PROLOGUE
“Rory, we’re going to dinner. Keep an eye on your sister.”
Rory turned his head from where he was looking at his phone. “What?”
At seventeen he was more concerned with what his friends were doing back home in Allentown, Pennsylvania, than the small village of Lake George.
The four-hour trip three days ago felt more like four days. Oh no, that was how many days he had left on this boring vacation that he wasn’t allowed to bring a friend on.
“Dad and I are going to dinner alone,” his mother said. “Remember? We picked up subs for you and Rene. Eat when you want, but keep an eye on her while we’re gone.”
“Why can’t we go with you?”
The last thing he wanted to do was be stuck alone at this cabin they’d rented, staring at the water.
Was it pretty and kind of magical in a way when the sun rose? Sure, he’d admit that. But not out loud. Rene would only bust his ass for using the word “magical.”
“Because your mother deserves an adult dinner without the two of you bickering the whole time.”
He put his phone down and smirked. “We’re just having fun.”
Something he and Rene always did. Half the time they argued just as a game to see which one of their parents snapped at them first.
“Then have fun here,” his mother said. “We’ll be back in two hours or less.”
“I’m going to fish then,” he said.
“I don’t care what you do, but make sure you know where your sister is,” his mother said.
Rene had a bad habit of just wandering off. Drove him nuts, but his sister always said she liked to get lost in her thoughts and walk around.
“Will do,” he said, saluting them. “Where is she now?”
“You’re already failing at the one task we’ve given you,” his father said, laughing. “She’s in her room.”
Rory pushed up from the couch he was on in the enclosed porch, made his way through the kitchen, where his parents left out the back door, then he went up the stairs to the room next to his.
He opened the door and saw her sitting on the bed with a sketchbook in her hand.
“I’m going to eat now.”
“Go ahead,” she said. “I’m not hungry.”
He moved closer, peered over her shoulder and looked at the drawing in front of him. A rundown old cabin set back from the road with trees around it. “Where is that?”
“Not far from here,” she said. “I saw it on my walk yesterday.”
“You left the road to look at it?” he asked, his eyes taking in the details that she always managed to capture.
“I saw it from the road, but then went down the driveway a few feet to get a better look. There wasn’t anyone around, don’t worry. I only wanted a few pictures.”
“Don’t make a nuisance of yourself,” he said, giving her shoulder a brotherly shove. She pretended to fall over and laughed.
“Never,” she said, swinging her legs off the bed.
He saw the blue strings on her ankle and pointed. “What’s that?”
“I made an ankle bracelet. See.”
