“How about I throw your bike in the bed, and I take you to Ned’s?”
She eyes Ava then nods and turns back to the bike, grabbing a satchel and the cooler from the basket.
I jump out of the truck and heft the bike up and place it in the bed.
“Thank you,” she says softly, tugging at her big, floppy sunhat. “For being neighborly.”
“I try.” I watch her walk to the pickup.
I wasn’t wrong about those legs.
Ava pushes the door open and scoots over, making room for her. “Hi,” she says, her voice a friendly chirp that even someone with a stick up their butt couldn’t resist. “I’m Ava.”
I hide a smile as Ava waits for the woman to offer her name.
“Hi Ava,” she says. “I’m Wren.” She tugs at her seatbelt.
“Sometimes it sticks,” Ava offers. “You have to pull it until your arm feels like it’s going to yank out of its socket.”
“I keep on meaning to fix that,” I mumble.
Wren yanks, and her satchel slides off her lap. She and Ava gather up the spilled contents while I pull the pickup back onto the road.
“There’s a full moon in three days,” Ava says to Wren when they’ve gathered up all the shit… things from her satchel. “You should try swimming in Heaven’s Spring. It’s supposed to heal people. But you have to do it at midnight when the moon’sreallyfull, not like almost, almost full. Rylee, my best friend, and I tried it with our moms. My mom said she felt something different after. But she’s like that.” She shrugs two thin shoulders. “She feels all kinds of woowoo things. Rylee has ADHD, and I sleepwalk and have night terrors, but neither of us got any better. But we’re going to try again next full moon.”
“Maybe I should throw my tire in the Springs,” Wren says, a smile in her voice. I glance over to catch it, but it’s gone by the time I look.
“I bet Ned’ll fix it. You should have him put a motor on it as well. My friend, Allie, has a motor on her bike,” Ava says.
“I might ask him.” Wren’s voice is warm honey now. This time when I glance over, she’s full-out beaming at Ava.
“I wish my mom would let me bike to May Ranch,” Ava says.
“And deprive yourself of my company?” I slow the pickup before I turn down the path to Heaven, gesturing toward the next turnoff you can see if you squint. “Wren, Danni or Ned may have told you, but that turnoff ahead is Rat’s Tail. You can shave off some time if you take it around past Ned’s workshop. And if it’s raining, it generally stays high and dry. The path is overgrown with ferns, and it’s a squeeze for a truck, but you can bike and hike it.”
“Thank you. I’ll try it.”
When I get to Ned’s, I hop out and pull the bike out of the bed. Ava and Wren are still talking in the pickup, so I knock on Ned’s door. When he doesn’t answer, I follow the path to his workshop. Inside, he’s stooped over a stack of plastic bins.
“You know where that stack of sandbags is?” he grumbles. “I want to fill some more to place around a couple of the cottage doors.”
“I got enough shit…stuffto keep track of at May Ranch. I can’t keep track of yours.”
He stands and turns toward me, grinning. “I thought you were Danni. She’s always moving stuff. Making it more organized, she says. But her organization is my chaos.” He squints at my polo. “Nice shirt. Not your typical style.”
“Skye is trying to make me even more handsome than I currently am. I told her that might be dangerous.”
He chuckles. “She’s got a good eye.”
“I thoughtIhad a good eye.” I lift an eyebrow. “You got a bike tire that needs repairing. I put it on the front porch.”
“Wren?”
I nod.
“She okay?”
“I think so. I can help you with the bike, but I need to drop off Ava at May Ranch first. She’s riding with Lacy, and it looks like her lessons are going to be cut real short because of that brewing storm. It’s coming in quicker and harder than they thought.”
