“Sage has gotten so big,” Stella commented as my daughter took Fae by the hand, leading the toddler into the other room to play.We could see them from where we sat, but the kids were far enough away where they shouldn’t be bothered by the conversation.
“She really has,” I agreed with a warm smile.“And she’s gotten so helpful.She tends to the chickens all on her own, with only minor supervision.And I can’t believe how much Fae has grown!She’s really starting to look like you.”
“You think so?”Stella smiled, both heartened and wistful all at once.“When I look at her I only see Max.”
“I don’t mean to cut the pleasantries short, but we rode a long way to get here, so why don’t we get on with it,” Boden suggested in his curt way.
“Let’s get on with it then.”
“We have someone new staying on the Barbarabelle.Her name is Alphie,” Boden said.
I shook my head.“We have a lot of knew people coming into town, but I don’t think I’ve heard of her.”
“She was staying with the Revvers up in Fort Lately,” Boden elaborated.“She claims that she saw Remy in December, but she didn’t stay with them long.”
“Really?”I asked, surprised and irritated.“I told Remy to stay away from Fort Lately.I’d heard the Revvers were a nuisance around there.”
Boden gave a humorless smirk.“I guess it’s nice to know that she doesn’t listen to you, either.”
“Did they say where she was headed?”I asked, ignoring his attempts to get under my skin.
“Glacier Valley.She’s apparently interested in Cold Shore.”He answered with his eyes locked on me, and they narrowed slightly.“You don’t look surprised by that.”
“I’m not,” I admitted, because there was no point in playing games.
“You son of a bitch.”Boden’s voice came out in an angry growl, and his hand balled into a fist on the table.“She told you where she was going, didn’t she?”
“Boden.The kids,” Stella chastised him in a harsh whisper.
Boden lowered his voice, but the anger and venom remained as he glared across the table at me.“You stood in this room and you fu-… youliedto my face.I asked where she was, and you said you didn’t know.”
“I didn’t know for sure,” I corrected him carefully.“She asked some questions about Cold Shore, but her main thing was that she needed to get away and be on her own for a while.”
“But you had an idea, and you didn’t tell me,” Boden persisted.
“Because I knew you would go after her, and she didn’t want that,” I reasoned.
“She was mywife, dammit,” Boden said in a low snarl.He leaned forward and pointed to the south.“We went back to the Lakehouse.Stella left Fae behind for over a month, because we were looking for Remy.And you knew we were looking in the wrong direction, and you didn’t say shit.”
I glanced over at Stella’s daughter playing with Sage in the other room, and guilt tightened around my chest.When I looked back at Boden, all I could say was, “You didn’t ask me before you went.”
“Because I don’t talk to you, but Harlow does,” Boden argued.“You knew we were going, and you didn’t have Harlow tell us?While we were gone, there was an attack on the boat.Did you know that?Fae could’ve been killed while Stella and I were gone, because you didn’t bother to tell us the truth!”
He was nearly shouting by the end, but this time Stella didn’t admonish him.She ] sat beside him, staring down at her glass of iced tea looking sad and a little sick.
“I’m sorry about that,” I told them both as emphatically as I could.“I heard about the outbreak on the boat from a pigeon telegram.I obviously never meant for anything like that to happen.I just – ”
“You just thought we’d waste a month of our lives chasing our shadows?”Boden cut me off.“That was the best-case scenario.”
I exhaled roughly and shook my head.“I don’t know.I wasn’t thinking.It probably doesn’t mean anything to you, but I am truly sorry.I… I wasn’t trying to hurt you or your family at all.I was only trying to protect Remy and do what I thought she’d want me to do.”
“It’s not your job to protect Remy,” Boden snapped.
“It’s everybody’s job to protect everybody else.That’s the only way we’re ever going to survive,” Stella said matter-of-factly, and then she turned her pale gray eyes onto me.“And for what it’s worth, I believe you, Lazlo, and I accept your apology.But please, don’t ever tell me another lie that separates me from my daughter.”
“Understood, and I appreciate that.”
“So you ready to be straight with us then?About everything?”Boden pressed.
