“I don’t think he expected it when we came to Caswell. I think he thought he was almost immortal.”
“Because of what he did to you. The raven.”
“Something like that.”
“It’s not fair.”
He snorted. “That’s an understatement.”
I looked at him. “Tell me.”
“About what?”
“Home. Tell me about home.”
He said, “It’s cold. There was snow on the ground when we left, though not much. Your mother put up some Christmas decorations. I asked her how she could focus on something so trivial. She told me that she knew you were coming back. I don’t know how she knew, she just… did. She said you’d want to see it when you came back. That it would be a homecoming for you and Gavin. Ox helped. You know how he gets at Christmas. Like a little kid. Robbie enables him. You should see the shop. It looks ridiculous, all these lights and baubles.”
“But you don’t stop them.”
“No.”
“Why?”
He said, “Because it makes them happy. And I would never want to stop that.”
“Still bitch about it, though.”
He laughed. “I have a reputation to maintain.” He sobered. “It’s going to be rough. I won’t lie to you about that. But we’ll do as we’ve always done.”
“We’ll fight.”
“Yeah, Carter. We’ll fight.”
The door opened.
Gavin’s ears twitched.
Kelly came in, followed by Joe.
They looked at me.
“What?”
Kelly held out his phone.
The screen was lit.
A timer counted across the bottom.
And there was a single word on display.
It said Mom.
My chest hitched. “Is that….”
And through the speakerphone, she said, “Hello, my son. My love. My everything. Hello. Hello. Hello.”
I put my face in my hands and cried.