Justin caught Rose’s eye and shrugged, his expression a little lost, like he had no idea how he’d wound up in this situation.
Diane pulled Rose in for a hug, leaning close to her ear. “So I suppose you didn’t get an opportunity to tell him about our little talk last night?” Diane whispered. All the cheeriness had vanished from her voice.
Rose shook her head. “I didn’t know he’d come over here, I promise,” she replied, her heart racing. It was one thing to defy her parents’ orders; it was another thing to do it right in front of them.
“You’ll tell him now,” Diane ordered.
“In front of everyone?”
“You can go outside, but only for a few minutes. Then I expect to see you back in here. Alone.” Her tone left no room for negotiation.
Rose nodded, swallowing thickly, then pulled out of the hug and gave Diane a tight smile. “Let’s, uh, go outside,” she said to Justin, who practically jumped from the couch.
“Don’t go far,” Diane said, a warning in her voice.
“We won’t.”
As soon as he was within reach, Rose all but dragged Justin through the front door after her. The rain had slowed to a lazy drizzle, light enough to walk without an umbrella. Rose would rather get a little damp than risk Diane and Veronica overhearing them.
“Didn’t expect to see you in my living room,” Rose said by way of apology as they headed down the sidewalk, elbows bumping as they shared the narrow strip of cement.
“Yeah, I noticed,” Justin said. “Your face was like you found Freddy Krueger sitting on your couch.”
“Sorry,” she said, driving her elbow into his side on purpose this time. “I thought you might, I don’t know, say something.”
“What, ‘Greetings, Mrs. Future Mayor? I am a future boy from the future, here to convince your daughter to help me save the future’？ Yes, because that’s a thing I’m just dying to share with people.”
“I didn’t mean you’d say it like that,” Rose laughed.
“Trust me, I’m not planning to say it like anything.”
Rose paused, playing his words back over again in her head. “Future mayor? So does that mean she wins?”
He was quiet for a few seconds. “I thought you didn’t want to know anything about the future.”
That wasn’t entirely true. That had been his proposed rule, which he’d justified by giving her a long speech about maintaining the Space Pie Conundrum or something like that. Or maybe it was Pi Conundrum? That would probably make more sense, although she had still never heard of whatever equation he was referring to. She’d just agreed to it because he’d been so adamant.
Still, now she second-guessed herself, questioning whether she really wanted to know. If Justin said Diane lost, what could she do with that information? Agonize over whether to say anything to her family for a few more days? But if the answer was that she won, would it really gain her anything? Or would she spend the next few days second-guessing every little thing she did, wondering if she might be throwing the entire Space Pi Conundrum off its axis?
“No,” she said finally, deflating a little. “I don’t want to know.”
He blew out a long breath. “Okay, good. I mean, that’s probably safest, you know? Wouldn’t want to upset the space-time continuum.”
Space-time continuum. That was it.
“But seriously, why were you at my house? I thought I was supposed to meet you at Mrs. Hanley’s in half an hour.” She’d planned on telling Diane she was going to study with Noah.
“She got tired of me hanging around the house, so I decided to come kill time over here. I was just going to walk around the block, but then my gran—Veronica saw me and made me come inside.”
“Sorry about that,” Rose said. “I, um, well, there’s a . . . thing I should probably tell you.”
“Okay . . .”
“I’ve kind of been . . . forbidden from spending time with you.”
His eyebrows shot up. “How’d you manage that?”
“That police officer that stopped us the first night? I guess he told Veronica that I told him you were my cousin.”
“Wait. Are we not cousins?”
Rose moved to elbow him again, but he skipped out of reach. “So now Diane’s pissed at me for lying to the police, and I’m grounded from seeing you.”
“Well, bang-up job you’re doing being grounded.”
“She told me I could see you just long enough to tell you I can’t see you.”
He snorted. “Can Diane be my mom, too? I like her style.”
A smile tugged at Rose’s mouth. “Cousins isn’t enough for you? Now you want to be siblings?”
“I’d be a great brother.”
“Would you?”
“Yup. I’d forge your dad’s signature on progress reports and intimidate your boyfriends.”
“Ha. What boyfriends?” Rose said dryly.
Justin caught her eye, raising an eyebrow. “Really? No one?”
She shook her head. “Nope. No one’s ever been interested.”
“I highly doubt that’s true,” he said. He glanced at her, then quickly looked away, smiling slightly as he kicked a stray pebble down the sidewalk.
Heat rushed to Rose’s face, and she dropped her gaze, too, hoping he didn’t notice the sudden redness in her cheeks. What had he meant by that? She played it over and over in her brain, committing everything about it to memory.
But this wasn’t why he was here, and they didn’t have much more time before she’d have to go inside. She cleared her throat, pivoting back to their investigation. “Anyway, I don’t know how much I’ll be able to help you now, with my parents on my case.”
Justin sighed, his breath clouding in the humid fall air. “Well, then I’m screwed,” he said flatly.
“Don’t say that.”
“Rose, this plan was a long shot to begin with. But without your help? It’s impossible.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“I have zero leads, Rose. Zero. Other than this McMillain guy—”
“I don’t think it’s McMillain.”
He gave a humorless chuckle. “Great. You and Stan, both.”
“But I’m also not sure it’s not McMillain.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“It’s just a feeling. Like there’s something we’re missing, something that has nothing to do with him. Not that we can know for sure based on feelings. But . . . I don’t know. I just don’t think he’d do this.”
Justin snorted. “You’re not superstitious, but you are a little stitious.”
“I’m . . . what? That’s not a word.”
“I know; that’s the joke.”
“What joke?”
“It’s an Office reference.”
“What office? What are you talking about?”
At that, he stopped walking, doubling over with laughter.
“What is so funny?”
“It’s nothing,” he said, his shoulders still shaking. “It’s just . . . this is so messed up. You know? Like, we’re trying to solve a crime based mostly on feelings, because all the actual clues are in the future. So this is already pretty much impossible, right? But now I’m even more screwed, because the only friend I have here got grounded. Grounded. From solving a murder. That hasn’t happened. But we know it’s going to happen, because I’m from the future. All the shows and movies and songs I know, all the technology I’m used to—none of it exists yet. You are old enough to be my grandmother. Isn’t that just . . . just piss-your-pants hilarious?”