Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loose the belt of Orion? Can you bring out the constellations in their season, or guide the Great Bear with her cubs?
Jake, Sunday-school born and bred with his cross tattoo, could have the four walls of his church. This right here, this dark clearing in themiddle of a windstorm with a cathedral of stars overhead, was the only place Daniel felt remotely religious.
From behind the boathouse came a terrible groaning and cracking. The sound grew louder. It was the whine of hardwood resisting the pull of gravity, the sound of a tree about to fall, and Daniel stared in dismay at the massive cedar standing tall behind the alders as it tipped and bowed and crashed sideways, its hundred feet of height and billowing branches plunging through the air, down, down, down, until it smashed through the back of the boathouse with a thud that shook the earth.
Another shout escaped his lips and Daniel leapt backward, his hands flying to the side of his head.
For a moment, he stood, pummeled by the wind in a pool of moonlight, his mouth open and his fingers in his hair, then he made his way around the back of the boathouse to assess the damage, staring in disbelief at what lay before him.
The entire back corner of the structure was obliterated, collapsed inward beneath the ton and a half of fresh cedar that had come through the ceiling. His bedroom was destroyed.
Daniel shook his head in dismay. This would take days to fix, weeks. He stepped forward, reaching out to lift a thick branch and gazing in disbelief at what was underneath. Glowing faintly with starlight, his mattress was upended between the boughs.
Daniel stared at it with his heart thudding behind his ribs.
The irony was not lost on him. Never in his life did he think he’d have something to be grateful to Gary Dunn for, but if he hadn’t been startled awake by that terrible dream, he would have been fast asleep when the cedar came down.
That nightmare had saved his life.
Chapter 14ANNIE
You up there, Annie?”
The voice was Walt Proudy’s, and Annie dog-eared the page of her novel before rising from the bed and crossing to the open window. Jake’s father stood below in the driveway, one hand shielding his eyes from the late-morning sun.
“Hey, Walt,” she called down. “What do you need?”
“Jake and I are headed up the road. Tree went down on the boathouse last night. We’re gonna give Daniel a hand sawing it up. Jake’s on his way here and he wanted me to ask if you’d like to come along.”
Annie’s heart surged in her chest as she leaned out, gripping the sill with tight fingers. “Is he okay?”
“Daniel?”
Annie nodded—her throat tight.
“He’s all right. I’m sure he’s shaken up, though. You know how to work a chain saw?”
She nodded again. “Of course.”
“Well, come on down and we’ll put you to work.”
Annie’s fingers fumbled through the pile of clothes at the foot of the bed. What should she wear? Pants, of course, while using a chain saw, butwhich shirt? She lifted two from the pile, a forest-green V-neck that complemented her hair and eyes, and a white tee from a Beastie Boys concert.
This was ridiculous. She was a twenty-eight-year-old divorcée behaving like a nervous teenager, choosing an outfit in the hope of being noticed by a crush at school. It had been five days since the moonlit boat ride on the lake, and Annie had been watching the phone ever since, telling herself she was only hoping he’d call with news of a cougar in the trap, but knowing deep down there was more to it than that.
Scolding herself sternly, Annie pulled the green shirt over her head and brushed her teeth. She jogged down the stairs and stepped outside just as Jake’s cruiser pulled into the driveway. Together, they slid into the back seat of Walt’s sedan, and Jake’s father drove them up to the boathouse.
Annie’s stomach was alive with butterflies as they rolled past theNO TRESPASSINGsigns, and when they pulled through the open gate, she caught sight of Daniel, carrying an armful of branches to a smoking steel drum down by the lakeshore. As Walt angled the sedan around the clearing, the damage to the boathouse came into view. The entire back corner was crushed beneath a felled cedar, and in almost comical unison, father and son whistled long and low in the car.
Walt parked the sedan and Jake jumped out first, leaving the door open behind him.
“Man alive,” he called as he jogged toward Daniel. “That coulda killed you, brother.”
Jake pulled Daniel into a tight embrace, but Daniel’s arms stayed stiff at his sides, his eyes fixed on the sedan as Annie climbed out.
Their eyes locked as she shut the door behind her, and there it was again, that strange pull between them that set her heart thudding in her chest. Daniel looked away first, murmuring something to Jake, and Annie rounded the car to help Walt unload the tools from the trunk.
Together they carried two chain saws, a set of hedge trimmers, and a handsaw over to where Daniel and Jake stood perched on the apex of the destroyed back wall, staring down at the tree.
