“We could go for the summer,” Mo said. “Check it out?”

“Wait,” I said, standing up. “We don’t even know anything about this place. It’s far. And—and it’s in the sticks? In the sticks.”

Mom caught my meaning and immediately came to my side. “She’s right. This is too much. I don’t think—”

“Please,” Mrs. Redmond said gently. She came over and set her hand on my shoulder. “This place belongs to you now. If you don’t take possession, it’ll all go to the county and they’ll do whatever they want with it. Sell it, auction it off to developers.” She looked like the thought bothered her. “I’d hate to see that happen. So many old places end up getting razed for new housing or retailers. The estate is part of Rhinebeck’s history, and it’s away from the incorporated town. You’d have privacy and a chance to explore in peace.”

“Some privacy sounds nice,” said Mo, nodding at me. “I’m sick of knowing exactly what our neighbors are always arguing about. When I see them in the hall, I feel like I gotta pick a side.”

“Who’s going to look after the shop?” Mom asked.

“Jake can do it,” Mo said. “We’ll have to pay him, but I’m sure he’ll do it.”

Mom pinched the bridge of her nose. “We can’t afford to pay him, Angie. I wish we could but we just can’t.”

I looked back and forth between Mom and Mo. Mo’s eyes were lit up and Mom was trying to comfort me, but I could almost see the visions of a big house that was paid for bouncing around in her head. They needed this. We needed this.

“We could pay Jake if we cut back on inventory,” I said.

Mom sighed. “Baby, if we cut our inventory, we won’t make enough to keep—”

I gently squeezed her arm and she stopped, exchanging worried glances with Mo.

They could cut back on what they bought for the shop if I built up our stock, but it’d require me to use my power, which always felt like a gamble. They’d never asked me to produce flowers for the shop, and I’d been too scared to try. If I messed up, it could jeopardize their whole business.

“I—I want to try,” I said.

Mom pulled me into a hug, and we sat on the couch.

“Let’s go over everything line by line,” said Mo. “Like Mom said, this all seems too good to be true. I don’t want to sign on to something crazy.”

“I can stay as long as you need me to,” Mrs. Redmond said happily. “I’d be glad to answer any questions you have.”

Four hours later, after combing through the entire document, asking questions, and taking a break to go downstairs and convince Jake to work in the shop for the summer, Mo signed the documents. Jake agreed to help out on a more regular basis and in exchange we agreed to let him stay in our apartment for the summer so he didn’t have to pay rent to sleep on his friend’s couch.

In the early evening, Mrs. Redmond gathered her things and went to the door. “I’m so glad I got to meet you all.”

“Good meeting you too,” Mo said. “I hope this works out.”

“I’m sure it will,” said Mrs. Redmond. “Remember, call me if you have any additional questions. I’ll be in touch after I’ve filed all the paperwork with the county. The property title will need to be changed in person, but I can walk you through that when the time comes. For now, take a minute to let all of this sink in.”

After she left, we sat in silence for a long time before Mo spoke.

“We’ve got rent covered through the fall. That’s when it goes up, but we don’t have to re-sign the lease. We can move out if we want.”

“I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves,” said Mom. “We don’t know what kind of shape this place is in, if it’s even livable. And the commute? Thinking about it makes my head hurt.”

“Mom, you spend two hours in traffic tryna get to Home Depot and it’s, like, four miles from here.” I wasn’t sure how any of this was going to work, but my family needed me to be okay with this. Leaving Brooklyn wasn’t something I wanted to do. It was my home. But if we went to Rhinebeck, if this estate was something we could work with, my parents would be less stressed and I could get away. I could start over where nobody knew who I was or what I could do.

“What about your friends?” Mom asked. “And school?”

“You mean Gabby and Marlon? The friends I never see because I weird them out?” A knot grew in my throat. I swallowed it, trying to push away the ache. “And the classes that I’m barely passing because I can’t focus. I’m scared to death I’ll lose control and hurt somebody. All I wanna do when I’m not there is go to the park and grow—” I caught myself before I gave too much away. “There’s nothing here that I don’t mind leaving behind for a while. As long as I got you two, I’m good.”

“I knew something wasn’t right with your friends, baby,” Mom said gently. “Y’all used to be together all the time but I haven’t seen Gabby or Marlon or anybody else around lately. I don’t even hear you talk about them. At least not the way you used to. I just thought it was because y’all are growing up, focused on school, maybe growing apart. But it’s more than that, isn’t it?”

I nodded, biting back tears.

She held my hand tight. “Maybe getting out of here for the summer will do us some good. Let’s see what all this is about and go from there. Okay, baby?”

I rested my head on her shoulder. “Okay,” I said. “Let’s go.”

Mo clapped her hands together, scaring the crap out of me and Mom. “Let’s pack up and leave in a few days,” she said. “I can commute a few times during the week to help Jake. All the billing is online anyway. We can make this work for us. This might help us get back on track.”

Her enthusiasm was infectious but even as I allowed myself to imagine this all working out, I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling building inside me. I didn’t know if I could keep my abilities controlled in a place that far from the towering concrete buildings and paved streets of the city, but it looked like I was about to find out.

CHAPTER 5

Mom and Mo spent the next days planning our trip to Rhinebeck. When Jake came by, they went over everything that needed to be done while we were gone. Mo told him she’d come back on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays to help.