He went inside while she waited in the truck. She examined her fingernails and tried not to think about Jonah. A part of her wondered what she was doing with Julius but since the moment she’d discovered that it was he who’d left the flowers she’d wanted to find out who he was for herself. She’d met Osmond and she’d met the twin girls but she’d never actually met Julius. She’d heard rumors around the school and the wharf but that’s all she thought they were. Rumors. Julius was a drug dealer and Julius tried to drown his sister and Julius’s father was in prison and Julius should be in prison too.
She didn’t believe the worst of it but if she was wrong then she’d handle him just like she’d handled everything else in her life.
Julius returned with a bag of hard candies and a twelve-pack of colas. They crossed the river and he sucked on a candy. The tide was ebb and slabs of salt ice broke free of the frozen river and floated downstream to the bay while the rocks and seaweed along the shoreline stayed wrapped in the smooth ice sheets.
