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Gwen dipped her hands into the warm, soapy water. The number of dirty dishes that piled up before lunch preparations were even complete always amazed her. As she gazed through the window over the sink, Libby crossed the backyard toward Denny’s car where the menfolk were gathered, all but Denny himself. Even as a boy, he’d preferred the women’s kitchen conversations over the men’s talk about farming and such.

If you grew up on Nancy Drew books, you may know Carolyn Keene as the author of 29 of those novels as well as countless other books. But would you believe me if I told you she never existed?

Even though there’s a ice cream shop just down the street from their apartment, in Chapter 7 of Dancing at The Royal Jade, nine-year-old Libby convinces the adults to drive out on the main highway to their local HoJo’s instead. It’s just that good! How did the iconic 28 flavors grow so popular? And what's happened to those orange roofs?

The last day of school before Easter break, the only homework Mrs. Flynn gives is spelling words. So that morning, I ask Mama’s permission to get off the bus after school at Ivey’s. She agrees—so long as I check in with her friend, Miss Cheryl, the second I get there and then come straight to the Chamber right after.

I hurry back to the Chamber with the thought weighing on me of those ladies in Ivey’s believing I’m a robber. What will Miss Cheryl tell Mama? When I get close to the police station, Uncle Grant is in the parking lot. I call to him from the corner. He waves. “Hey, wait up!” After saying something to the officer he’s been talking to, he jogs toward me, holding his handcuffs against his hip so they don’t clink around. “How’s my girl?”

Gwen felt Grant’s eyes settle on her. Uncrossing her arms, she angled to face him in the chair beside her desk. He looked puzzled, likely not just about those darn flowers—she’d been so stupid to bring them into work—but also about Libby. Her daughter rarely acted out the way she just had, but there was no way Gwen could explain her behavior without telling Grant about Nate, and somehow, she had to get Libby to understand that she couldn’t talk about him either.