There were enemies everywhere. It seemed everywhere I turned around there was someone new. “This is where the people who hurt Phoenix live.”
“I’m not scared of them here.” Phoenix ran a hand through his hair. “It’s funny. But I’m less frightened of them right over there, just a few miles away, than in Manhattan. They don’tcome around here. It’s like they know we’re here and the fact that we are scares them. Not the other way around. No one saw them coming years ago. But now we’re wide awake. It’s going to be okay.”
Phoenix was not an optimist. If he said that he wasn’t scared, then okay. “Truthfully, I’m just waiting for my aunt to jump out of a bush and take me back to that place.”
“She can’t.” Jeremy shook his head. “Granny Monk would eat her.”
I laughed. This was all so new. It was going to take some time to get used to.
Barrett droveus to their home. Since he was the only one with a driver’s license, that wasn’t surprising. We were in a Jeep. I couldn’t help my smile. “Do you miss your baby?”
He didn’t misunderstand me. “I do. I wish I could bring the car down.”
Jeremy looked at Julian, who stared out the window. “We need to get our driver’s licenses.”
His twin nodded, but Jules seemed pretty out of it. Maybe he would sleep tonight. Maybe I would. Who knew anymore?
I turned to stare at the houses as we pulled up. Of course, they were beautiful. On my left, a small—only relative to the fact that this was the Lents and they always had big homes— stilted house perched above the shoreline. It had a soft gray facade and crisp white trim. A wooden dock stretched from its porch. The guys said that we had the smaller house, so that must be where we were staying.
Further down a path, closer to the lake, a bigger two-story house stood, its beige exterior catching the last of the light. Itwas getting late. Wide windows framed views of the lake, and the sprawling porch with white railings looked like something out of a painting. Tall pine trees framed the scene, casting long shadows across what must be a well-manicured lawn in the spring. Right now, it was quietly waiting for the spring to come again.
What had Dina called this in her diary? The veil of pines? Or something like that. They were everywhere, hiding this place from the world. Keeping its secrets.
I stepped out of the car and became immediately aware that it was really cold. Or maybe it was only moderately cold, but I was freezing. I had no coat and the top of my head, which had never experienced the cold because it had always been covered in hair before, made it hit even harder. I tucked my arms in front of myself and bent down
“You okay?” Julian put his arm around me, turning me toward the house.
“I’m really cold.”
He blinked. “We need to get you a winter coat. You don’t have one. We brought all of your stuff here. Jer and I packed it, but I didn’t see a coat. I thought for sure you’d have one, but you don’t. You were in Chicago before New York. What did you do for a coat?”
“I had one there. They didn’t let me keep it. You’re not wearing a coat. And you don’t seem to be freezing.”
He smiled. “I’m cold. But I can’t let you think I’m cold.”
I laughed, which he must have liked, because he grinned bigger.
“Hey,” their mother called out from the porch in her house, where she had suddenly appeared. Or maybe I had simply not been paying attention. “Come eat dinner now. If you go in there, you’re all going to fall asleep and want to eat at two in themorning or not at all until tomorrow and then you’ll have low blood sugar. Come on. Dinner is on the table.”
Jules looked at me. “Can you make it, or do you want me to go inside and grab my coat? I can give it to you.”
I shook my head. “It’s like ten feet. I’ll be fine.”
We walked the rest of the distance, the other guys catching up with us. “This must be gorgeous in the summer.”
“It’s super humid in the summer,” Barrett supplied. “Pretty in the spring and the fall. But we don’t come here very much.”
“Then why have the house?” I asked before I closed my mouth. “Sorry, not my business.”
Jeremy turned around walking up the stairs into his parents’ house backward. “You’ve backslid about that. Everything is your business. They keep the house because it keeps them essential here, as part of the crowd even though it’s highly unlikely they’d ever live here for any length of time.”
Daniel opened the door for us. “It got colder today. We have the house because it’s a good investment; it gives us some place to stay when we’re here, which has happened three times this year; my fathers bought the property; and, frankly, real estate is always a good investment.”
Jeremy nodded at his father. “Point taken. But it’s also a fuck-we’re-rich property to remind everyone here just in case they forget to treat you with respect.”
Dan laughed. “Sure. Okay. That too. Come in. Mom drove half an hour and back to get tonight’s dinner. She says she’s going to cook shrimp tomorrow. So watch out, the longer she stays here the more cooking she will do.”
“I would love that.” Barrett walked past us. “This way, Alatheia.”
