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was settled, Skye put the cart in motion and said conversationally, “Have you been a health inspector long?”
    “No. I started out as a math teacher, but quit to raise my kids. The youngest started school last year and I was bored, so I began looking around for a teaching job. Before I found one, my uncle mentioned this opening. I took the test and here I am.”
    “I’m working for my uncle, too.” Skye and Andrea exchanged a mutually knowing glance.
    Skye stopped the cart a little way back from a hot pink and bright yellow booth. As the women walked toward it, an argument could beheard coming from behind the canvas walls. Skye winced. She recognized the voices as belonging to Frannie Ryan and Justin Boward, the school newspaper’s star reporters and coeditors.
    When they were a few steps from the booth a tall, sturdily built teenage girl burst through the screen door in the back of the stand and raced past them with tears streaming down her face.
    Skye turned to Andrea, “Excuse me a minute. I need to see if she’s okay.”
    Without waiting for a response, Skye hurried off. She caught up to the girl around the corner. Frannie was sitting on a concrete bench staring at the river.
    Skye sat next to her and asked, “What happened?”
    “Nothing.”
    “Is there anything I can do?”
    The girl shrugged. “Can you make someone be different?”
    “Probably not.” Frannie sniffed and Skye dug a tissue from her pocket and handed it to the distraught teen. “But I could talk to him. Sometimes a neutral third party can help two people hear each other better.”
    Frannie gave her a sharp look. “How do you know it’s a ‘him’?”
    “Just a good guess.” Skye smiled. “What was the argument about?”
    “Justin’s taking Bitsy to the concert in the park Sunday night.”
    Skye made a face. She was afraid something like that might be the problem. Frannie and Justin were best friends, and although Skye suspected that they had deeper feelings for each other, neither of them seemed ready to take the risk and explore those emotions. Unfortunately, one of the other girls on the
Scoop’s
staff had set her cap for Justin, and either he liked her or he was too oblivious to realize that she was reeling him in like a fisherman with a prize trout.
    “He asked her out?” Skye questioned cautiously.
    Frannie brushed back a strand of long, wavy brown hair. “Not exactly.”
    “She asked him and he said yes?”
    “Not exactly.”
    “Then how?”
    “Justin is going with Brandon and his girlfriend. I can’t go because I have to go with my dad to my great-aunt’s birthday party.” Frannie stood and yanked up her jeans. The current low-riding style was a challenge for the teen’s rounded shape. Having a similar curvaceous figure, Skye understood Frannie’s urge to fit in with the size twos and fours of the rest of the high school class, so she resisted the temptation to suggest that Frannie buy more flattering pants.
    “Okay. But how does Bitsy fit into the picture?”
    “Brandon’s girlfriend invited Bitsy to go along and make it a foursome.” Frannie’s brown eyes narrowed. “Or so Justin says.”
    “Don’t assume treachery for what stupidity can explain.”
    A twist of Frannie’s lips expressed her skepticism.
    Skye was at a loss for what else to say. She couldn’t suggest that Frannie skip the family party and tag along with the kids to the concert, although that would probably be the best advice. She couldn’t suggest that Frannie ask Justin to miss the concert or go with some other friends, although that, too, would be a solution. She was stuck with option number three, the one that would make her look like a stupid grownup who didn’t understand anything. “It sounds like this isn’t his idea, so maybe the best thing would be to let it go. If you make it seem important, it might become more significant than it really is.”
    “Whatever.” Frannie blew out an exasperated breath. “It’s just that