Henry Sutton meets us on the porch of a house on a ranch called Havenridge.
He’sexactly as Sullivan described;tall,dark-haired, silver-eyed, dressed in a gray work shirt and jeans, and a pair of boots thatproveshe’sa man who works hard on the land around us. He stands at the porch rail with his hands in his pockets and watches the truck come up the drive, and hedoesn’tmove until Sullivan stops the truck and gets out.
Hemeets him at the bottom of the porch steps,puts a hand on Sullivan’s shoulder, and saysthreewords.
“Welcome home, Sullivan.”
Sullivan ducks his head.
He doesn’t embrace Henry. Henry doesn’t embrace him. The two men acknowledge each other with a hand on a shoulder and three seconds of eye contact.
Then Henry turns to me.
I nod. “Hi, Henry.”
“Hi, Tess.” He smiles at me. “Welcome to Havenridge. Come inside. My wife’s been baking since five.”
And as I climb the steps of a porch in a houseI’venever been to in my life, on the arm of a man who came to a mountain to disappear and is now the most found person I have ever known, I think…
Hollow Peak was where hehid.
Havenstoneis where I get to keep him.
Welcome home.
Epilogue
Sullivan
Three months later.
Havenridge yard is full of people.
Barbecue smoke. Speaker on the porch rail. The June heat is doing what June heat does in this part of Montana, which ishoverat the edge ofcomfortableandremindyou, hourly, that the air is thin.
I count the people on instinct. I do not move toward an exit.I’vebeen working on it.
Seventeen, plus me, plus Tess.
It’sa familiar scene, an echo of the barbecue I attended briefly before leaving for Hollow Peak. Henry gave me the reason to leave, dressed up as a favor, but being Henry, he also knew I needed the space.
He’s at the refreshment table now with his wife, Shay. One arm is wrapped around her, the other cradles his baby son, Max, who’s sleeping on his shoulder.
Henry’s father, Ben, and his uncle, Jacob, are at the grill, having their usual argument about charcoal temperature.
Tom and Kittyarein the porch rocker, Kitty on his lap, laughing at somethinghesaid.
Daniel and Delaney are sitting on the porch step, his chin on her head.
Angus and Lunastandby the apple tree, Luna’s hand on his forearm,his arm around her shoulders.
Ethan and Jenna near the barbecue,his hand on the small of her back.
Tank and Jessie are by the apple crates, Jessie’s sketchbook open on her knee, Tank pretending he’s not obsessed with his flame-haired wife and failing. His best friends, Saint and Tex, are here too, wives in tow.
The Suttons. The Sutton wives. Tank, who is a Sutton in everything but bloodline. Beckett, who runs the perimeter crew, talking to a younger guy I just met named Ridge, who’s new to the program and looks the way I looked the day I arrived, which is to say like a man with his back to a wall and the door in his line of sight.
I’llsit with Ridge tomorrow.I’ve made an agreement with myself about that.
