Credence

There’s a pause and then he repeats himself.

“Maybe.”

She must’ve been pouting.

She plants another kiss on him and leaves, and I exhale, kind of glad he didn’t introduce me to another person.

“Wanna give me a hand?” Jake asks.

I look up at him but forget what I was going to ask. He looks a lot like his son.

More than I realized last night.

The full head of blond hair, freshly slept on. The lazy half-smile. The constant joke you can see playing behind their eyes. How old is Jake, anyway? My father was forty-nine, and Jake is younger. That’s all I know.

With sons who are at least twenty, I’d say he’s probably in his early forties?

Of course, he could be older. He seems to get a lot of sun, and he stays in shape. My father wasn’t overweight, but he didn’t look like this guy.

I face forward again and take a sip my coffee. “Help with what?”

“You’ll see,” he tells me. “Get some shoes on.”

He walks away, calling for Danny and Johnny, and after a moment, the dogs follow him out to the shop. I almost roll my eyes. His dogs are named Danny and Johnny? Another Karate Kid reference.

I take a couple more gulps of the cooled coffee, dump out the remainder, and spin on my heel, heading back up to my bedroom.

After I slip on some shoes, I grab my phone to slide it in my back pocket but think better of it.

I look down at it, hesitating for only a moment before I turn it off and plug it in to charge.

Closing the door behind me, I leave the room and head for the stairs, briefly training my ear on the son’s door—the one I met, anyway—and wondering if he’s up yet.

But I don’t hear anything.

Heading out of the house, I slow as I hit the porch, taking in the full view in the light of day and turning my gaze right to see the tip of the peak through the trees from this low level.

I breathe deep, my eyes falling closed for a moment and unable to get enough of the smell of wood and pine. The hairs on my arms stand up from the chill in the morning air, but it doesn’t bother me. Trees surround the house, and I take in the fat trunks and peer into the forest in the distance, the floor dark under the canopy. I have a sudden urge to walk. I bet you can walk for hours without seeing or hearing anyone.

The front deck is huge, just as wide as the inside of the house with an overhang shading half of it and wooden rocking chairs and a swing adorning the space. A couple of trucks sit out front before the land spills downward to a vast forest with the town in the distance.

At least I think it is. The gravel road into the property comes from that direction. I haven’t seen behind the house yet, but I assume it takes me deeper into the forest.

Glancing right, I see Jake walking down the driveaway and stop in front of the stairs. He’s put his shirt back on.

“You know how to ride?” he asks.

Horses or…?

I just nod, assuming he means horses.

“Do you know how to shoot?”

I shake my head.

“Do you know how to answer in anything other than nods and one-word sentences?”

I stare at him. I’m not unused to that question.