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“You’ve been through a lot, Vi”

“We both have”

“It hasn’t even been a year”

“It’s been long enough forto talk me out of this”

So I kissed her,over her body in soed behind us and the rain intensified I had i of su likebetter

“Do you want to move over to my bed?” I whispered in her ear

“Yes, please”

And still I could barely bring myself to separate from her Such a sweet and perfect place

I got onto my knees and helped her up

“God, you’re beautiful”

I would’ve undressed her right there in the firelight if it hadn’t been so cold I wished we’d done this in the summertime

“I’ to run up to the loft for a second,” she said “Go get under the covers and warm it up for us”

I stood and moved across the cold floorboards toward the nook under the loft where my bed sat in darkness

The wine had gone to

Violet climbed the ladder toward the loft

My heart pounded under my sweater

Reaching the bed, I tugged back the covers, wondering if I should be naked waiting for her, or ifimplicitly sleazy about that

I crawled under the blankets and opted to play it safe, stay dressed for now

I could hear Violetaround directly above hts had I lain here in the dark listening to her ht decide to creep down the ladder in the ht and join me in bed A part of me still didn’t quite believe it was about to happen

It was cold under the blankets, and I was drawing them up to my chin to keep in the heat when Violet shrieked

I bolted up

“Andy!” she screamed

I jumped out of bed, rushed over to the ladder

“What’s wrong?” I asked, cli

“He’s gone”

I stepped into the loft

Dark up here and nothing to see except where the firelight reflected off surfaces of lass

“Who?” I asked, but I understood theover into the crib, shuffling through the blankets

“Max,” she said

“There’s no way he could have crawled out?”

“He’s four months, Andy He can’t even roll over”

I turned on a lamp and moved toward her

“You put hiht?”

She nodded, wild-eyed, her pupils dilated, chest billowing

“He went down fast Tenby the fire for what? A couple hours?”

“Yeah”

Vi shook “This isn’t right, Andy This isn’t right”

I stepped around the crib toward the only possible exit from the loft—a two-by-two square footjust under the pitch of the roof

“Is it open?” she asked

I knelt down, studied the hasps “No But it isn’t locked”

“Was it?”

“I’m ninety percent sure itfuck”

“What?”

Vi hurried over

I touched the floorboards

“They’re wet” A cold, sinking blast of panic ran through me “Someone was up here while ere down there”