“I’ve talked to Jamie,” Miss Kacey said. “It seems that your sister and her husband already settled on a surrogate. Isn’t that right?”
Emma wanted to carry Jamie’s baby. She’d told her she wanted to have a baby for her and Cooper, but Jamie had said it couldn’t happen and then Miss Kacey and that baby doctor Emma had gone to see, Dr. Simmons, had looked at Emma with sad eyes and said it couldn’t happen. Her brain wasn’t good enough.
“She’s a friend of Theo’s.” Emma didn’t want Theo’s friend to be the surrogate.
“She’s been a surrogate before.”
“My body is good. It’s just my head,” Emma said seriously. She’d told Miss Kacey this again and again.
“You know that Jamie is responsible for you. It would be very irresponsible of her to have you be her surrogate. The courts won’t allow it.”
“The courts don’t know me.”
Miss Kacey nodded and said, “But, Emma, even if they did, they would not legally allow it.”
“You said that last time,” said Emma.
“Well, yes, because it’s the truth. And until you accept that you can’t be your sister’s surrogate, I’ll likely say it again.” She smiled, but it was kind of sad. “This wish you have for them . . . it’s lovely, Emma. You have such a big heart. We all know that. You want what’s best for Jamie and your family. That’s important.”
“I want to give them a baby.”
“They know.”
Emma couldn’t think of anything else to say. They weren’t going to let her give Jamie and Cooper a baby. They were going to let Mary Jo be their surrogate. It made Emma’s head hurt to think of that, so she pushed it aside.
Harley came and picked Emma up from her session. “How was Miss Kasey?” Harley asked as Emma buckled herself into the middle back seat, where it was safest. Harley Woodward was Emma’s niece and, though she’d been driving for quite a while now, Emma still didn’t like to be with her that much.
“She said I couldn’t have a baby,” said Emma.
“Yeah, well . . . yeah.”
Harley nodded. Just like Miss Kacey nodded. They all nodded at her. “She says that every time.”
“She speaketh the truth, Em. It’s hard to accept. I get it. But you don’t want to be pregnant now anyway. I just graduated. We’re going to have fun.”
Emma’s chest tightened. “But you’re going to Camp Love Shack.”
“Camp Fog Lake,” Harley corrected.
“You’re going to be a CIT—a counselor-in-training—like me.”
“Yes, I am.”
“It’s not safe there. You were supposed to go to London, England.” Emma leaned forward and met her niece’s eyes in the rearview mirror.
“True.” Harley did want to go to London. She still did. That was what she’d asked for as a graduation gift and her mom and Cooper were trying to give it to her. But Cooper’s daughter—well, stepdaughter, but really like a daughter to him—Marissa, Harley’s best friend, was set to go to college in Colorado and there was only so much money, so Harley had taken the job at the camp to make some cash before her trip. Right now she was scheduled to head to London in the fall and start school winter term. Though her mom and Cooper wanted to send her to the college of her choice, Harley’s plan was to live at home and attend Portland State and major in criminal justice. Or something police-ish, like her stepfather the detective. She wasn’t sure, yet.
“I’m still going,” Harley told Emma. “Just gotta earn some of the green stuff first.” She put the car in gear.
“The green stuff?”
“Money.”
“Oh.”
“Why don’t you want me to go to Camp Fog Lake?” Harley asked her. She’d asked Emma this same question a number of times with no real answer. Emma had been a counselor-in-training there the summer before the attack that had irretrievably altered the path of her life. Harley had done her research and knew a guy had supposedly killed his girlfriend and himself in some ritualized way that had maybe happened before and it had unfairly turned back on the camp, causing it to close. But the new owner had opened it up again and she was the camp director, too.
“You have a job at Ridge Pointe,” said Emma.
Harley still worked for Ridge Pointe Independent and Assisted Living, although she’d cut her hours down toward the end of senior year. She’d made a point of putting in long hours and getting good grades, keeping her options open.
But Harley’s reasons for attending Camp Fog Lake were more than just about making money and/or exploring the camp’s myths. Her ex-boyfriend, if you could call him that. Ex-guy she dated for a while when she was a sophomore was more accurate. Anyway, Greer Douglas had graduated and basically disappeared from Harley’s life. Oh, sure, they’d texted and kept in contact, sort of, but that had pretty much been the end of it. Then she’d learned through social media that he’d taken a job at the camp, not as a counselor but as an on-site maintenance person. Over the last year he’d already been repairing a lot of the buildings and helping construct new ones. His new girlfriend knew the camp owners, apparently. So, he was going to be there all summer. As soon as she’d learned about Greer’s plans, she’d moved her search to his girlfriend, Allie Strasser, checking her social media posts—Harley had stooped to being a lurker so she could learn what Greer was doing—and had discovered Allie had applied to be a counselor at Camp Fog Lake. Harley had then talked Marissa into becoming a CIT, too. Mom’s friend, Theo, had helped them get placed there because she knew the camp owners as well.
The only problem was Greer and Allie seemed pretty serious, and Harley knew she could face some hard truths if she went. But she still wanted to go. Allie was very active online and Harley knew a heckuva lot about her. She’d attended Laurelton High, which was kind of a River Glen High rival. Harley certainly felt like Allie’s rival, though she’d never met her. Talking Marissa into being a CIT at Camp Fog Lake had been no small feat as Marissa’s boyfriend, Cam Dornbrenner, whom she just started dating a few months before graduation, seemed to be sticking around River Glen for the summer. Luckily Mom hadn’t wanted Harley to go off to camp alone, so she’d joined in to convince Marissa to go. Even Marissa’s real mom, Laura, who wasn’t known for agreeing with anything Mom and Cooper suggested, had jumped on the bandwagon. Harley kind of thought, though they didn’t say it, that the parental units didn’t much care for Cam. Harley silently agreed, but Marissa was wild about him. Anyway, the parents wanted a little distance between Marissa and Cam, so in the end Marissa had been pressured into going to the camp and had finally, reluctantly agreed.
“What was it like when you were at Camp Fog Lake?” Harley asked Emma. This was a question she’d asked many times before, but Emma always answered as if the conversation were new. “Can you remember?”
“Camp Love Shack,” corrected Emma.
“Okay,” Harley said equably.
From the back seat Emma stared through the windshield in that intense yet blank way she had. Long moments passed, but Harley waited. Her aunt’s mental processes were mysterious and unpredictable. Huge gaps of Emma’s memories were missing and her neurons seemed to fire in fits and starts. The attack that left her aunt in her current state had happened before Harley was born so she’d never known Emma any other way.