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“How?” J.D. snapped.
“I kept what we had a secret because I didn’t want to commit. Wanted nothing from her but—”
“Think really carefully about saying sex in connection with my friend, bro,” Ryder said.
“I care about her, all right! Fuck.” Sawyer picked up a ball and hurled it into the lake. The dogs’ nails scrambled on the floor and then they were outside, racing for the water. “I do, but I didn’t want to, and now I’ve ruined it,” he added softly.
“Why have you ruined it? Just tell her how you feel,” Zoe said.
“She’s leaving Lyntacky. Wants to study and travel.”
“The post-graduate medical training in homeopathy? She talked about doing that for years online,” Ryder said.
“Online?” He looked at his brother. “She can do it online?”
“She told me the idea of learning in a structured environment is not for her,” Ryder said.
So maybe she was just going to visit her family and come home? Maybe she wasn’t going away for years? He felt a kernel of hope that there could still be a chance.
“I need to talk to her.”
His phone rang, and he ran back inside to answer it. The caller ID said it was Brody.
“What?” he answered, disappointed.
What Brody said had pushed Birdie from his head.
“What’s wrong?” Zoe asked, reaching him first.
“The yard’s on fire.”
Chapter34
Birdie slowly lowered the phone to her side. She’d just talked to the hospital debt repayment people. Someone had settled all her father’s medical bills. It hadn’t been an overpayment like the letter had stated. Who would have done that?
No one knew about those bills but family. And then she remembered that it wasn’t only her family.Sawyer!
“Surely not?” Where would he get the money from?
Was Sawyer wealthy? He never flashed money around and wore handmade leather loafers. Not that she’d know a handmade loafer if it hit her in the forehead.
Could it be him?
Mind racing, she tried to convince herself it wasn’t him who had paid her father’s debts. Birdie thought about the other random things that happened to people in Lyntacky. Lottery winnings or tax rebates. Was someone responsible for those Lyntacky miracles too?Was it Sawyer?
And if it was him, how did she pay him back? That thought made her feel ill.
“Mom!”
“Yes, dear?”
“I have to go out. I’ll be back later.” She had to ask him. Had to know.
“Wear your helmet!”
“What?” That stopped Birdie. “You never tell me to do that. Not once since that day Finch spent hours outside when I was four, running along beside me until I got the hang of cycling without stabilizers. It’s usually Dad who orders me to put a helmet on but not you.”
Her mother appeared in the doorway dressed in rainbow-colored tie-dye, baggy pants, and a smock top. Around her forehead was a matching scarf.
