"Yeah, she does." He picked up a few of the plates and carried them to the sink. "She's been getting some alternative treatment for the cancer. Certainly put a smile back on Savannah's face."
He ran the water and stacked the plates.
The house smelled like smoke and summer, and with the window above the sink open, the night’s warm air came through.
"Hey, I appreciate you coming by."
"I wouldn't have missed it." She leaned against the counter. "So when Mia heads off for college this fall, the place is going to be quiet."
“Uh, huh.” He grinned. “But Ethan will still be here. Though I'm lucky if I can get a word out of him. Since the news of Fiona." He took a deep breath and turned off the water. "You know, I really felt I was reconnecting with him before all this happened. And now it feels like I've taken ten steps back."
"He's young, Noah. Trying to figure out his place in the world. We were all there."
"Yeah, but this is a lot for him to process at that age. His mother gone, his first girlfriend. He really adored that girl."
Callie placed a hand on Noah's arm. "He'll come around."
"Yeah. I just hope it's with the right people."
"It will be. He's a Sutherland."
"Not sure that means as much as it used to."
Callie nodded, unsure of what to say to that. She let the silence hold for a moment, then picked up her purse from the counter. "Well, I should head out. I'm back in bright and early tomorrow. I have to cram."
"For the detective exam."
"Right," she said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. She headed for the door and he followed. He opened it for her and she stepped out onto the porch and lingered there for a second. His gaze roamed the night. Fireflies pulsed in the yard and the mountains were dark shapes against a sky that still held a thin line of blue at the western edge.
"You know, if I pass, we could be working together more often," she said.
"Well, that would beat dealing with that stubborn old haggis."
She laughed. "Oh, I'm sure he's a long way off from retiring."
"Don't remind me." He smiled. "Thanks again for coming and... for what you did."
"Noah, you don't have to keep saying it. I got it the first time."
He stepped in a little closer. Just slightly. As if checking to see whether she would let him. She didn't pull away. He leaned in and kissed her. Not on the lips. On the cheek.
"Playing it safe this time?” she asked.
"Were you expecting more?”
“Maybe.”
He smiled as she turned and walked down the steps to her Jeep. She got in and the headlights flashed and she reversed andpulled away and the taillights disappeared around the curve and into the trees.
Noah stood on the porch for a moment. He felt a lightness come over him that he hadn't felt in a while. He watched the empty road for another moment, then he headed back in and shut off the light.
Natalie Ashford had seenit all through the trees.
It was a habit she'd gotten into over the past year, a way to see Noah without her father knowing. She'd park in a turnoff far out from the property and walk in through the woods on foot. Close enough to watch. Far enough to disappear.
There were two things wrong about that evening. One was the lack of an invite. She hadn't been invited to his welcome home. She hadn't even received a thank-you text for the flowers she'd sent. And then there was the exchange between him and Callie. She had always had a feeling the two of them were close. But that kiss, the way they looked at each other like giddy high schoolers on a porch in the firefly light, made the rest clear.
Natalie made her way back through the woods. The path was dark and the branches caught at her jacket as she picked at a piece of bark on a small stick, peeling it away strip by strip, thinking of all the decisions that had led her here. The conversations with her father. The secrets she'd kept from Noah. The lies she'd told her father. She'd felt stuck between two families, trying to live in both worlds but failing on all fronts. She couldn't fault Noah for pushing her away. But then she understood her father's position too. She had handed over the bag of evidence hoping it would change things between them, that it would earn Noah's trust. It hadn't.
