"Alright?"
I turn my head. He's watching me, steady, giving me room.
"Yeah," I say.
He takes my hand and we lie there while the sky goes gold at the edges.
Eventually Boots wakes up, shakes herself from nose to tail, and stands over us with river mud on all four feet.
We pack up slowly. He shakes the blanket, I fold it, and we carry things back to the truck without needing to talk through any of it. He opens my door and stops and looks at me and kisses me once more — his hand at the back of my head, unhurried — and I hold onto his jacket.
When he pulls back I don't have anything smart to say. I just look at him.
"Next time," he says, "bring Theo. There's a good spot upstream where he can throw rocks."
It's such a practical thing to say. I don't know why it makes my chest ache.
"Okay," I say.
six
Ronan
DannyMarshandIhave been having the same lunch at the Silver Lodge bar since we were twenty-three. Burgers and whatever's on tap, once a month when his schedule allows. We don't talk much. That's why it works.
He's halfway through when his phone goes. He steps away from the bar, comes back two minutes later and sits down and doesn't pick up his beer right away.
"What?" I ask.
"You know anything about a woman staying at Maple's place? Came in a couple weeks ago, kid with her?"
I put my burger down.
He reads my face. "Yeah," he says. "Okay."
"What is it?"
"Guy named Brad Neely. Warrant out of Vancouver — harassment, violation of a no-contact from a previous complainant. He's been working his way up through the interior asking about a woman and a kid. Someone at the Barriere gasstation recognized him, called it in." A pause. "He's already in the valley."
I leave two twenties on the bar and go.
Hallie opens the hotel room door and reads my face before I get a word out.
"He's coming," I say. "Already in the valley. There's a warrant on him — he's done this before, you're not the first. RCMP are on their way but it'll take a couple hours. Come to my place. You’ll be safe there."
She nods once and turns back into the room. Theo is on the floor with his truck and she says, “Hey bud, we're going to Ronan's place for a bit, want to bring your truck?”
He picks it up without argument. "Will the doggie be there?" he asks.
"Yeah," I say.
That settles it.
She packs his bag fast and efficient. I go tell Maple, who writes something down and says the room is empty if anyone asks. We're out in ten minutes.
We stop at the grocery store on the way out of town. My cabin is stocked for one and I need food for three, and Theo has already informed me from the back seat that he requires apple juice and the individual crackers, not the box kind.
The store is small, the kind where you nod at everyone you pass. Hallie has Theo in the cart and I'm in the next aisle getting crackers when I hear her go quiet.
