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“Really?” he asks “This is the first you’ve mentioned that”

“My lease is up at the end of August … just has , that’s all”

“If it’s really what you want to do, I say go for it You have our full support Of course, Odette will be bu trips to New York, but I’m sure the palm trees and sunshine will more than make up for that”

“Anything to keep Odette happy” I wink

He winks back

“How long do you think you’ll stick around Whiskey Springs?” he asks

“I’ve got the next teeks off,” I say “But I can extend it if you needyou take six weeks off to rest and destress?”

He waves a hand and makes a scrunched face “These doctors, I tell you They make ain God forbid a man accidentally misses a step and bumps his head”

“Try to look at the upside—you’ll get a taste of what retirement could be,” I say “Think of it as a trial run Maybe it won’t be so bad?”

“Fron of the cross before rising and taking his dinner dishes to the sink “You going to meet up with any old friends while you’re here? I doubt you want to hang out with old Dad the whole time …”

“Is there anyone left?” I tease “Seee about the same time I did”

He rinses his plate, nodding “There are still a few that stuck around, yes”

My heart lurches in ine he’s still around, working his family’s ranch But I don’t know for sure A couple ofmy texts, and basically fell off the face of the earth with no explanation

I think of the pact we made—the optimistic, naïve little version of me who lapped up his promise and surrendered to hih the rest of that summer and my first homesickless words

I kno that I was a fool to think an eighteen-year-old boy was capable ofsuch a loaded proreen and I’d have believed him

“You ever run into the Buchanans at all?” I reference Wyatt’s entire fahtly less obvious