Page 103 of Torin

“Any leftovers?” she asks.

“Nope. Torin ate them all after he killed Cade.”

I stiffen. Wow. This is going to take some getting used to.

“Guess he worked up an appetite.” Alexandria gets to her feet. “I was thinking more along the lines of ham and eggs. If there’s any of that in the fridge?”

“There sure is,” Torin says. “Been shopping.”

Alexandria starts pulling things out of the fridge while Torin gets the bread.

“What can I do?” I ask.

“Nothing. We’ve got it.”

“There has to be something.”

“You’re our guest.”

“That’s exactly why I should help.”

She studies me for a second. “Okay. Salad.”

“Deal.”

Lunch is simple and delicious—ham, eggs, fried potatoes and salad. Conversation wanders from fishing to the weather to whether the raspberries will be early this year. Gunnar tells a story about a tourist who tried to photograph a bear from twenty feet away. Orson insists it was fifteen. Torin says it was thirty. Nobody agrees on anything except that the tourist was an idiot.

By the time we’re finished, it’s well into the afternoon.

Gunnar heads outside to work on something or other. Orson follows him a few minutes later, loudly claiming he’s only going to supervise.

Torin lingers in the kitchen.

“Fancy a walk?”

My heart gives a little jump. “Sure.”

The heat hits me the moment we step outside.

“Jesus, it’s hot.”

Torin laughs. “It’ll be cooler in the forest.”

I’m not convinced, but by the time we reach the trail, he’s right. The pines block out the worst of the heat.

“Better?” Torin grins.

“Much.”

We follow the winding trail beneath the pines. Every so often he points something out—a woodpecker disappearing around the side of a trunk, fresh elk tracks in the mud, a hawk circling high above us.

Then he starts telling me about the time Orson fell into the lake while trying to prove bears have perfect balance. By the time he gets to Orson hauling himself out of the water and insisting the log was defective, I’m laughing so hard I have to stop walking.

There’s a look of affection in Torin’s eyes, but then it fades. “You haven’t looked at me the same today.”

I go still, taking in the black eye, the split lip. “It’s been a strange day.”

“Yeah. I guess it has.”