“Is this a therapy session?” Nick asked. “Come on, babe.”
She shot him a look. “I don’t mean to be rude. I was only curious. Grandpa Lee is a grown man and can speak for himself.”
Grunting, Grandpa Lee glanced at his watch, squinted at the sky. “We’ve about ten hours of daylight left. That’s a good bit of time for us to enjoy Westbrook and get you kids on your way back home before dusk.”
“What happens here at dusk?” Amiya asked, and Nick wanted to sink onto the floor.
“It’s better to be in the house,” Grandpa Lee said.
“But why?” she asked. “It seems nighttime out here would be gorgeous—there’s no city lights or buildings to block the view of the stars. I’m only trying to understand this in-by-dark rule.”
“Some things you don’t need to understand,” Grandpa Lee said, in a tone that suggested the matter was closed for further discussion.
Thankfully, Amiya let it go. She could be like a bulldog sometimes, a quality that Nick often appreciated about her, but this was one of those instances when it would have been simply rude to keep up the questioning. They were guests of their grandfather, and he was taking time out of his day to show them around—pissing him off wouldn’t have gained them anything. Especially considering the potentially explosive discussion Nick planned to broach later on.
Nevertheless, like Amiya, hedidwonder about Grandpa Lee’s unreasonable fear of sunset. What, exactly, was he afraid of? Nick’s best guess was that there might have been bears or something roaming the property. But if that were true, why couldn’t Grandpa Lee just say so? Why was he so cryptic about his reasons?
They drove on in silence for several minutes. The surrounding foliage crowded the dirt track, but came short of rendering it impassable. Nick could envision his meticulous grandfather out here with a pair of hedge shears, clipping away the invasive undergrowth.
“We’re crossing over the creek up here,” Grandpa Lee said. “When we go over that bridge, we’re in Westbrook proper.”
Amiya glanced at Nick, a question in her eyes. Nick offered only a shrug. He didn’t understand what his grandfather meant about “Westbrook proper,” didn’t understand why he had given the place a name when it didn’t appear as such on any official map of the area. Grandpa Lee had his eccentric ways.
The bridge spanned about fifteen feet, arching over a bubbling creek. Fashioned from hardwood, the narrow bridge was in excellent condition and held steady as Grandpa Lee steered the truck across.
A wave of heat passed over Nick as they crossed over the creek. Next to him, he felt Amiya tense, too. Then the odd sensation subsided.
Weird, Nate thought. Perhaps it had been only a warm draft of air blowing through the truck’s open windows; the morning was already getting hotter.
“Did you construct that bridge, too?” Amiya asked.
“My granddaddy built it,” he said. “I’ve only had to maintain it.”
“It’s amazing that your family has held onto this land for so long,” Amiya said. “Passing it down from one generation to the next. It’s admirable.”
Nick nudged Amiya with his elbow.Knock it off.
“I’m sure Nick looks forward to inheriting Westbrook someday,” Amiya said.
Nick had to bite his tongue to prevent himself from cussing. He could not believe she was gleefully sabotaging his entire reason for coming here.
“We’ll get around to talking about that when the time is right,” Grandpa Lee said.
“Yes, we will,” Nick said. He stared at Amiya as he said: “It’s private,familybusiness.”
But Amiya only smiled at him and rubbed his knee. He was beginning to regret that he had invited her to come with him, and couldn’t wait to get her alone so he could blast her.
The truck bounced along on the dirt path, winding deeper into the woods. It might have been only Nick’s imagination, but to him it seemed that once they crossed over the bridge, the forest got thicker: the trees seemed taller, the flowers more vibrant, the smells wafting through the open windows more aromatic.
The wildlife was more abundant, too. He spotted fat squirrels scampering along tree boughs. Birds wheeling high above in thecrowns of the trees. What looked like a doe stood off near some shrubs about a dozen yards away, the animal watching them rumble past.
What would happen if the real estate developer took over this property?Nick thought.Would they send in a team of hunters to exterminate the deer and the other animals?
He couldn’t worry about it. Such things were the price of progress, and happened every day.
“It’s lovely back here,” Amiya said.
“Wait until you see the lake,” Grandpa Lee said. He drove around a bend in the road and brought the truck to a stop next to a pine tree. “Here we go. We’ve gotta walk from here.”
