It was Grandpa Calder who’d taught him to identify the different species of oak and pine, Grandpa Calder who’d pointed out squirrels and rabbits and foxes, Grandpa Calder who’d given him hope that not every Calder man grew up to be a monster. Nolan’s father had killed women for a hobby, and his Uncle David wasn’t much better. Not content with beating on his wives, all three of them, David Calder had tried to fight Nolan for the vineyard he thought he was entitled to. Luckily, a local attorney had agreed to help with the case pro bono, and Grandpa Calder had been smart as well as kind, so his will specified that David should receive two thousand bucks to pay for therapy and not a dollar more. David had gone to prison soon after that. Wife number three had been braver than her predecessors, and Nolan used some of the money Alexa stole from the Sykes family to rent the woman an apartment for six months after she found the courage to leave and press charges.
“Okay, we’re here. Isn’t it beautiful?”
“It looks as if someone got busy with Photoshop.”
That was a compliment, right?
“I used to come up here with my grandpa.” Despite everything that had happened with the Calder side of the family, Nolan treasured those memories. “We’d hunt for bugs, and collect rocks, and I’d climb trees. I built a fort out of sticks right over there”—Nolan pointed toward a huge old live oak—“and a time or two, we camped here overnight to watch the stars.”
A group of mule deer would visit at sunrise, and Nolan recalled sitting in his makeshift fort, holding his breath as they came closer, closer, then scattered when a noise spooked them. He tried to block out the parts of the trip featuring his father.
“I’m sorry for that. Things were really tough back then, huh?”
“It was a good thing.”
“Oh.”
“And I didn’t have a bad childhood. Not until…you know. I guess that’s why Dad’s betrayal hit so hard. We had a nice house near the park in Spokane, my parents never fought, and all I cared about was baseball and impressing Shelley Frankel, in that order. Dad worked a lot, but he was always around when it mattered, you know? Then one night, the cops knocked on the door.”
“Shelley Frankel?”
“Relax, her parents wouldn’t let her speak with me after Dad got arrested. Last I heard, she was living in Idaho with a rich husband and three kids.”
“I had a shitty childhood, but at least my bug hunting involved code and not creepy-crawlies. Are there snakes around here?”
“Yeah, but they mostly keep to themselves.”
“Venomous ones?”
“Only the rattlesnakes.”
“How long until we can head back to civilisation?”
“A while. Don’t you want cake?”
There was a splash as Juno jumped into the water, followed by the angry weep-weep-weep call of a pair of scrub jays unhappy at the disturbance. Nolan ambled over to the swimming hole, stepped hurriedly back as Juno jumped out and shook, then propped two bottles of club soda and one of Chardonnay in the cool water. The wine had been a gift from a friend, and Nolan appreciated the chance to sample someone else’s product.
“You want to swim before we eat?” he asked Alexa. The hike might not have left her breathless, but the sheen of sweat on her forehead showed she’d put in some effort.
“Heartbreakingly, I didn’t bring a bathing suit.”
“Neither did I.”
“So you’re not going swimming?”
“Oh, I am.” Nolan smiled and peeled off his T-shirt.
“What are you going to do? Wear wet underwear all day?”
“Nope.” He toed off his shoes and shucked his pants, and then she realised. It was time. Time for her to take the next step in their relationship in a non-romantic setting.
“No! No, no, no, no, no.”
“What’s the problem? You spent weeks getting acquainted with my dick. You even built an algorithm to recognise it.”
“Yes, but not like this. Not in the freaking flesh.”
Nolan leaned in close and kissed her forehead. “Nobody’s forcing you to watch, baby.”
