Page 99 of That Rush

“They’re exactly where they should be. I’m showing restraint.”

“How noble.”

I take the empty bucket from her and lead her toward the foreman’s house before my restraint snaps entirely.

I fry the potatoes I cut earlier, add eggs to a second skillet, and slice peaches while Paige wanders through the living room with her coffee.

She pauses beside Josie’s shelf of library books, then looks at the drawings taped beneath the front window. A purple horse. A row of stick figures beneath an enormous sun. A dog I have been informed is imaginary and therefore requires no feeding.

“Your house is exactly what I expected,” she says.

“I’m afraid to ask.”

“Josie has taken possession of every shared surface.”

“She left me one drawer in the bathroom.”

Paige smiles, although her eyes continue to scan the room. The furniture came with the house, and most photographs are of Josie. Her shoes collect beside the door. Her crayons occupy the table. Her sparkly headbands migrate through every room.

“Where are you in here?” Paige asks.

“I’m making breakfast.”

“You know what I mean.”

I set the plates on the porch table. “Josie needed this to feel like home, so I kept adding what made that happen.”

“And your things?”

“Most of what I need fits in the bedroom and the mudroom.”

She studies me, then carries her coffee outside. “You made a permanent home for her and left yourself a furnished rental.”

My hand stills on the chair. I spent nine months making sure Josie never feels like a guest here. I never asked whether I do.

I sit across from her. “It works.”

“I didn’t say it doesn’t.” She takes a bite of potato, then looks across the pasture. “I like this part.”

“The view?”

“The quiet. Two chairs, breakfast, and no one waiting to see whether I’m impressed by the Slade ranch.” Her foot brushes mine beneath the table. “This tells me more about you than the ridge did.”

I’d wanted her to understand the land that shaped me. Instead, she found the one part of my life I’d never bothered to look at.

Paige reaches for another peach slice, then looks past my shoulder toward the small building beyond the cottonwoods.

“What’s that?”

“Old ranch office,” I say. “It’s been empty since before Josie and I moved into the house.”

“What happened to the rancher who used it?”

“He retired.”

“Good. I wasn’t prepared for this tour to include an unsolved disappearance.”

I carry our plates inside. Paige follows me across the yard toward the old office, stopping while I shoulder the swollen door open.