstroller coaster. Evidently skipping school was a new thrill for him.

Emma threw her arms around him and kissed him, and he looked surprised by the enthusiasm of her greeting. I wasn’t, though. She’d felt like a fifth wheel—or maybe a seventh wheel—for the past eighteen hours.

“I don’t know, but I hope the appeal is that he’s normal. Both human and alive. I’ve dragged her into enough weird and dangerous crap this year.”

“She would have come willingly, if you hadn’t dragged her,” Tod insisted. “She’s your best friend. Is there anything you wouldn’t do for her?”

“No…”

“Well, that’s obviously mutual.”

When I looked up, I found Emma dragging Jayson down the pier, their footsteps shaking the boards beneath us. Em dropped onto the end of the dock next to me, and Jayson sat on her other side with a nod and a “Hey” to Tod.

Tod returned the casual greeting, and I almost laughed out loud. His regular-guy act was good enough to fool anyone who didn’t know him, but I couldn’t think of him as a regular guy. Yes, I knew he’d gone to a regular high school before he died, and he’d played regular-guy football, just like Nash. And he’d probably done regular-guy stuff like watch sports, and break curfew, and kiss girls—one of my least favorite visuals ever. But I couldn’t see him like that. Tod was anything but normal to me.

“Happy birthday, Kaylee,” Jayson said, leaning around Emma to look at me. “I brought you a gift, but I didn’t see any others, so I left it in my car… .”

“Oh, you didn’t have to bring anything!” I could hear surprise in my own voice. “This is a gift-free party, except for my dad. Because he’s my dad.”

Jayson shrugged. “Well, if you don’t want it, maybe Emma will.”

“Yes. Kaylee’s rejected birthday present. That’s what I want.” She laughed, then pushed him playfully, and Tod pulled me up by one hand.

“Let’s give them some privacy,” he said.

“What about our privacy?” I asked as he tugged me down the pier.

“We can make our own privacy.” His fingers slid between mine, his hand warm in contrast to the cool breeze coming off the lake. “You weren’t serious about the no-presents rule, were you?” he asked.

“Why? Did you get me something? You didn’t have to get me anything.”

“Well, it’s not a present in the traditional sense. But it’s something I’ve never given anyone else, and I want you to be the first.”

“We’re not talking about your virginity, are we? Because I happen to know that ship has sailed.” Long before I’d been seaworthy.